Narrow BH bucket

[metalcaster]

I've read the threads about narrow buckets and decided since I don't have much in the way of clay that I'd build one and give it a try. I don't cherish the idea of an 18" wide trench for a 4" poly drain pipe or some 12 ga UF wire.
The sides are out of 1/4 CR plate that I had around and the back is 3/16" x 5" W material. I welded a strip of 1/4"x 2" along the front edge. It will attach to the Woods BH750-2 that I rebuilt last winter. I had painted the BH green to match my JD 790 but traded that tractor in on a Mahindra 1538 for more Hp and weight. We'll see how terrible the green looks connected to the red. I'm gong to see if I can try it out over the weekend.

 

[oldpilgrim]

nice job. I'm envious of your talent.

I bought a 10 in for my tractor. I think you're going to want a couple of teeth on it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have an 8" and it has problems with wet dirt sticking in it but my soil has a bit of clay. I think you are going to want to square cut the front lip so you can dig a flat bottom with it rather than everything rounding up. Also with that lip sticking out beyond the side walls it is going to bend rather easily.
I would also find some grader blade and either weld on the cutting edge or bolt it on so it doesn't wear so bad on the bucket when digging especially in sandy soil.
Other than those items, it looks great.

You may not need teeth on it if the soil is sandy or not really hard. My B26 TLB digs pretty good in soft stuff without teeth. I always have to remove them when digging up culverts or buried lines that I don't want to rip out of the ground. Without teeth, I can most times not damage buried items and dig right down to the top of plastic culvert without damaging it but with teeth you can rip a hole before you even feel the contact.

 

[metalcaster]

nice job. I'm envious of your talent.

I bought a 10 in for my tractor. I think you're going to want a couple of teeth on it.

I have some pretty sandy soil where I plan on using this, not like the boulder patch you live on. Congrats on getting that boulder in the drive way down.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I had to use my bigger bucket for that, but even that wasn't big enough!

 

[metalcaster]

I was concerned about the tip folding so I've just added a piece of 3/4" x 1" to the back of it to stiffen it up.

I'm not planning on going very deep with it, just burying some poly drain tube for the lawn, some irrigation tubing for the pastures, stuff like that.

If it does pack up too much I think I'll cut away the mounting and try to make something like the "Fang" for excavating trenches. The YT video is impressive although there is a lot more hp and weight behind it than what I've got available. I was thinking about taking a piece of 5" or 6" tube and slitting it lengthwise and then putting a little curl in it to try to mimic the fang.

 

[POC]

If read somewhere that drilling a hole in the bucket will help wetish/clay soils to release easier.

 

[DJ54]

If you shave it, as you cut the dirt, and not cram it in the bucket, it will come out a lot easier too. I've seen some old timers weld a couple sections of chain, with some slack, inside the bucket, to keep tacky dirt from sticking also. I think I remember seeing a few on this site do it too.