Rock bucket

[jrlandscaping]

How well do these rock buckets work? After prepping and final grading I end up with a sometimes rather large pile of weeds / rocks which is difficult to pick-up with the bucket without bringing up a bunch of soil as well.

 

[BarryinMN]

The vertical fins inside the bucket will tend to catch & hold debris when dumping. Clumps of sod will not drop thru, spacing is too close.

A small bump vs fin will allow full dumping of the bucket. wider spacing allows clumps to drop thru.

This bucket design is more robust when digging than say a manure fork where the tines are unsupported & tend to bend out at the ends.

 

[nedly05]

I always thought one of these buckets would be handy, just rake your junk into a pile, scoop it all up give it a couple shakes to get the goodness out, and go get rid of the junk!!

 

[flINTLOCK]

I have the rock bucket made by Millonzi and am happy with it. Digging out rocks then shakin' out the dirt works well. Just don't be downwind when you do the shakin' !!!

 

[EdK]

I've got a little experience using one. As others posting have mentioned sod and even damp earth will clump up and hold the rocks in the bucket unless you shake like crazy, which is inefficient and will punish all of your loader wear points. Really, something like a power rake or rotadairon is needed for finish landscaping.

Still, not wanting to bend over and pick up a lot of rocks, especially the heavier ones, I had one built by a local welder using a worn out bucket for fraction of the cost (about $400). The spacing is wide: about 6". I found the best way to use it is with the bucket angled about 30-45*, drive forward and comb the rocks out of the soil. I rarely lift and shake anymore.

 

[RedRocker]

There are other designs that look like they'd work better, Jinman has one on his.