4 in 1 Buckets

[MChalkley]

Like most folks who have gotten used to having a 4-in-1 bucket, I'd take pretty much any tractor that has one over pretty much any tractor that doesn't. In fact, a tractor without a 4-in-1 bucket is about as useless to me as "**** on a boar hog", as the farmers around here are fond of saying.

There are so many things you can do with a 4-in-1 that that they ought to come with 20-page instruction manuals, but they usually come with none, unfortunately. Here's a few things they're good for:

Pick up the last bit of a pile of anything
Pull up posts, saplings, etc.
Pick up logs, rocks, etc.
Use the front part of the bucket as a depth gauge for "dozing" to an exact depth with the back part as you push forward.
Use the back part of the bucket as a depth gauge for slicing away an exact amount of material as you pull backward.

Those are a few of the things that come to mind that are almost impossible to do with anything else the average tractor owner is likely to have around.

Now if you could tilt it, too, like you can a rear blade with hydraulic top and tilt, you'd really have something!



MarkC

 

[glennmac]

How do you control the jaws of a 4n1? I assume there is a cylinder that comes with the bucket. Do you install a valve, or can you use the loader's 4 position valve? Where does the hydraulic flow come from if, say, a backhoe is hooked to the fel's power beyond? What the control--a lever or an electrical switch? Are all these necessary hydraulics and controls typically included in the $2-$3K prices that are quoted.

 

[MChalkley]

Glenn - That's right, you're the one who said you never managed to get through my "L4310 enhancements" thread, aren't you? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I can certainly understand that. I can't get through it myself anymore...

A 4-in-1 bucket has two cylinders, one on each end of the bucket, that open and close it. The best way to control them on a CUT is to plumb two solenoid diverter valves into the loader's bucket dump/rollback circuit and control the solenoid valves via a thumbswitch on the joystick handle. Then you can open and close the bucket by depressing the thumbswitch and "dumping" or "rolling back" the bucket, respectively. When done this way, you can pick up that last little bit of mulch, etc. by opening the bucket, dropping it on the material, moving the joy stick into the roll back position, then depressing and releasing the thumbswitch until the bucket is fully closed. Why you need to do this is a little hard to explain, but you would see why instantly when you used one.

If you're getting a $2k-$3k price on a 4-in-1 for a normal CUT, it had better include these valves. The Long bucket I'm looking at for the Power Trac is 74" wide and built heavy-duty enough to be used on the big Cat TLB's (it weighs 835 lbs) - and it costs $2300. That price does not include the valving, though. Add another $500 or so for that.

MarkC

 

[glennmac]

Mark, I wonder if you could elaborate on how the bucket can work as a "depth gauge" for dozing forward and scraping backward. I cant visualize it. They both would seem to involve leveling applications. What is the depth gauge ability. And when would you level backwards vs. leveling forwards. Can you do either of these if there is a toothbar on the bucket.

 

[MChalkley]

Glenn - See if you can picture this: You open the bucket a little bit and roll it forward a bit, drop the blade to the ground, then push forward with the tractor. Then, the front part of the bucket is sliding on the top of the ground, while the back part of the bucket is digging in the ground. The amount of cut is dependent on the amount you open the bucket and the amount of forward roll. It works the same way, only backwards, in reverse. As with most CUT implements, of course, it's a lot easier, in most situations, to pull it than to push it, so backdragging works best in difficult ground conditions. But, with a tractor as big as the L4310, and with tires as good as the XM27's, you can push in a surprising number of situations.

BTW, the tooth bar is irrelevant to either of these applications, except that the additional weight sometimes helps...

MarkC

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by MChalkley on 09/04/01 06:26 PM (server time).</FONT></P>