Light weight wood chip bucket or modifications?

[KanakaRick]

I have a Kioti DK50 and I am moving a bunch of wood chip mulch around. The 1/3 yard bucket is the equivalent of a wheel barrow load. Since the chips are so light, I'd like to find either an oversized bucket, a poly bucket (if they make one) of some sort of easy mod I can do to increase the capacity of my bucket. Ideas?

 

[jeff9366]

Some fabricate plywood bucket extensions.

Here is a germane thread: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/112403-2cuyd-leaf-bucket-scut-works.html


I just finished moving 100 cubic yards of large chip Pine bark mulch with my 1/3 cubic yard FEL bucket.
Moving the chips took awhile but I could place them right where I wanted each bucket full.

(11/2018 price for large chips = $12.00 per cubic yard = $0.44 per cubic foot. Bagged mulch from local hardware store = $1.33 per cubic foot.)

 

[oosik]

I would think with some plywood and 2x4's you could make a really big temporary bucket expansion for your OEM bucket.

 

[Gordon Gould]

The suggested plywood should work good.

My neighbor uses a set of forks with a big metal box on them that looks like it used to be kind of squarish tank that he cut.

Edit: So maybe some clamp on forks and a stock tank or plywood box ??

I use a dump trailer



gg

 

[Stimw]

I had to deal with pine needles at my last property so I came up with this piece of aluminum and an old frame that was laying around.
Worked really great and I had 100% dump with bucket straight down.

 

[oosik]

Stimw - very interesting. On all of my 80 acres I have ONE tree with leaves. They fall and the fall winds blow them away.

However - I have a complete forrest of ancient Ponderosa pines. The dry summer and fall winds cause the pines to dry out and they shed needles by the bundle. It gets thick enough to suffocate the lawn - if I don't remove them.

Pine needles are tough to rake. So I set my riding mower at 2 and a half inches and "mow" them all into a single row in each of my three large yards. Then I just have to rake and gather the one row in each yard.

Looks like you get lots of experience raking pine needles also.

 

[KanakaRick]

Great ideas gang.... Now you got me thinking....

 

[oosik]

Geeze Rick - you are moving wood chips - not leaves or pine needles. I AM sorry. If you generate the chips - why not figure a way to catch them in something that you can pull around and not have the hassle of picking them up. A light weight wagon - if you generate the chips - blow them into a wagon and pull it around.

I chip 750 to 900 small pines every spring - thinning my stands of Ponderosa pines. Size is - 1" to 6" on the butt. I blow the chips into my farm wagon. A 4'x8' sheet of plywood attached to the very back end board keeps the chips in the wagon. I sure don't need this heavy a wagon - ten ton running gear - but its main use is to haul huge rock and ten foot chunks of Ponderosa pine. I bought the running gear brand new and built the wagon from plans found on the internet. The brand of running gear is Horst. They make much lighter gear for smaller lighter wagons also. For me - it was an interesting fun and easy build.

View attachment 578856

 

[ruffdog]

Use these beam clamps to clamp the plywood to your bucket.

Beam clamp - Struts - Electrical Boxes, Conduit & Fittings - The Home Depot

 

[KanakaRick]

Geeze Rick - you are moving wood chips - not leaves or pine needles. I AM sorry. If you generate the chips - why not figure a way to catch them in something that you can pull around and not have the hassle of picking them up. A light weight wagon - if you generate the chips - blow them into a wagon and pull it around.

I chip 750 to 900 small pines every spring - thinning my stands of Ponderosa pines. Size is - 1" to 6" on the butt. I blow the chips into my farm wagon. A 4'x8' sheet of plywood attached to the very back end board keeps the chips in the wagon. I sure don't need this heavy a wagon - ten ton running gear - but its main use is to haul huge rock and ten foot chunks of Ponderosa pine. I bought the running gear brand new and built the wagon from plans found on the internet. The brand of running gear is Horst. They make much lighter gear for smaller lighter wagons also. For me - it was an interesting fun and easy build.

