Virnig Rock Bucket Arrived

[AKtinman]

I picked up my new Virnig rock bucket Saturday. The dealer and I had not expected it to arrive before the 15th, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Deciding which one to buy was a bit of a struggle, as I didn't want one too heavy for my D40 with LX116 loader, so I decided to go with the 60" SRV60-CT, which weighs 330 lbs. After using the rock bucket, I regret not ordering the SRV66-CT, which is 67.5" wide and weighs 355 lbs. The wider bucket would be easier to see from the tractor seat and the small additional weight would have been unnoticed.

Other than this, I am quite pleased with this product. I did not get the grapple, and had I done so, it would have made a real difference in what I could do with the rock bucket. Jim (jinman) was quite generous with his time and showed me his setup with rock bucket and grapple. Thank you Jim! Looks like I gotta start saving for remotes and grapple

I was able to spend a couple of hours using the rock bucket and was impressed with its abilities. Moved a few rocks, but mostly brush and stumps.

If the weather and my getting-older-too-fast body allow, I will spend most of tomorrow cleaning the place up.

Ron

 

[Seon]

If you don't mind sharing, what does one cost?

 

[kubotabilly]

Ron, It looks like the 60" fits your tractor perfect. If you think this bucket works great now, wait until you add the grapple feature. You won't stop for lunch

Bill

 

[ksmmoto]

I also just purchased a Virnig Skeleton Rock Bucket! I bought the one you wanted, the SRV66-CT, from Iowa Farm Equipment. They sell online and on EBay as farmequipment24-7.

It works perfect on my Kubota L3430. I thought about the full length 48" or 60", but they are very heavy and I read hear on TBN that it is hard to roll back the bucket with a load because of the length. The full size buckets are for skid steers.

I already have a 66" root grapple so I bought this bucket for picking up small racks. I have four large rock piles that I want to sort through and move with many 4" to 8" rocks. My root grapple has 9" tine spacing.

I may build a screen from expanded metal to lay over the tines for very small rocks.

ksmmoto

 

[ksmmoto]

I forgot to mention that mine was $849 plus $90.00 shipping to a nearby lumber yard. Not bad at all.

ksmmoto

 

[john_bud]

I forgot to mention that mine was $849 plus $90.00 shipping to a nearby lumber yard. Not bad at all.

ksmmoto

I gotta get re-calibrated on this "good" and "bad" thing....


What do they normally cost if that was not bad?

jb

 

[AKtinman]

The rock bucket cost me $800 plus $150 freight from Minnesota to Texas. I bought it from Ellis Equipment in Weatherford. Really nice folks to deal with.

My local Case dealer was not a Virnig dealer, and was not familiar with the Virnig buckets designed for Compact Tractors. He did have a "Edge" brand rock bucket (manufactured by Virnig) that was built for skid loaders and it was $1300 and weighed 650 lbs.

I'm sure pleased with the quality of this bucket.


Regards

Ron

BTW, Ellis had weld-on chain hooks for under $3 each.

 

[AKtinman]

Virnig is a manufacturer and will sell only to their dealers. They also sell to other companies who sell Virnig products under their own brand name. I checked their web site … Virnig Manufacturing … and looked under Products, then Compact Tractors, and found they have PDF files giving the specifications on their products. From the PDF file for the rock bucket, I was able to determine the weight and part number.

A phone call to Virnig resulted in a list of dealers in my area and the cell phone number for their north Texas sales rep.

Weatherford was a longer drive than going to Denton, but the dealer in Denton was a skid-steer dealer, and I thought I would have less chance of a problem by going to a tractor dealer. Ellis sells Case, but mainly Kubota. A quick phone call from Ellis to Virnig and a promise of a 2 week lead time, and I was all set. That it arrived much sooner is just icing on the cake.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Virnig or Ellis other than being a very satisfied customer.

 

[jinman]

Ron, the bucket and the hooks look very nice. I'm not sure whether you noticed that I don't have hooks on either of my buckets, but I'll probably put some on soon. I bet that Virnig bucket will seem a lot bigger when you get it full of rocks. That weight way out front adds up real quick.

Take lots of pictures of using it. It takes a pretty fine touch to snag a football sized rock off the ground. I usually try to push up a pile before loading them. The boxblade works good to push a pile together. Sometimes I just get off the tractor and pitch in rocks if there are only two or three small ones laying around. You can spend a lot of time trying to pick them up when it's just as easy to get off the tractor and use the old-fashioned method.