Strengthened rear of B21 FEL Bucket

[BruceWard]

I was having problems with the rear bottom rear edge of the bucket on my B21 FEL Bucket tearing open. I am sure that the material had been thinned by my and previous owners back dragging material. It had been welded twice but continued to tear in new locations and the metal was so thin it was difficult to weld. This area has two plys. Only the outer ply was tearing.

I added a piece of 4x6x3/8 angle covering the problem area. The 4" side of the angle is up and notched around the loader mounts. The 6" side is under the bucket and comes out to the seam in the bottom of the bucket. I also drilled three 3/4" holes and welded 5/8th nuts inside the angle to attach chain hooks or a grader blade for finish work. I tried it out a little today and found that the stronger material, sharper corner and additional weight greatly improved the floated back dragging ability of the bucket.

Here are a few pictures

 

[Thomas]

Re: Strengthed rear of B21 FEL Bucket

If enough metal left I would re plate also check inside welds,if no weld maybe good idea to weld for more strength.

 

[BruceWard]

Re: Strengthed rear of B21 FEL Bucket

The inside welds were holding fine. The original outer ply was rewelded before the 4x6x3/8 angle was added creating the third ply.

 

[funwithahoe]

Looks like a great fix! - Thanks for posting the pics - I am sure many will appreciate the idea. I can't imagine ever wearing out the "new" bucket.

Just wondering - Why do you need to drag the bucket so much - I am guessing a lot of landscaping.

 

[magicheater]

looks like a page out of the Loader Buddy book!

 

[BruceWard]

Not sure what my B21 did in the ~1150 hours before I bought it. But the last 200 hours have mainly involved smoothing out roads, a 180'x180' yard, a parking lot and backfilling trenches as well as over 1200' of 3' deep trenching. It is rocky here in Arkansas so even loose material is pretty rough on the bucket.

 

[Egon]

Had the same thing happen to the bottom of the bucket on my Kubota B7100. Fellas at the shop bent a piece of 1/4 flat steel to fit and welded it on. They did have presses for the bending. Also welded on a new much larger cutting edge. Did wonders to stiffening up the bucket.

 

[BruceWard]

I attached a 5' x 8" x 5/8th" CAT cutting edge to the bolts today and used it to smooth out a parking lot. With the bucket floated and driving backwards it worked a lot like a box blade.