View attachment 578856

I live in Truckee in a sea of sagebrush that had a hot fire run though about 40 yrs ago. So there is no forest liter....just silt between the sagebrush. Due to the fall being very dry, I am taking the bull by the horns and pulling all the sagebrush with my backhoe and then I plan to cover the silt with wood chips to keep both the flashing fire danger down and the dust down. The chips are not generated on my own 10 acre property as there are only 10 tress on it and I don't want to cut down my summer time shade. So I am having the local tree companies divert their loads from the local dump to my place "Free dumping". I cannot use a trailer as my property is extremely rocky...I can barely get the tractor out there, let alone a trailer. I've been looking online for someone who builds a oversized bucket, that has expanded wire in the low stress areas, to keep the weight down, but it doesn't look like anyone does that. Too bad as I would be buyer.... so for now I am looking for good ideas.....

 

[oosik]

OK - now I see what you want to do and - WoW - you DO have a job ahead of you. I can imagine - since you are providing free dumping that there is/will be no shortage of chips. So what you need is a four sided expansion of your OEM bucket. Something like light expanded metal on the top and sides and something tough enough, on the bottom, to allow you to use the tractor to load the bucket.

The tough part will be the - "something tough enough on the bottom to allow you to use the tractor to load the bucket". The sides and top should be fine with a light, thin plywood or similar material.

I will think on this and get back to you. Perhaps somebody can come up with a stroke of brilliance and a great solution. Keep the faith...........

 

[oosik]

Alright - see that extended bucket that stimw made on post #5. You get three or four cheap clamp on the bucket fork extensions - make an expansion like stimw did out of light sheet steel - set it on top of the bucket forks and tack weld to the forks. Make the welds out at the tips of the forks strong because that is where this "thing" will take the brunt of the action when you load it with chips. Unless you can see some reason - like stimw's unit - you should not even need a top.

You might even have to get a strip - 4" by the width of your expansion - tack weld it on the lip of the expansion for added strength. A strip of 10 gage steel - like 4" by 60" or whatever.

Using the cheap clamps on bucket forks - this "expansion" can be taken off or put back on - as needed.

 

[dragoneggs]

I love threads like this... keep it coming!

 

[oosik]

Come on guys - bring it out here. Sling it up against the wall - see if it sticks.

 

[Howling]

My leaf bucket is built of plywood and sits on the pallet forks.


For chips could put a metal cutting edge the base.

For moving chips I would use the standard bucket to load it then swap to forks to move it.

 

[ruffdog]

I had 1800 evergreens cut and chipped on the property (tree every 7 feet). I spread the chips out evenly at a depth of about 6" over the 5 acre area where the trees had been. After one year, I'm thinking that once the chips decay, it won't add much volume to the ground.

 

[oosik]

One year I used the springs chipping on the driveway as gravel. I have a mile long gravel driveway. They worked great - very quiet - kept the dust down - easy to spread - WILL NOT compact - unfortunately with the fall rains & winter snow plowing and spring rains - they all ended up along side the driveway. I think after about two years - they had decayed down to a mere nothing.

 

[KanakaRick]

I am thinking about a bucket that has steel on all sides around the perimeter, and expanded metal in the middle, so I can scrape up the chips from the pile, and then the expanded metal will keep the weight down and I can carry a bigger load. Or perhaps a big poly bucket with a steel bucket edge.... as usual, no one makes anything like that..... so I have to ruminate....

 

[ruffdog]

Some leaf bucket examples:

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/156684-leaf-cleanup-saw-used.html

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/211693-leaf-bucket.html

 

[papachaz]

My leaf bucket is built of plywood and sits on the pallet forks.
View attachment 578899

For chips could put a metal cutting edge the base.

For moving chips I would use the standard bucket to load it then swap to forks to move it.

as light as they are, I'd build two of these and use one on the rear too. Easy enough to make the rear one a dump box.