30' King Kutter Dirt Bucket

[sandman2234]

I have a 24" one that I have had since the days of my little Ford 1100.

It is a little small for my JD2555, so I thought about building one scaled up from it. A friend had a 30" one that I purchased for the typical $50 and it lasted just about an hour. Although the paint was almost new looking, it had been sitting under an oak tree on the ground and the bucket had rusted, weaking it. The JD has no sympathy for weak implements, so the bucket gave way.
Yesterday I start a new project, building a new bucket for it, out of 1/4" plate. If and when I finish it, hopefully it will be able to handle the 70 horsepower of the JD.
David from jax

 

[Bob_Young]

Seems like you could move a lot of dirt fairly quickly with a FEL on the front and one of these on the back. Would work nice if you had a fair distance to go with it.

Is it easier to do a leveling job with one of these than with an FEL? I find that taking a hump out with the FEL to level an area takes a few tries to get it right....partly because I can't see what the bucket edge is doing. Maybe I just lack the knack.
Bob

 

[sandman2234]

You can also move a lot of dirt for a lot less money invested with one of these compared to a FEL. Might take a little longer, but for $50, you can't beat one.
David from jax

 

[Phoneman53]

I got a 24" KK about a month ago. Has been real handy planting new trees. I just peel the sod up about 2 inches thick and move it to bad areas in my yard and then dig out as deep as the scoop will go and then refill the hole with melllowed out dirt from a raised flower bed that only grew weeds and then plant the trees put out 22 trees on one weekend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Ford 1210

 

[sandman2234]

Here are a couple thumbnail pictures of the 3/16" thick bucket that I am building to replace the mangled one. Ordinarily I would have just taken the piece of plate to one of the local metal working shops and paid the small amount to get it broke, but a friend suggested I do it myself since I was going to start on it during a weekend. After a full day of cutting and bending and welding (seemed like it anyway, lol) next time I will probably take it to a shop to get it broke.
David from jax





Notice I corrected the thickness of the material from my earlier post that said I was using 1/4". I thought the material I was using was 1/4" until I picked up a piece of 1/4" for the back of the bucket, and it was thicker than the 3/16" I had used for the bottom of the bucket. Duhhh...

 

[knute_m]

I have most of the implements I would ever want. Two that I would hate to be without are my rear blade and my dirt scoop.

My KK dirt scoop is about 7-8 years old. For many years before that I had a very similar, but much heavier Ford "pond scoop."

It is like a super wheel barrow and super tool carrier. If I were to estimate usage, I would say that it is on the back of my tractor about 30% of the time. My rear blade is also on about 30% of the time, and I use my draw bar with various trailered implements about 30% of the time. The remaining 10% of the time is used with a brush hog, box blade, post hole digger, plow, disk, middle buster, and backhoe.

The dirt scoop is like a super wheel barrow. The FEL is great, but the rear bucket is too. It is well worth the price.

 

[ctpres]

Just looked at spec's on KK and Howse. King Kutter is "one hundred pounds" heavier. Nuff said.

 

[sandman2234]

Mine is probably a hundred pounds heavier than it was at the original time of purchase. More than that from the time I got it, as the scoop was pretty much rotted away!

I put a cutting edge on my scoop today, and went and terriorized the dirt road that runs by my Sister in laws house. Daughter just called wanting to know if I was the one that tore the road up. I have been maintaining the road, as a favor to my sister in law, but the other people (some of them) keep driving up onto the edge of the dirt hill that is my Mother in laws property, which erodes the hill. She has lost about 5' of property to the dirt road.
Today I used the scoop to dig a ditch the length of the road next to my inlaws place, and did it right in the middle of the smooth dirt that everyone keeps driving on. I took the boxblade and smoothed the high side down again, but nobody likes to drive on that, because it is hardpacked and gets a few potholes in it. I took the dirt from the fill and moved it back onto the edge of the hill, but didn't smooth it out, as I wanted to see how many people try to drive in the ditch I just dug.
I seem to remember somebody saying that scoops won't "dig", but this one sure will!
David from jax

 

[daBear]

Just looked at spec's on KK and Howse. King Kutter is "one hundred pounds" heavier. Nuff said.

If you ever think about buying a Howse dirt scoop, don't. I did and it lasted a weekend. Took it back and got the KK and for two years it has been outstanding.

 

[sandman2234]

I just realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of the finished "repaired" scoop. Really doesn't look much different, but it appears to be a little stronger, as I haven't managed to tear it up yet. I did catch a phone cable while digging a ditch alongside the dirt road but it was in an area that was given a clean bill of health to dig in, so I wasn't too worried, especially after I called my inlaws who live down that dirt road! The cable was probably an old one that was replaced and not removed, and about the diameter of a quarter.
David from jax