260 backhoe ditch cleaning bucket John Deere 1026r

[Willie B]

I can't open your attachment. I have often dug a ditch across grass land. If the ditch is 2' wide x 4' deep there is a lot of spoil. When I can put the soil back in the ditch, without destroying the grade, I need only eyeball the plane of maybe a 3' void in sod. If I tear up sod on the sides of the ditch, I must create a proper grade over a much wider space. I.E.a 100' ditch x 3' is 300square feet I need to restore. If I damage the sod 10' wide I must restore 3000 square feet! I have always wished my bucket had a deeper plane on the bottom. I move the bulk of dirt, then set the bottom of the bucket on the lawn flat and slice the loose dirt away from grass.You can't see the flat surface you must feel it. Your bucket hasn't a very deep plane on the bottom. I would extend rearward runners to aid in shaving a flat surface.
The cutting edge is a plane, the runners would extend this plane 3 sides of a rectangle. As you won't want bolts at the bottom they would be in the side plates. Perhaps I would make each of two pieces of flat welded as you need the side to be narrow at front, wide at rear to catch the bolt. I would use 3/4" grade 8 nuts set in octagonal holes and welded in, then from inside the bucket where they are under less duress use grade 8 bolts.

 

[swick1]

I'll post them as jpgs so you can see them. So the angle iron is to aid in swinging the boom over the spoils like a broom?

 

[Willie B]

No, to aid the operator in keeping the cutting edge level. A 3" wide cutting edge with a curled bucket bottom doesn't give enough flat surface to feel the flat earth whose shape you want to maintain. An analogy between a chisel bevel down and a jointer plane. It would be very challenging to flatten a board with a chisel bevel down, turn it over flat side down a bump can be shaved off.

 

[swick1]

Ok got it. So do the angle parts stick past the cutting edge to the front or back of the bucket? (Extend the flat part toward the operator or away from him?)

 

[Willie B]

Back, away.
Most small backhoes aren't built rugged enough to fill ditch with a swinging motion, but final smoothing would work.

 

[swick1]

Okay. Thats how I drew it. Thanks for the advice.

 

[swick1]

I found a new use for the bucket today. We got 5" of snow and it helped me scrape the sidewalks and around the vehicles. I also used the hoe to get unstuck twice.