Backhoe Building (or Buying) a cleanout / ditching bucket for a SCUT. (BX25)

[Scooby074]

Anyone ever build or buy a cleanout / ditching bucket for a BX?

Ive been considering building one (when I;ll get the chance.. not sure) and am curious about dimensions and experiences in use.

I was thinking about 24-32" wide?

I have several hundred feet of ditch to reshape and cleanout (no heavy digging) and a larger bucket with a smooth cutting edge would result in a faster and cleaner job.

 

[sandman2234]

If you can straddle the ditch, consider a pond scoop, ie dirt scoop. They can be purchased used and cheap and come in 24 and 30 inch sizes.

David from jax

 

[Proletarian]

had a nice 3 foot clean up bucket on the KX-91. nice to have. not sure the BX could handle a 24" bucket full of soil. you never know though, they never cease to amaze.

 

[Scooby074]

David, Cant straddle. Need something with reach as well. good suggestion though

Proletarian, kx91 is a bit more powerful than my BX lol. Im a little concerned about a 24" bucket full of saturated clay... not that curling the bucket would be a problem because the ground is soft, but lifting it might be an issue.

 

[chim]

We have fields around our place, and after we first moved in we had water wash through the fencerow on the one side and into the yard. I scooped out a small swale to carry the water along the edge of the property and away. It collects silt so once every year or two I scoop it out. With access from the yard side it's easy to do with the FEL.

I originally dug it using a 3-point scoop on my little Ford 1210 because that was all I had to work with at the time. Spent quite a bit of time with the front wheels making little or no contact with the ground.

 

[radioman]

I got my BX24 so I could clean my ditches too, did it with 12' bucket with teeth removed, but I also tried it with my FEL. Somehow I liked the end results of FEL digging sincee one side of ditch is low so I could access it easliy with FEL. The only thing to keep in mind is the angle of rear tires affects the levelness of FEL so water will flow one way. Just moving 4 inches left or right will get over hump to make level at times.

If you end up building a bucket - I'd build it as light as possible cutting out sides in middle as much as possible. 24 sounds doable. 32? its possible- but I wonder about the curling power and lifting of soil same time if it will lift front end up from so much weight if soil is wet? All I can say is experiment and find out.

 

[jim_wilson]

I had a 24" bucket for my BX23 - which I (unfortunately) - just sold. I bought it a number of years ago used from a guy in Canada - and I used it for moving dirt when I was excavating the foundation hole for my barn. It was a "ditching" bucket like the one you are looking for - and from what I remember it worked fine. The BX had no problems handing the 24" wide bucket full of material . The real thing to look out for when using a wider bucket is the amount of force you can apply to the backhoe itself thru leverage with the wider bucket.

I really don't think you're going to have any issues lifting a 24" bucket loaded with any type of soil. You'd have to load it up with lead before you even started to come close to hitting the lift capability of the hoe on the BX23/24/25

 

[Scooby074]

Thanks for the replies.

Jim, thats what I wanted to know. I think 24 should be good

Not much free time in the shop right now to try and build a bucket, but its on my list of things to do.

 

[Scooby074]

Finally got my bucket built! Thread here:http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/282679-building-bx-cleanout-bucket.html

Ive only played with it for a few minutes, but so far the BX has no issues handling a heaped 24" bucket and it is SOOOOOO much faster!