Backhoe Bucket Tooth Wear

[jinman]

I got my bucket to the "dentist" today. Getting the old teeth off turned out to be a real chore. Two of the tooth stubs on the bucket were too thick at the tip and would not allow the teeth to go on far enough. The previous owner just pounded in bolts to hold them on and they were bowed so badly they didn't want to come out. I took a small sledge and drift punch to force them out, but it was work because I didn't have a lot of room between teeth to work. You can see one of the bent bolts in the first photo below. The photo is before I took my angle grinder to the stubs to allow the teeth to go on another 1/8". That's all it took to make the 7/16" bolts slide right through the holes. The 2nd picture is of ground down stubs. I mounted three dual tiger-tooth teeth and two single-tooth teeth (final picture). When I started digging in the caliche, it was like a different bucket. It just plows in and crumbles the caliche with ease. I would say these new teeth doubled my productivity and gave my bucket a nice new smile.

 

[ddigger]

Very nice!

 

[teg]

Have you thought about Hard Facing Welding Rods... add to the teeth and let that material wear away? I've seen it done but don't know much about it...

 

[jinman]

Have you thought about Hard Facing Welding Rods... add to the teeth and let that material wear away? I've seen it done but don't know much about it...

New teeth are less than $12 each, so I wouldn't spend the time, huge number of welding rods, and welder doing something like that. The teeth are a bargain to buy and were delivered quickly. Hard facing is good for maintaining edges, but restoring so much lost material seems a bad use of time and materials. Now that I've fixed the installation problems, this is going to be no more trouble than doing a grease job to my tractor.:thumbsup:

 

[bindian]

I got my bucket to the "dentist" today. Getting the old teeth off turned out to be a real chore. Two of the tooth stubs on the bucket were too thick at the tip and would not allow the teeth to go on far enough. The previous owner just pounded in bolts to hold them on and they were bowed so badly they didn't want to come out. I took a small sledge and drift punch to force them out, but it was work because I didn't have a lot of room between teeth to work. You can see one of the bent bolts in the first photo below. The photo is before I took my angle grinder to the stubs to allow the teeth to go on another 1/8". That's all it took to make the 7/16" bolts slide right through the holes. The 2nd picture is of ground down stubs. I mounted three dual tiger-tooth teeth and two single-tooth teeth (final picture). When I started digging in the caliche, it was like a different bucket. It just plows in and crumbles the caliche with ease. I would say these new teeth doubled my productivity and gave my bucket a nice new smile.

Jim,
Why did you go with 3 tiger teeth instead of 5? What is the width of your bucket? Do you think those dual tiger teeth would work on stumps and roots? Since the hardest thing I hit besides hard pan clay is roots, I was wondering how two on the outer positions of my 4 tooth bucket would work. Wait, strike that....I need to figure out if they would hit the thumb. How wide are they? My thumb only works with my 24 inch bucket, so I could get them for my 12 inch bucket for extreme digging. Below are my unused and used teeth. The unused square ones are on my 12 inch bucket. The worn ones are on my 24 inch. You can tell which one I use the most.
hugs, Brandi

 

[jinman]

Jim,
Why did you go with 3 tiger teeth instead of 5? What is the width of your bucket? Do you think those dual tiger teeth would work on stumps and roots? Since the hardest thing I hit besides hard pan clay is roots, I was wondering how two on the outer positions of my 4 tooth bucket would work.

Brandi, I thought about going with 5 dual-teeth, but since the configuration when I bought the TLB was two on the outside and 3 singles, I decided to first try just the dual in the middle and leave two singles. I bought lots of teeth, so I can configure the bucket anyway I want the next time the teeth need replacing based on how I think this works out.

I'm not sure what you mean about the thumb. It seems to me the thumb would work just fine with these teeth. I don't think you have to worry about breaking off a tooth because the teeth are pretty darn strong. I haven't found any roots that these teeth have any problem with either. Of course, if the roots are big enough, they are going to stall the backhoe anyhow, but for normal small roots, this thing is a beast. My backhoe is 92 hp and there isn't much that wins the battle with it.

My bucket is 24" wide, but has 5 teeth. I can see from your pictures that your 24" bucket with only 4 teeth sure has a lot of room between teeth. Because the dual tiger teeth are slightly spread, they would benefit your bucket's digging by covering a wider space, but with intense pressure at the points. I think they will work well.

Finally, I do see a little wear on your teeth, but I think others would agree with me that even your 24" bucket's tooth wear is minimum. If you go to the tiger teeth, hang on to your others because I believe I'd prefer that type of tooth for digging in soft dirt. I even bought some to put on my bucket for a test run to see how they work. There is nothing wrong with the flat tooth for every day digging.

 

[J_J]

Jim,

Just an observation, but have you considered using a hyd jack hammer with a 6 in blade/wedge to break off rather large chunks of the caliche. The hammer would fit on your bucket.

 

[jinman]

Jim,

Just an observation, but have you considered using a hyd jack hammer with a 6 in blade/wedge to break off rather large chunks of the caliche. The hammer would fit on your bucket.

J_J, I think a hammer would just be overkill. Hammers are expensive compared to this bucket and our caliche is tough and abrasive, but breaks up pretty easily. I can set the teeth of the bucket down on a big caliche boulder and with a little pressure, it just pulverizes it. My feeling on the bucket is if I can make one reach with the bucket and fill it as I crowd the dipper, then I can't get any better than that. With the new teeth, I can fill my bucket with every dig cycle, so I'm very pleased. When the teeth get dull, I get about 1/2 bucket of materials each pass in caliche, so the new teeth are a dramatic improvement.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Have you thought about Hard Facing Welding Rods... add to the teeth and let that material wear away? I've seen it done but don't know much about it...

New teeth are less than $12 each, so I wouldn't spend the time, huge number of welding rods, and welder doing something like that. The teeth are a bargain to buy and were delivered quickly. Hard facing is good for maintaining edges, but restoring so much lost material seems a bad use of time and materials. Now that I've fixed the installation problems, this is going to be no more trouble than doing a grease job to my tractor.:thumbsup:

As meant - You face the teeth early to give a very hard wear surface .. and then as needed. Shouldnt take more than a minute per tooth each time. Hard facing is not for buildup.
larry

 

[jinman]

As meant - You face the teeth early to give a very hard wear surface .. and then as needed. Shouldnt take more than a minute per tooth each time. Hard facing is not for buildup.
larry

Got it! Hardfacing would prevent the wear rather than replace lost material.