Titan skeleton rock bucket mod

[scootr]

Titan 60" nicely made, heavy, stout as heck. My complaint is the ribs are 3 inches apart. You can darn near fit your fist in between the bars. Consequently it's more of a boulder bucket that leaves all sorts of fist size rocks behind.
I searched and found 3" is about standard on a full sized bucket. I toyed with the idea of laying expanded mesh, or welded wire in the bucket but the cost was high and the shipping was out of this world... Then it hit me - I bought some used to be cheap #5 rebar and cut a piece to go in the middle of each space. Now it will be a 1.25 " screen. Got the pieces cut today. Hope to start welding them in tomorrow. Pics when I'm done.modmo

 

[nyone]

I think you will find that expanded steel wont allow for much to fall through. Are you trying to make topsoil with this bucket?

Some times its just easier to go through and hand pick the biggest rocks and leave the rest.

 

[scootr]

I did get the 5/8 rebar welded in between each rib. That reduced the space from 3 to 1.5 inch basically. ANd since the dirt was dry it did allow the earth to fall through with some shaking. But a problem remains with getting the little rocks picked up in this bucket because of the big arse rock teeth in front. I realize now I should have spent more and bought a smooth edge skeleton bucket.
I bought a cutting edge and thinking of how to further modify the bucket so it will scoop up a windrow of rock. May just have to sell this one and get what I need - or go further down this rabbit hole. The cutting edge arrives today.

 

[rScotty]

We had a lot of rocks to move so I bought one of those inexpensive flat tine rock bucket with 3" spacing. Several companies build exactly the same design. It looked good and was stout, but didn't work well. It didn't do anything well. It let biggish rocks fall through and yet it tended to "clog up" and not let the dirt fall through. The flat tine points were hard to force under rocks & then didn't move them to the back or lost them off the front. This is all on a pretty heavy tractor with enough HP.

About a year later I saw an adv. for what looked like a different design of rock bucket with longer Round Tines more closely spaced (2.25"), better tips, and a different way of holding rocks in. Also somewhat heavier construction. Not perfect, but it works a thousand percent better. Also costs more. Like the Flat Tine types, several companies make the same bucket. So I bought one and sure enough, it is a lot better. It also has better visibility - though that may vary with the tractor.

I guess my conclusion is there isn't much difference just looking at the flat and round tine buckets. But they sure work differently. The round tine bucket is so useful that I tend to leave it on the tractor. It's long enough that I can see what the front end is doing. That's real handy.

rScotty

 

[scootr]

Thanks for the info. I started with the titan toothed bucket. I'm shocked how badly it worked.
Obviously a lot of hit and miss going on with this attachment. It seems nobody makes just one. There are several designs from each manufacturer. I'm going to try one more mod on the front edge to help with the picking up small rocks on hard flat dirt this weekend

 

[Vigo327]

I built a mini-skid sized rock bucket with tighter ~1.5" spacing.. but then never built the mini-skid SSQA mount onto my tractor and so have never used it yet!!

But if you don't mind making a mess, you can dig a small furrow with the bucket, next to the rocks, backdrag the rocks into the furrow, and then push under them to pick them up.. the ground behind them should keep them from running away from you. Then you got a hole in the ground to fill.. Might be able to mostly fill it by backdragging with the heel of the loaded bucket, maybe. Or just come back to it.

But yeah i was bothered by the standard tine spacing enough that i didn't bother to buy one and went straight to building one. But i've yet to prove that the thing i built is not a pile of crap, so.. talk is cheap!!

 

[scootr]

I have a 773 BC and SSQA on the Kubota. We grow rocks here. Bad ground and the rocks just keep coming to the surface. I figured out how to rake them into a row. 20 yrs ago I crudely built a 3pt rock rake, using old concrete form stakes as tines. It was C shaped and it could gather and make piles but I bent my TL trying to dig out a big rock with it in reverse... sorta quit using it after that and later let the junk man take it. Hopefully this project goes better. lol

 

[rScotty]

Thanks for the info. I started with the titan toothed bucket. I'm shocked how badly it worked.
Obviously a lot of hit and miss going on with this attachment. It seems nobody makes just one. There are several designs from each manufacturer. I'm going to try one more mod on the front edge to help with the picking up small rocks on hard flat dirt this weekend

Scootr, I'll be curious what you learn. I think you are on the right track with mod to the front edge

FWIW, I was shocked too. But then got to looking and realized that the front of the tines only look sharp from a distance. When you look up close, you can see that they are actually flat noses on those tines and that adds up to a lot of area. The welded reinforcement bar running the width of the bucket right behind the tips is also flat-fronted.
And so is the TOP of each tine so that dirt can perch up there. Add it all up and that is too much flat surface both frontal and top. The round tines do way better...still not perfect. Maybe rent one to compare.

When you think about it, think how a regular dirt bucket would work if you ground the front cutting edge back so that it becomes a half inch vertical flat surface - and now try pushing that puppy through the ground. Same diff.

 

[scootr]

I cut up a smooth replacement edge and welded the pieces in between the teeth. It is better but it's still not perfect for my use.
But it did help significantly. My advice is if you are trying to pickup rocks on hard ground get a smooth bucket. No teeth.
Here's what I did with my Saturday am.
In picture #1 You can see how they built it but with my rebar added reducing the spaces 50%.

