Rock bucket ????? Worth buying or not

[kday64]

Check out mytractortools.com. Jery designed a specialty bucket for popping out rocks. It is called the buddy loader.

 

[Rustyiron]

I borrowed one and was not impressed at all. I used it on my skid loader with lightning fast boom action compaired to a tractor and even on the gravelley ground here, separating the fines from the rocks was not a productive use of time. The slighest bit of root or soil mass plugs it up. IMHO they are intended for going over freshly plowed or disked ground and plucking the newly surfaced biggies. I may have expected too much out of it but it will slowly get the job done. I found that a full bucket load was not the best way to work it, and even with about a 1/3 bucket of rock left after shaking, you would need to get rid of it, that means unless your dumping into a truck or have a close spoil pile, you were making long trips to dump with only a little in your bucket.

 

[94BULLITT]

Wouldn't it be rough on the machine having to shake the bucket?

 

[jenkinsph]

Wouldn't it be rough on the machine having to shake the bucket?

It can be at times, that is another reason for getting the slightly smaller bucket.


I have a Frontier Worksite Pro 66" bucket with ssqa for my 110. Good for large rocks 4 inches and up, good for loading debris as they have a long lip. As others mentioned you can only sift a partial bucket load or you wind up with too many fines trapped on top of the rocks. Best use I have had with mine was working in Colorado on the Animas river, lots of big round rocks to sift out the size of bowling balls.

 

[andrehoude123]

For an L45 what would be the ideal size ? In northern Quebec it's lots of sand and round rocks so I guess that rock bucket would work great for sifting the sand to fill in the washout and make new trails

Thanks

 

[Notforhire]

I have a 60 in. rock bucket that worked well with my Bobcat SS.
My L3240 w/ 724 loader didn't have enough lift to use it effectively.
Being a SS bucket it's heavy and rather deep, which puts the load farther out. It has worked well on my friends 75 hp. New Holland. We were using it to load rocks that had been piled up at the edge of a field. Digging in a pile of rocks isn't easy, and the bucket being 5 ft instead of 6 ft was an advantage.
If you get one for your L3240, I would recommend one designed for a CUT that is not deeper than your normal bucket. Narrow would be better. I think you will run out of power even with a 60 incher.

Best, Bill

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Currently, Ted is using the 55" Bradco compact rock bucket on his 45hp bobcat tractor to remove some rocks at his property. He says it does a great job.
Travis

 

[Notforhire]

Bradco makes a 55" rock bucket for compact tractors that only weighs 278 pounds and comes equipped with a quick attach hitch.

IMHO I think this would be a good choise for you. My SS bucket weighs 610 lbs and cost me $1,547 delivered in 2007.

Best, Bill

 

[jinman]

The 55" Bradco rock bucket from E-A seems a superb choice in my estimation. I've owned a 60" rock bucket for years and never ever wanted it to be wider. Several times I've actually wished it was only 48" wide because of uneven ground while picking up rocks and trying to get them into one corner of the bucket. I do prefer longer tines than the Bradco bucket, but with longer tines, you need them bigger and stronger so they won't bend. To me the Bradco design looks like the best of several designs I've seen. I especially like the way the they've incorporated the SS quick-tach into the structure. That adaptation reduces overall weight and yet retains a high amount of strength for very heavy loads. Give the choice of my S-Houle bucket and Bradco, I'd have a tough decision on which one I like best. Because my tractor can lift the heavier bucket, I do really like the digging ability of my longer tines. Bear in mind that longer tines reduce breakout force also. I find my rock bucket is ideal for popping large rocks out of the ground that are in the 100 to 200 lb range. Those are very tough to handle with a regular bucket and by hand they are an all-day job. The rock bucket pulls/picks them with ease and sheds the loose soil around them. Here's my bucket with thumb grapple.



I think the option of a thumb grapple on rock buckets would make them very flexible for many things besides digging rocks. The rock bucket is not ideal as a grapple because it has sides to the bucket. That limits the bite you can get on brush, but as you can see in the photo below, I still can haul a respectible amount of brush in my rock bucket/grapple, making it a true dual use attachment.

 

[Power2ll]

I have a 60 in. rock bucket that worked well with my Bobcat SS.
My L3240 w/ 724 loader didn't have enough lift to use it effectively.
Being a SS bucket it's heavy and rather deep, which puts the load farther out. It has worked well on my friends 75 hp. New Holland. We were using it to load rocks that had been piled up at the edge of a field. Digging in a pile of rocks isn't easy, and the bucket being 5 ft instead of 6 ft was an advantage.
If you get one for your L3240, I would recommend one designed for a CUT that is not deeper than your normal bucket. Narrow would be better. I think you will run out of power even with a 60 incher.

Best, Bill

Thank you very much that is what I needed to know. Do you think it would work to pick up windrows of rocks made by my Harley rake and construction debris