I tried a snow/mulch bucket on my compact tractor.

[not2old]

Not too many folks on here seem to have a bulk materials bucket, so it's really nice to get your thoughts on them.
It would be one heck of a timesaver with snow removal, from the way you speak of it.

I don't know how to attach previous posts I've made, but there are pictures of my home made snow bucket if you are able to look at my attachments. I have a few pictures labeled "quick change". A bucket fifty percent wider (6') cut my snow plowing time in 1/2 on a driveway approximately 300' long by 16' wide.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Some parts of Arizona get lots of snow!

I'm guessing if one could just find a new/used bucket for a bigger tractor with the same type of quick attach system, it would also work?

Not sure of the metal thickness (weight) on either a "special" bucket compared to just a regular bucket for a bigger tractor?

 

[tacticalturnip]

I don't know how to attach previous posts I've made, but there are pictures of my home made snow bucket if you are able to look at my attachments. I have a few pictures labeled "quick change". A bucket fifty percent wider (6') cut my snow plowing time in 1/2 on a driveway approximately 300' long by 16' wide.

I tried to find photos looking through your old posts, but you've made a lot of posts. Lol.

 

[not2old]

Computers hate me. If you look at my attachments, rather than my posts, you will find it on the first page.

 

[lman]

I live in Arizona, so snow isn’t really on the menu. I do have horses though, and they crap every single day.

For decades I’ve scooped manure into plastic hefty trash cans. Then I loaded the several full cans into a little garden trailer towed by my ATV (more recently a Polaris UTV), and then took the manure to be dumped.

So dealing with manure meant daily handling and lifting of big buckets. They invariably split over time and then leak horse urine on you each time as you lift them, load them, and dump them.

The OE tractor bucket worked well, but was so small I needed to make a trip daily, and I didn’t like putting the short 5-min work cycles on my tractor every day. Also, the horse urine is corrosive.

Now, with the big bucket, I can haul manure 1-2X per week, and instead of repeatedly lifting manure cans up to waist level, I can just tip them over into the big bucket.

The manure will someday rust out the new tractor bucket. But I’ve reconciled that this is what I bought the big bucket for, and in 10 years I’ll just buy another.

I’m not trying to spam, but the brand I got was a Tomahawk, intended for a “Toro Dingo”, but Tomahawk was willing tondo a special order bucket modified to fit the standard SSQA for my loader. It looks to be well built, only a couple inches wider on each end than my OE bucket, but MUCH deeper.

I can haul lumber in the bucket, tree trimmings, bricks, tools, etc. The geometry seems ideal for the huge volume.

I've purchased a couple of Tomahawk attachments. The factory is only about 15 miles from where I live so I picked them up there. A lot of Amish workers there.

 

[boatmoter]

I use my little compact tractor mostly for odd jobs on my property.

One thing I repeatedly noticed was how small the bucket capacity is, despite the 1000 lb lift capacity.

Bulky things like tree trimmings and horse manure would result in a lot of trips due to volume, not weight,

I finally ordered a snow/mulch bucket, and I gotta say it’s huge and super handy for moving volume. It’ll be my normal loader attachment going forward. I’m really glad I opened up the scope of the tractor’s duty now.

View attachment 4383544

The OEM bucket is 8 cubic feet heaped. The light material bucket is 20 cubic feet, leveled. The OE is 50 inches wide and the mulch bucket is 54 inches wide.

View attachment 4383545

The angle makes it look absurdly big, but it’s a super useful size for moving light stuff.

View attachment 4383546


Here shown with manure and random weeds.

I’m really happy I chose to try the snow/mulch bucket.

I would keep the same bucket and go with a Grapple

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I'm guessing if one could just find a new/used bucket for a bigger tractor with the same type of quick attach system, it would also work?

Not sure of the metal thickness (weight) on either a "special" bucket compared to just a regular bucket for a bigger tractor?

I used the bucket for my M6040 on the L3800 one winter, but its extra weight was hard to ignore, and hard on the little L3800.

Bought a larger cheap and lightweight bucket strictly for moving snow and it was money well spent, speeding things up by quite a bit, while being nicer to the tractor.