MILONZI ROCK BUCKET

[flINTLOCK]

While visiting the Milonzi site to check out the light root grapple, I saw their rock bucket. Smallest one seems about right for by TC40D. Seems like good product. Anyone here have experience with it??

 

[weldingisfun]

Where did you find a site for Millonzi? I did a search and came back to TBN or a dozen Ebay sites. I'm looking for a rock bucket.

 

[IslandTractor]

Their new website is Millonzi International Homepage. You can email Joe at joemillonzi@miproductsgroup.com or PM him through TBN at Joe@MI which is his user name here.

 

[pekabu]

Hey Island, is that your tractor on there website?

 

[IslandTractor]

Hey Island, is that your tractor on there website?

Yep. I contacted them last year after I won an ebay auction for the 48 inch grapple to look into getting it custom fitted for a Kioti and to make a long story short, I ended up with the stock grapple plus a QA adapter for the Kioti. A couple of months ago Joe asked me if they could use some of the photos I had posted on TBN in their marketing which I was more than happy to do. Very nice folks.

Now I'm trying to convince them (and myself) to build a lightweight 4n1 bucket. Stay tuned.

 

[flINTLOCK]

So no-one has a Milonzi rock bucket?? Could have sworn I saw a post here about one, but can't find it. Looks like a great piece of equipment.

 

[weldingisfun]

I think you might be thinking of this one: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/b...ck-bucket.html
DDT built it. He did a great job, didn't he?

 

[jinman]

So no-one has a Milonzi rock bucket?? Could have sworn I saw a post here about one, but can't find it. Looks like a great piece of equipment.

While I don't have a "Millonzi" rock bucket, I have one that is almost identical. Mine is a S-Houle and the similarities make me think they might come from the same factory.

Here is the Millonzi:

and here is the S.Houle:

They are a little expensive and very heavy. I would not recommend one any bigger than 5' wide for your tractor. As a matter of fact, a 4' one might be even better if you can get it. With a grapple, mine weighs in at about 750 lb empty. That's a lot of weight.

Here is a couple of links to photos of mine:

Get a Grip

Rock-o-dile Hunter

These show some work with very big rocks, but the bucket works well with smaller rocks from baseball size to basketball size too.

 

[flINTLOCK]

Thanks Jim. I guess it was your rock bucket I was thinking of. I'll have to see if Milzoni makes 5 footer. Nice grapple combo, by the way.

 

[pekabu]

A buddy of mine has a Houle I believe. Likes it alot. Does larger fields with it and a 7X HP tractor though.

 

[jinman]

Thanks Jim. I guess it was your rock bucket I was thinking of. I'll have to see if Milzoni makes 5 footer. Nice grapple combo, by the way.

You also might want to check out Virnig rock buckets and grapples.

Virnig Rock Bucket

They are a little lighter in weight and also about $400 or more less than the S-Houle. When you compare competitors to S-Houle, be sure to count the number of tines. My 5' bucket has 22 tines and they are about 2" apart. That can be a benefit or a problem depending on the type of soil you have and how big the clods are that you will want to shed out the bottom. Mine picks up a lot of soil if it is wet or if there are lots of roots in the soil.

There's no real "perfect" rock bucket. You just have to make the best decision by what you think will be best for you. I love my bucket, but I will be the first to say it is not the perfect tool for all applications.

Have fun shopping.

 

[flINTLOCK]

The smallest Millonzi rock bucket is about 4.5 foot I think. It runs about $1080 + shipping. Includes skid steer quick adapter. Any others that reasonably priced??

 

[jinman]

The smallest Millonzi rock bucket is about 4.5 foot I think. It runs about $1080 + shipping. Includes skid steer quick adapter. Any others that reasonably priced??

I believe the Virnig is a little less or very nearly the same price and size. It would certainly depend on the dealer.

 

[IslandTractor]

I'm wondering how these rock buckets would work for CUTs compared to root grapples. The Vernig small rock bucket weighs as much as a small root grapple even before you add a grapple to it and with the grapple would weigh about 150lbs more than a root grapple.

Seems the rock buckets are really optomized to drive through soil filtering out medium (>3 inches) sized rocks while leaving the dirt behind. I can easily see the use for such a device if the tractor has enough umph to push through the soil which depends on soil type and condition. I'd be concerned trying to use such a device with a tractor less than 30-35 hp in that way however. It would essentially require more force to move forward than an equivalent sized box blade with closely packed tines lowered. It looks like it has roughly triple the number of tines per unit of length as a standard box blade so pushing a 5ft rock bucket even in fairly loose soil might be the equivalent of trying to pull an 8 ft box blade with tines down. Of course if you just skimmed the surface with the rock bucket or were using it in sandy or well cultivated soil that would require less force to operate.

While the rock bucket would have clear advantages in picking up stones less than 9-10 inches or so in smallest dimension (which would just fall through the tines of a root grapple), I don't see that it has any advantage picking up bigger rocks. Any rock a root grapple can get it's jaws around can be curled up and moved just the way Jinman moved the big rock in his photos. Additionally, as the root grapple weighs less, you would have a better chance of actually lifting the rock rather than needing to drag or push it.

If I were cleaning up a construction site or trying to derock the surface of a cultivated field I'd go for one of these rock buckets in a flash. For general use however I'd think a root grapple or grapple bucket would be more versatile.

 

[flINTLOCK]

I agree island. My main problem, though, is many rocks up to 8-10 inches that are a pain to pick by hand and which are not big enough to grasp in root grapple. That's the niche I hope the rock bucket fills.

 

[IslandTractor]

many rocks up to 8-10 inches that are a pain to pick by hand

Another solution would be a landscape rake. I suspect the rock bucket would be more efficient but you could do pretty much the same job with a landscape rake. As the tines on a landscape rake are even closer together, you might need to remove alternate tines to avoid dragging a lot of dirt though.

In general I kinda like the idea of using the 3PT for this sort of work as it cannot do the FEL much good when you hit a bigger immovable object like a buried big rock or stump whereas a 3PT implement like the rake would just bounce over it. I have never used a rock bucket but again I'd guess that raking might be faster too for doing a bigger field (you'd still need to pick up the windrow'ed material however.

 

[flINTLOCK]

Island, I was originally planning to use the LR, but have been told by dealers that rocks larger than softball size may damage LR!!!!

 

[IslandTractor]

I suppose that is possible but I haven't heard of anyone on TBN complaining about damaging their LR. It would also be a matter of how fast you were going and how aggressively the LR was angled. The tines really should be flexible enough to allow the rake to ride over an immovable rock. Maybe others have experience. I haven't had any trouble with 4-6 inch rocks but cannot recall "collecting" any 8-9 inchers.

 

[flINTLOCK]

I was thinking that greater rake angle would lessen chance of damage. No??

 

[IslandTractor]

Right, it would move the rocks to the side rather than trying to pull them along.