Rock Bucket Questions

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

( Did they give you any indication of the relative durability between the "light duty" and "medium duty" versions?)
No, we didn't talk about that much. My decision on the light duty came from three things: 1) It will likely be a one use wonder. Perhaps the usage period will be weeks or months, but when I am done, it will have no more usefulness to me. 2) I aint rich. 3) My tractor aint so big /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

The dealer did note something that I liked, and almost don't believe; the tines are individually replaceable and it's not very hard to do.
I sure wish I could have talked myself into getting a grapple for it. Dang, it's killing me all the times I could use one. Picking up stumps (or large pieces of these stumps) especially.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

( Did they give you any indication of the relative durability between the "light duty" and "medium duty" versions?)
No, we didn't talk about that much. My decision on the light duty came from three things: 1) It will likely be a one use wonder. Perhaps the usage period will be weeks or months, but when I am done, it will have no more usefulness to me. 2) I aint rich. 3) My tractor aint so big /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

The dealer did note something that I liked, and almost don't believe; the tines are individually replaceable and it's not very hard to do.
I sure wish I could have talked myself into getting a grapple for it. Dang, it's killing me all the times I could use one. Picking up stumps (or large pieces of these stumps) especially.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
Exhibit C

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

( Jeepinator, Did you check out the Bradco rock buckets?)
Yes, I "sort of" got a quote from Stark Street lawn and garden in Sherwood. It was a few bucks cheaper than the one I decided on, but the tine spacing was wider than I wanted, it was quite a bit heavier (6' was minimum size as well), and there was no native JD attachment. Something about "Oh, we can just weld on something"... *cringe*.
The pics of them looked very nice, though.

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

( Jeepinator, Did you check out the Bradco rock buckets?)
Yes, I "sort of" got a quote from Stark Street lawn and garden in Sherwood. It was a few bucks cheaper than the one I decided on, but the tine spacing was wider than I wanted, it was quite a bit heavier (6' was minimum size as well), and there was no native JD attachment. Something about "Oh, we can just weld on something"... *cringe*.
The pics of them looked very nice, though.

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

Which duty did you get, jinman? If you are picking up rocks that big without damage, I am impressed! Plus the grapple... oh the wonderful grapple.

Even without any experience, I'd tend to agree with you on the solid leading edge thing. You need those little fingers out there... or so it would seem.

jeepinator · Jun 5, 2006

Which duty did you get, jinman? If you are picking up rocks that big without damage, I am impressed! Plus the grapple... oh the wonderful grapple.

Even without any experience, I'd tend to agree with you on the solid leading edge thing. You need those little fingers out there... or so it would seem.

RedRocker · Jun 5, 2006

Virnig makes a 48" that's under 400lbs I think. I'm planning on going that route before too long. I'll probably add a thumb like Jinman has if I don't build my own grapple.

RedRocker · Jun 5, 2006

Virnig makes a 48" that's under 400lbs I think. I'm planning on going that route before too long. I'll probably add a thumb like Jinman has if I don't build my own grapple.

jinman · Jun 6, 2006

( Which duty did you get, jinman? If you are picking up rocks that big without damage, I am impressed! Plus the grapple... oh the wonderful grapple.

Even without any experience, I'd tend to agree with you on the solid leading edge thing. You need those little fingers out there... or so it would seem. )

Jeepinator, my model is the HB5 with 1-1/2" tines spaced 3" apart. I would not want any closer spacing. Too much dirt will remain in the bucket. It doesn't take too many roots to make a 3" dirtball that won't easily fall thru the tines. Also, I lose a few small flat rocks because they fall through the tines. Here is a picture of the rock bucket with normal sized rocks. I scooped up about 2/3 of these and got off the tractor and pitched in the rest. If you have a pile of rocks or a mound to push them against, you can fill the bucket, but to get it this full, you'll have to do a little manual collecting. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

The grapple works great to help hold the rocks in the bucket. Because the bucket is so long, you can get lots more rocks than you could in a normal loader bucket.

Full Rock Bucket

One thing you have to watch with this bucket. It's not made for pushing over trees. You'll get a tree wedged between the tines and bend them side-to-side. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I use a large pipe over the bent tine to straighten it out. So far, it works great. I have lots of brush and small trees in my rocky fields, so this is a non-issue if you don't have small trees.

jinman · Jun 6, 2006

( Which duty did you get, jinman? If you are picking up rocks that big without damage, I am impressed! Plus the grapple... oh the wonderful grapple.

Even without any experience, I'd tend to agree with you on the solid leading edge thing. You need those little fingers out there... or so it would seem. )

Jeepinator, my model is the HB5 with 1-1/2" tines spaced 3" apart. I would not want any closer spacing. Too much dirt will remain in the bucket. It doesn't take too many roots to make a 3" dirtball that won't easily fall thru the tines. Also, I lose a few small flat rocks because they fall through the tines. Here is a picture of the rock bucket with normal sized rocks. I scooped up about 2/3 of these and got off the tractor and pitched in the rest. If you have a pile of rocks or a mound to push them against, you can fill the bucket, but to get it this full, you'll have to do a little manual collecting. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

The grapple works great to help hold the rocks in the bucket. Because the bucket is so long, you can get lots more rocks than you could in a normal loader bucket.

Full Rock Bucket

One thing you have to watch with this bucket. It's not made for pushing over trees. You'll get a tree wedged between the tines and bend them side-to-side. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I use a large pipe over the bent tine to straighten it out. So far, it works great. I have lots of brush and small trees in my rocky fields, so this is a non-issue if you don't have small trees.