Need Toothbar advice

[bdog]

We are digging out approximately 4,000 yards of dirt for a pond. Zero rocks here and no needs for any brush clearing. Just need teeth for better digging performance. We are using two machines my M59 backhoe which has a 84" bucket and my 322 tracked skid steer which also has a 84" bucket. Both have breakout forces of approximately 6,000 lbs.

We have been ripping the ground with a chisel plow behind my 130hp tractor which helps immensely but still I think we would benefit from teeth. I have seen a lot of praise for the piranha tooth bar on here but they seem to be geared towards the smaller tractors and I wonder how they would hold up on these machines. I also see them being advertised as good for cutting through brush etc which I don't do. I just want the best digging performance possible. Is the piranha a multi purpose compromise and regular teeth would dig better? Any advice on what to get? Is a bolt on tooth bar the way to go or are weld on teeth better? I have several buckets around here and don't mind welding teeth on one or two making them permanent toothed buckets.

It is a slow process with these small machines but it is what we have. We dug out about 200 yards Friday. At that pace only about 20 days to dig it.

 

[woodchipper]

Looks like you are well equipped... If you have a narrower bucket to put on the back hoe, I would definitely put a tooth bar on it. It will break the soil with ease. Let the weight and traction of the back hoe work for you!
I made one for my own back hoe, but quickly bent the one inch thick tooths...
I would encourage you to visit Ambo Manufacturing. Serious equipment, well made, and very strong. Made in the USA as well. Their price will be more than Pirhana... The bottom line is that you pay what you get for.
Good luck with your project! Looks like you could have a beach also...

 

[PILOON]

A tooth bar on your bucket will create a whole new world for you.
You will think your FEL is now an excavator the results will be so impressive.
Even my 20 hp with 4 ft bucket thinks it is an excavator in rocky tough root embedded soil and loads full buckets every time, and I'll add that my tractor is not even hydrostatic.
The only downside is when it comes to backdragging for a nice finish or loading sand from a paved surface.

For back dragging I added a wear bar on my bucket heal and that works for me.

With either machines a tooth bar will assure you of full loads every time.

 

[chim]

It's hard to beat a toothbar for digging. I made one for a previous tractor and was impressed with the difference it made. It was attached via a sharp "V" shape that went over the wear edge of the bucket and one bolt on each side. It was nice for scraping brush together and the teeth extended far enough to be able to hold logs and big limbs.

It's nice that it was easily removed because there were things it was not at all suited for. Obviously it was taken off for snow removal. It also had to come off for handling ballast rock. It was a super pain for that because the rock would get jammed between the teeth and prevent filling the bucket.

It also had to come off when I was shaving topsoil off the lower area of our yard to relocate to another spot. With a little practice it was fairly easy to set the angle of the bucket to cut off an inch or so in a pass.

I really like the looks of the Piranha bar. It's been almost three years since I had any dirt work to do so getting one isn't a priority. I have a sketch of something similar that is scaled to the bucket on my present tractor's bucket. The intent was to send one of our waterjet vendors a CADD drawing and have him squirt one out of a piece of stainless bar I found and do a couple of weldments to bolt it on. There aren't any projects here that require digging in the dirt, so maybe that'll never happen. I do have a fencerow that could use a cleanup, but it's only 300' long and a ratchet rake would be a better tool for that.

Here's a picture of the toothbar I made back in '02. Not sure why it doesn't show as a thumbnail:

 

[bdog]

Thanks for the reply. I am definitely sold on getting something just not sure what. Mainly trying to decide piranha vs regular teeth.

Maybe I will just try both get regular teeth for my skid steer and piranha for the backhoe.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

Something like this? I made it sort of, had the brackets cut that tuck under the bucket and hold the teeth, made the rest and welded together. Get the general idea, its bullet proof goes on and off, not the easiest in the world, but not too bad. We have clay and rocks, one is even bent.

 

[bdog]

I went to the local bobcat dealer and bought 8 bolt on bucket teeth. They were $30 a piece which included the bolt on piece and the replaceable teeth. They looked like this: http://www.terracutsupply.com/wp-co..._images/Bobcat BoltOn Roll pinTooth Assem.jpg

They required two bolts each and my Deere bucket only has one row of holes. Also the bolts are countersunk and didn't match the countersunk holes on my bucket. They were cast steel so I just welded them on to the top of the bucket with my mig. There is about six inches on each side to weld on plus the front and back so I don't think they are going anywhere. Another plus is the teeth are flush with the bottom of the bucket with nothing protruding below so I can still backdrag.

We dug out and hauled off about 80 yards of dirt today and they were a definite improvement.

I didn't want to weld anything on my kubota backhoe bucket so I ordered a piranha bar for it today. I am excited to see how it will perform.

 

[davrow]

Never considered putting a piranha bar on my backhoe bucket... of course, it has teeth already so I don't know how I would mount it, but interesting idea.

 

[bdog]

Never considered putting a piranha bar on my backhoe bucket... of course, it has teeth already so I don't know how I would mount it, but interesting idea.

Should have clarified - I ordered the piranha for the loader bucket on my backhoe, not the hoe bucket.