Weld on bucket teeth - advice wanted

[patrick_g]

Patrick_G,

Have you ever tried backdragging using the rearmost corner of your bucket rather than the cutting edge?

Your bucket may not curl up the way mine does but I'm able to 'present' that corner to the ground and have used it for smoothing loose dirt a couple of times.

Not, perhaps, a permanent replacement for the practice of smoothing dirt as I guess it could eventually wear a hole through the floor of a bucket, but for small areas and occasional convenience it can save the need to remove the toothbar.

Yes I have done that and it is not nearly as good as using the bottom of the bucket if you want a compressed slick finish. If you are just sort of rough leveling soft dirt or gravel it kinda works.

The "regular" bottom of the bucket is superior for back dragging if there are no teeth in the way. If there are teeth AND you don't need a good finish just sort of leveling off the lumps in non compacted materials then of course the expediency of not having to remove the teeth promotes the method you mention.

The instructions that came with my equipment cautioned against excessive back dragging due to wear considerations and I have the HD bucket not the standard (Kubota.) I think your concern regarding overdoing it on the unreinforced part of the bucket is valid. Of course if you like the way it works, i.e. it is good enough for your purposes, you can always weld on a wear shoe to take the abuse and not have any long term worries (if the back drag results you get are acceptable for your needs.)

I don't have any bucket teeth and don't anticipate getting any. I have a quite HD box blade with hydraulic raise and lower scarifiers which does all the ripping I need for my purposes. I'm sure there must be tasks where bucket teeth are a good thing, I just haven't found them yet.

I have considered building a smaller (much more narrow) bucket (maybe a foot wide or so) and mounting it in place of the full width FEL bucket but on an extension for a kinda sorta make do partial function back hoe-trencher sort of thing (mechanized shovel???) For that I would definitely want to consider big ripper teeth and wouldn't need them removable.

Pat

 

[SkunkWerX]

My first thought when I got the bolt-on toothbar was SNOW.
The white stuff.
Old man winter's dandruff.

When there is fair-to-good prediction for more than a few inches of snow, I'll be unbolting the toothbar, you can take that to the bank.

So far I haven't unbolted the toothbar, but, I know there will be jobs besides snow moving, such as the smoothing and backdragging, that were mentioned already.

I'll side with the Bolt-on guys, because you just never know what you might need to do 6 months from now.

 

[crbr]

I'd like to see what opinions the TBN folks have about my idea to skip the tooth bar & just get some weld on shanks instead??

No.


Go here and save money VS your forethought (in my opinion only).

Markham Welding - Home.

Done deal.

 

[atgreene]

If you do it, go with Esco Super V shanks and teeth. They are the only ones that won't come off by accident. Size 17 is probably all you need. As long as you have a grinder or access to a torch/plasma cutter, nothing is permenant. I have changed shanks on my excavator a few times, not a huge deal.

 

[unreconstructed]

I have a H&H landscape bar. One good piece of equipment. But I would not weld it on any more than I would weld on my rotary cutter. But that's my preference.