IslandTractor
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2005
- Messages
- 15,802
- Location
- Prudence Island, RI
- Tractor
- 2007 Kioti DK40se HST, Woods BH
I am aware what a normal bucket does but what is there a 4 in 1 does that a normal bucket can't do?
I have a 4n1 and consider it a Swiss Army Knife. Not great at anything but handy and better than just a standard bucket if you can only have one implement on the FEL. That said, I tend to use the 4n1 only when I am using my backhoe. It is handy to be able to pick up something you've just dug out (rock, stump, tree) and move it and then come back with the same implement and fill in the hole and grade the soil. The "bulldozer" capability with the bucket opened up can be useful as you can see over the top of the blade much more clearly than you can see over the top of a bucket but one needs to be cautious when dozing as tractor FELs really are not built for that. One capability that I virtually never use is to open the bucket, tilt it down and back drag with the upper blade. It might be useful for final smoothing of dirt but the risk of snagging something and bending the most vulnerable part of the 4n1 needs to be considered.
One thing the 4n1 SUCKS at is carrying brush. The nature of the clamp joint with the opening on the bottom means that whatever the largest object that gets clamped in the joint will determine whether anything below that will stay in the bucket. If, using an extreme example, you try to pick up a load of brush that has a short length of 2x4 on top and that 2x4 is positioned so it contacts the clamping edge, then the bucket will not close any further and nothing in the pile below the 2x4 will be secured (and will immediately fall out when you lift the load). That is an extreme example but a more common one is to have a pile of saplings laid in parallel to pick up. Open the bucket, lower it over the pile and clamp. Typically only a couple of the saplings will be secured and anything below the largest sapling in the joint will fall out as soon as you lift up. Imagine picking up a pile of different sized dowels with one hand fingers pointed down and kept rigid. If all the smaller dowels are stacked neatly on top of the bigger dowels then you can pick them all up. If they are mixed up however, any small dowel below a bigger dowel will not be clamped in your fingers and will fall out. Same issue with the joint of the 4n1 clamp being at the top of the bucket. Same issue with clamshell grapples to some extent.
If I were doing construction and could have just one implement on the FEL, I'd take a 4n1. If I were clearing brush I would take a grapple. If I were moving dirt and clearing brush, I would put on the grapple, clamp the standard bucket in the grapple and take it with me. 4n1 truly is awful for brush work.