ROCK BUCKET

[flINTLOCK]

I'm establishing a number of food plots for deer in NE PA. Rocks a plenty. Vary from beachball to tennis ball size. Thought a rock bucket might be useful. Also, adding a grapple may work for log transport and brush pickup.
I have a TC40DA with SS and 17 LA loader, skid steer quick attach. Any experience with similar machine and bucket??

 

[AKtinman]

Flintlock:

You might check out this thread:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/91742-virnig-rock-bucket-arrived.html

I don't have a grapple yet, and the only problem I have with the rock bucket is not enough time to use it

Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[jinman]

I'm establishing a number of food plots for deer in NE PA. Rocks a plenty. Vary from beachball to tennis ball size. Thought a rock bucket might be useful. Also, adding a grapple may work for log transport and brush pickup.
I have a TC40DA with SS and 17 LA loader, skid steer quick attach. Any experience with similar machine and bucket??

The Virnig bucket AKtinman has is ideal for your machine in size and weight. The one on my TC45D with 16LA is about 250 lb heavier than his. The only advantage I see with mine is that the tines are spaced a little closer and I can definitely pick up tennis-ball sized rocks without them dropping through. On the other hand, in wet soil, I get a lot of sod and have to shake the "basket" pretty good to get the dirt out.

If I had seen the Virnig before I bought my S-Houle bucket, I would have had a tough time making a decision, but probably would have come down on the side of the Virnig because of price and weight.

Also, any of these buckets can get bent tines by getting rocks or small limbs wedged in between the tines. I keep a big pipe handy to straighten out my tines when this happens. Most often it's when I'm pushing some brush out of the way to get to rocks. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

My rock bucket is 60" wide and was $1595. I think the Virnig is about a third less. Also my bucket by itself weighs about 650 lb, so that reduces the FEL lift by at least that much. With the 17LA that already sits out farther from the tractor than the 16LA, that extra weight could be a severe limitation on your total load carrying ability.

I'm attaching a picture of my bucket full of rocks. In all fairness, I didn't use the bucket to scoop up all these rocks. At least 1/3 of them I got off the tractor and pitched into the bucket. You won't be able to get a load like this by just scooping.

 

[flINTLOCK]

Thanks for the quick response, Jim. You mentioned the somewhat limited lifting capacity of the 17LA. How would I estimate what the capacity would actually be in the field?? Manufacturer's numbers are hard to translate into practical use. If too limited, wouldn't make sense to buy rock bucket in the first place, yet alone additional grapple weight.

 

[flINTLOCK]

From what I could gather 17LA is rated for about 1300 # lift to 24 inches or so. The weight of your rock bucket would drop additional capacity to about 650, or so. Does that sound right??

 

[DocHeb]

Subtract the weight difference between the rock bucket and the standard 17LA bucket from the theoretical capacity.

 

[jinman]

From what I could gather 17LA is rated for about 1300 # lift to 24 inches or so. The weight of your rock bucket would drop additional capacity to about 650, or so. Does that sound right??

The lift capacity of your loader out at 19 in. in front of the loader arm pins is about 1,600 lb. So if your rock bucket weighs 650, you are down to around 950 lb. I'm guessing on my setup that I'm down to about 850 lb. But look at that bucket full of rocks in my photo. I couldn't really get anymore rocks into that bucket and my tractor is able to lift it. So, I'd say my limiting factor for my rock bucket is how much I can get into it.

Numbers can get confusing. One of the greatest losses you will see with the rock bucket is breakout force. My rock bucket is 42" deep from the back of the basket to the tips of the bucket tines. The normal bucket with a toothbar is about 24". That means the rock bucket doesn't have nearly the digging power of a regular bucket with teeth. However, I find the rock bucket's tines are easy to wedge under big rocks, and is an advantage. A lot of the functionality of the bucket is how you use it after getting used to it. Even so, I would suggest getting the lightest bucket you can find if the tine spacing fits your needs.

The rock bucket Curly Dave put a link to in the general forums is nice because it has a solid cutting edge on the tines. But, you lose the ability to use the tines for digging teeth. That is the tradeoff with that style. You'll find they all have some sort of tradeoff and you'll just have to make up your mind which fits your needs...or buy them all.