I'm getting a BT1000B backhoe for my L47TL and I'm trying to decide on a do all bucket for it.
I expect that I'll be mostly digging out small stumps, planting trees/bushes, some trenching for culverts, water and electric lines cleaning out ditch banks , that sort of thing. I don't plan on doing any major excavation for basements or anything like that. I had a full size TLB in the past, but have no experience with a compact TLB. I would like a decent size bucket without overtaxing the machine. The soil around here is mostly rocky sandy, after you get through the red clay topsoil.
I was thinking of a 18 inch or maybe a 24 inch max. I won't have a thumb. I would appreciate any advice from you folks that own, or have rented similar sized equipment.
I don't have your answer, but here are some things that I hope are as fun to think about as they were to write....
We've had an
M59 since 2007. It has the slightly larger BT1200 backhoe, a hydraulic thumb, and two QC buckets - a 12" and a 24".
Yep, it's not an
L47, but hopefully things are proportional. The
L47 and
M59 do have the same engine. The difference being the turbo.
NotForHire....You are going to hate this....but I wish there was some way you could try ours with a thumb. That one addition makes the backhoe into an entirely different machine and gets as much or more use for lifting, craning, and placing heavy items than for digging. Especially for landscaping. Everyone who has a thumb on theirs is going to say the same. I don't know of a single other tractor feature with that much agreement.
As for buckets, the tractor simply doesn't notice any difference power-wise between the 24" and the 12". What turned out to be more important is the type of soil. Ours here is a sandy, gravely mountain dirt without any clay and with darn little loam. It's pine tree country..... For digging in that type of soil I always go with the 24" to get more width on a trench because the sides are going to slump and collapse and we will end up moving a lot of dirt. Plus I have more control over the shape of the edge of the trench with the larger bucket.
The 12" doesn't load up badly on our soil, but I can sure see where it would in clay. Mostly what I use the 12" bucket for is for grasping things with the thumb - because the thumb is also 12" wide. That makes it real handy handy for picking up & building rock walls, setting fieldstone pavers, or carrying logs.
For digging and especially for ripping on roots, stumps, hardpan, or buried rocks, I go back to the 24". The 24" has more than plenty of power on the
M59 - frankly neither bucket taxes the machine at all. That's not a problem. It can rotate either bucket with enough force to pick up the machine at full stretch, and can use the 24" at full side extension with a loaded bucket without feeling like anything is being stressed. I would assume the
L47 is proportional. The TLB backhoe is beefy with a big swing platform and large swing bearings.
I see where Kubota offers an 18" for the BT1000. That smaller bucket wouldn't look quite so out of place as the wide 24". But I'd rather it was 20".
Hear on TBN I've heard some say to use a smaller bucket for ripping & stumps but can't see why one would. The 24" rips just as well and moves more dirt doing it. I just don't see any digging advantage to that smaller bucket. Of course that might just be me and our "soil". i.e. application-dependent.
Through the years I have several times tried the 12" when I got into some roots that the 24" couldn't rip or cut, but the 12" didn't have any advantage. Neither bucket did any damage to the worst of the stump roots. Stumps usually mean having to dig a huge deep hole....and the 24" does that better.
Here's something else to think about that I didn't know before the Kubota. We had off-brand & aftermarket hoes before, and they came with several no-name buckets. the Kubota has taught me the value of a good bucket shape. Both these Kubota buckets have large heavy teeth (5 and 3 respectively) as well as a good progressive curved shape to the bucket bottom. The bucket sides are the right height and more importantly the sides are heavily built with a welded-on cutting edge. I didn't realize just how much bucket bottom shape, side reinforcement, and teeth counted for before this one. I'd say that the Kubota bucket shape is every bit as good as the JD310, and might even be a tad better.
rScotty
