Anybody making a purchase from Tazewell this spring?

[ponytug]

I wouldn't blame the bucket just yet.

FWIW: Speaking from personal experience wet manure will easily overload, or will come close to overloading, a large bucket. An absolutely full (to the point where material is falling off), saturated load of manure that fills the bucket on my 1445 is beyond the lift capacity. Drier loads, or smaller loads, work just fine.

And don't even think of saturated clay soil- that will come close to overloading the 4N1 bucket.

All the best,

Peter

I had a QA plate made for me at about $100. Heavy duty too, 1/4" steel...did a nice job. Picked up a 4' bucket from a local farm parts dealer and had the QA welded on. Tried to use the bucket last night on a pile of fairly wet manure....poor little 422 had a really hard time pushing this heavy bucket into the pile...a shame because the bucket would get the job done in a fraction of the time that the rock bucket would. So I'm off to the dealer to see if he has a lighter bucket and the have the QA plate taken off

 

[MuncyBob]

The pile was a bit drier yesterday and I found between that and a change in how I try to dig into the pile has helped. With more of a running start I can get the bucket fairly full. I have to watch the pucker factor more now with the added bucket weight though. I will be somewhat embarressed to go back to the dealer and have them re-position the QA plate, it needs to be up higher to get a good curl....my fault

 

[ponytug]

I'm glad to hear that the bucket is working better for you. I confess to having at least one implement that I thought "Yuck" when I first tried it, and now that I have learned how to use it, I really like it.(the 4N1 bucket) I find myself watching heavy equipment operators for tips on how to use buckets and blades. It would be fun if PT hosted a tractor day with owners demonstrating techniques, and perhaps a few friendly competitions (time to move 6 cu yds of dirt, less dirt left behind, fastest double pass rototilling, while holding a full glass of soda...)

I think that getting the optimal position for the Q/A plate is not simple. I find it interesting that the various buckets and implements seem to have various "sets" on where the curl is relative to the active portion of the implement. Based on my experience with my 4N1, I wonder if the Q/A position is a function of what we use the implement for, and how we use it.

All the best,

Peter

The pile was a bit drier yesterday and I found between that and a change in how I try to dig into the pile has helped. With more of a running start I can get the bucket fairly full. I have to watch the pucker factor more now with the added bucket weight though. I will be somewhat embarressed to go back to the dealer and have them re-position the QA plate, it needs to be up higher to get a good curl....my fault

 

[MuncyBob]

Tractor Day...cool!

I guess I was more concerned on the bucket being able to fully empty than I was in the curl, but now that I look at the rock bucket I realize the QA plate needs to be much higher up than I told the welder. Hopefully he won't be too pi**ed off at me when I ask him to cut and re-weld.

 

[cqaigy2]

Just more money in his pocket, right?

 

[ponytug]

FWIW: my large bucket has the floor vertical at maximum curl.

All the best,

Peter

 

[SpringHollow]

My major complaints with the PT have to do with the FEL. The lift capacity and the range of tilt are less than desirable. With the tilt, i can either adjust my Lackender 1 yard bucket to dump well or hold well. But your post makes me think - i should check my plate attachment location and see if it looked like changing that would change the range - I can compare to my PT grapple bucket. My Lackender forks can angle vertically down quite a bit but can only tilt back a little. So both that bucket and forks are limited to about 90 degrees. My CUTs had a greater range than that. Unfortunately, I do not remember the range on the grapple bucket.

Ken

 

[Clumber]

Also remember that PT makes the QA plate with a certain angle. This makes it easier to connect and probably affects the tilt range.

 

[J_J]

The roll over connecting bar on my 1334 has several holes to adapt to different attachments. More or less tilt.

You can build a new bar with say four holes for a better fit. One hole on each end and two more toward the end.

 

[SpringHollow]

I replaced mine with an adjustable top link. But that does not change the range of motion - just the start and stopping angles.

Ken