Need Bucket Advice

[Spiderman]

I've just purchased an L4630 with a FEL (quick attach). I'm looking for a bucket that has a 1 cubic yard capacity to use for our mulch operation. The standard Kubota buckets are too small. We tried a Long 1 yard bucket but it was too big in terms of weight and design. The bucket would not curl up when it was in the fully dumped position plus it weighed too much (650lbs.) for the machine. Any suggestion?

 

[Z-Michigan]

What does a cubic yard of mulch weigh? Just wondering if you have the FEL lift capacity that this is a good idea.

 

[Glowplug]

Yeah. Find out how much a cubic yard of the mulch you're working with weighs. One way would be to make a 1 cubic foot box out of plywood. Take 5 pieces of thin plywood, each measuring 12"x12" and nail them together as a box. Weigh it. Then fill it level with mulch. Weigh it again. The difference would be the weight of a cubic foot. Multiply that by 27 and that'll give you a cubic yard's weight. That sure was a long explanation for a simple procedure that is probably intuitively obvious to you.

My M7040 has a lift capacity of about 2,500lbs, depending on how it's measured. My standard bucket weighs 210 lbs and has a capacity of 0.57 cu yds. When I have my bucket full of sandy soil it's all my tractor can take to slowly lift it to max height.

So, it may not be possible. Why do you need to lift EXACTLY a cubic yard of mulch anyway?

 

[Glowplug]

Did some internet research. Bradco makes a High Capacity/Light Material Bucket. The 84" model holds 1 5/8 cu yds heaped. Unfortunately they don't give the weight of the bucket in the specs. It looks like the LA853 loader, which is what I assume you have on the L4630, has a lift capacity of around 1,800lbs. I guess we need to know how much a cubic yard of your mulch weighs and what the weight is of the Bradco bucket. I'll betcha the bucket weighs around 500-700lbs. That may be a good option.

Did you buy the tractor JUST for this mulch operation? Or is it to be used for landscaping as well? You may be better off with finding a way to move a 1/2 cubic yard at a time. Either that or trade in your tractor for a skid steer. Skid steers have a much greater lift capacity. They look like nothing but a cab surrounded by hydraulics and a loader to me. I guess that's why they can lift so much. That's about all they are desiged to do. And they do it well.

 

[ksmmoto]

I bought the largest light material bucket New Holland makes for their skid steers. It holds a full cubic yard and is 84" long. I use it on my Kubota L3430 with the L513 loader.

I think it weighs around 500 lbs. if I remember the spec right. I have only used it this winter on snow, which I could pickup no problem, except for the really slushy stuff we had a few weeks ago. I could get it up part way and then had to dump. Not sure how it will be with mulch and the like, I will try it in the spring.

You don't have to fill the bucket clear full if it won't pick it up. The Kubota light material bucket only held just over half a yard and was around $700. The NH bucket was $800 and I bough the cutting edge which was $225 more with bolt kit.

ksmmoto

 

[john_bud]

I've just purchased an L4630 with a FEL (quick attach). I'm looking for a bucket that has a 1 cubic yard capacity to use for our mulch operation. The standard Kubota buckets are too small. We tried a Long 1 yard bucket but it was too big in terms of weight and design. The bucket would not curl up when it was in the fully dumped position plus it weighed too much (650lbs.) for the machine. Any suggestion?

The QA takes away a LOT of curl capacity.

You may want to either ditch the QA and suffer with long slow change overs, or buy larger curl cylinders. May need bigger amount of weight on the back of the tractor. If this is going to be a loader application primarily, you may want to make a semi-permanent rear weight and use check chains to take the load off of the hydraulics.

 

[Spiderman]

We'd like to have as close to a 1 yard bucket as possible because it makes measuring the amount of mulch that we use a lot easier. Mulch only weighs about 500lbs. at the most when it's wet. Additionally, the front edge can be no wider than 72" in order to feed our mulch blower. Our dealer has let us try a bucket from an "M" series that is much better suited to the 4630 however it only holds about 2/3 of a yard when heaped. We thought that their might be a bucket out there that is a "light material" bucket 72" wide that holds 1 cubic yard. So far, it's been difficult to find. Thanks for your help!

 

[Z-Michigan]

I'm wondering if you should just get one made up custom. There are a number of places that make skid steer type buckets and should be able to do custom work. One example is rootgrapple.com. (I have not bought from them, so I can't comment on their quality- but it looks good on the website.)

 

[hdbikercouple]

why not use the one from the M and make it deeper? add medal to the top ,sides and cutting edge. i see that done alot

 

[MMLawn]

The weight of a yard of mulch will vary slightly depending on type and if dyes are present. However as a general rule a yard of mulch will weight around 500 pounds DRY and up to 700-900 wet. For what you described you'd really be better off using a skid steer instead of a tractor with FEL probably. We use our new Kubota tractor for landscaping and FEL work where weight on lawns is an issue. Where weight or lawn damage is not an issue we use our skid steers. Weight on turf areas is the main reason we decided to buy a new smaller (B3030) Kubota tractor to supplement our skid steers. For strictly mulching it is hard to beat the lift limits of a skid. However if a skid is not an option then as someone said you could "modify" a 72" bucket by adding additional steel on the sides and bottom so that it will hold more. Many mulch yards do that with the larger CAT front end loaders they use.