ScoopCzar
Member
I haven't yet purchased a planned 425, but I'm getting close. I recently made my second pilgrimage to Tazewell, this time to demo a grapple bucket. Probably will take the plunge late this summer.
Anyway...here's my idea: Has anyone played around with attaching custom tools to the bucket of the minihoe or in place of the bucket? The benefit would be to get some special attachments for different purposes--kinda like sticking various nozzles on a vacuum cleaner hose.
For example, if you wanted to rip up some tough ground or rip out some roots, what about a pair of "fangs" perhaps using sharp plowshares. (MossRoad has posted about his ripping up ground by pushing a single plowshare; my idea would using the hydraulic pulling force of the minihoe instead.) These might be bolted onto the bucket either by drilling holes in it or else welding nuts onto it. Or, if you didn't want to modify the bucket itself, maybe some kind of collar could be fabricated to bolt around the mouth of the bucket and the new attachments could be bolted to the collar. A third alternative for attachment would be unbolting the bucket at times and swapping it out for a custom-made framework that bolted on in place of the bucket and which had various holes to bolt attachments onto.
A second example of such an attachment might be row of teeth much wider than the 9" bucket for heavy raking--say, 2-4 feet. I'll use my PT at times to scrape gravel out of ditches back onto a mountain road. It could be good to have the extra reach of the minihoe, combined with curling action, without doing just 9" at a time. I wouldn't need the power to dig deep in this case, just enough to scrape.
So...any thoughts about these ideas? Has anyone modified their stock PT minihoe (other than adding a thumb)?
Anyway...here's my idea: Has anyone played around with attaching custom tools to the bucket of the minihoe or in place of the bucket? The benefit would be to get some special attachments for different purposes--kinda like sticking various nozzles on a vacuum cleaner hose.
For example, if you wanted to rip up some tough ground or rip out some roots, what about a pair of "fangs" perhaps using sharp plowshares. (MossRoad has posted about his ripping up ground by pushing a single plowshare; my idea would using the hydraulic pulling force of the minihoe instead.) These might be bolted onto the bucket either by drilling holes in it or else welding nuts onto it. Or, if you didn't want to modify the bucket itself, maybe some kind of collar could be fabricated to bolt around the mouth of the bucket and the new attachments could be bolted to the collar. A third alternative for attachment would be unbolting the bucket at times and swapping it out for a custom-made framework that bolted on in place of the bucket and which had various holes to bolt attachments onto.
A second example of such an attachment might be row of teeth much wider than the 9" bucket for heavy raking--say, 2-4 feet. I'll use my PT at times to scrape gravel out of ditches back onto a mountain road. It could be good to have the extra reach of the minihoe, combined with curling action, without doing just 9" at a time. I wouldn't need the power to dig deep in this case, just enough to scrape.
So...any thoughts about these ideas? Has anyone modified their stock PT minihoe (other than adding a thumb)?