 

[rScotty]

I cut up a smooth replacement edge and welded the pieces in between the teeth. It is better but it's still not perfect for my use.
But it did help significantly. My advice is if you are trying to pickup rocks on hard ground get a smooth bucket. No teeth.
Here's what I did with my Saturday am.
In picture #1 You can see how they built it but with my rebar added reducing the spaces 50%.

Thanks for the posting. It's fun to see someone get out the welder and modify a bucket. I sure do feel for anyone with lots of rocks to deal with. It takes special techniques and they don't seem to be much published on it. On my 15 year journey with rock buckets on the M59, there's been temptation to make some sort of better bucket - but haven't yet. Maybe you will get it done.

Using the aux front hydraulics to drive some sort of suspended brush or shaker screen keeps running through my mind.

In the photos in post #4 you can see that I'm lucky enough not to be trying to pick up rocks on hard ground. And maybe that is why the round tine bucket works for our ground. The type of ground and shape of rock is everything. We have fine sandy soil - not sticky - and rounded rocks. What I do wouldn't work with clay soil or flat rocks or shards. The ground here is soft enough to open up a 20 foot long strip with the rock bucket tips an inch or two below the surface to bring the rocks to the surface. It often takes several trips back and forth.

Then when there are enough rocks on top of the soft soil, the round tine type rock bucket will slip under the pile of rocks so they can be lifted. I can rarely get more in one load than what you see in the photos in my prev. post.
It's a slow process. Having a compound low gearing and 60 hp on a 4 ton tractor is about minimal for working a 72" wide rock bucket .... even just picking up those loose rocks.

And when done, there's still a huge pile of rocks to deal with. After filling in some ditches & a gulley, we've got piles of rocks all over the property.
rScotty

 

[scootr]

When I said we had bad ground I should have used a capital B. It's clay and a solid mix of round and shattered rock. The dirt is either hard as hell or sandy bottom. But it grows the 2 Ws, wheat and wine. I windrowed the loose surface rocks with a 7ft landscape rake. I angle it to kick the rocks out then just keep adding to and moving the row of rocks over until they look like they are ready for the rock bucket to scoop then up with the bobcat.
Problem has been the rock bucket either crawls over the rocks or pushes them - frustrating to say the least. But I only have to this once in a while and not every year.
Thanks for your posts.

 

[rScotty]

When I said we had bad ground I should have used a capital B. It's clay and a solid mix of round and shattered rock. The dirt is either hard as hell or sandy bottom. But it grows the 2 Ws, wheat and wine. I windrowed the loose surface rocks with a 7ft landscape rake. I angle it to kick the rocks out then just keep adding to and moving the row of rocks over until they look like they are ready for the rock bucket to scoop then up with the bobcat.
Problem has been the rock bucket either crawls over the rocks or pushes them - frustrating to say the least. But I only have to this once in a while and not every year.
Thanks for your posts.

Well I'll be darned. I just came in from working on the same implement: a 7 foot angling andscape rake. It's one I bought ten years ago and promptly loaned out to a friend to use on his horse corral. Bolts were all rusted.

The rake just just came back and I've not yet used it. Woods model 8270 or LR107/700 with adj. gauge wheels and flip down blade with end caps. Soon as I get it in shape I might try to windrow some surface rocks. Our soil has no clay. It's decomposed granite, some sand, and river rocks. Pine needles are about 4 to 5" long and tire marks a foot wide so rocks are 3" to over a foot.

In the past I push rocks into piles and then pick up those piles with the rock bucket and shake the dirt out.
rScotty

 

[scootr]

That is a very nice rake with those wheels. Lately I've been trying to set mine up with similar wheels so I could use it on our 3/4 gravel drive. I should have just bought the wheel set but I chocked on the $600 price tag. In hindsight. It may have been worth it.
lol

More pics please - what is the bar that hangs below the main bar by 2 black brackets where the tines attach?

 

[rScotty]

That is a very nice rake with those wheels. Lately I've been trying to set mine up with similar wheels so I could use it on our 3/4 gravel drive. I should have just bought the wheel set but I chocked on the $600 price tag. In hindsight. It may have been worth it.
lol

More pics please - what is the bar that hangs below the main bar by 2 black brackets where the tines attach?

Ah-ha! Glad you asked!

That flat bar tucked up under the front of the spring times is Wood's secret flip down grader blade! You can kind of see it in the photo below. Normally it sits up out of the way for raking. For grading, just pull two pins and it pivots down on two pivoting legs to lay against the front of the tines. You can sort of see the rt. hand pivot leg in the photo. In the down position the grader blade cutting edge sits about an inch lower than the rake tine tips.

This grader blade also has the optional end caps. My end caps are not there in the photo - although you can see the holes where they mount. End caps are another well-kept secret that double the usefulness of a grader blade. By using one or both end caps the grader blade becomes a sort of versatile angling box blade. That combo of blade and caps works particularly well when combined with gauge wheels.

Yeah, I know.... those gauge wheels cost too much. No way was I going to pay that roughly $600 for the gauge wheels, guage arms, and the yokes with spacers. Then I looked at one & it changed my mind. Very impressive design and quality. I'm cheap sometimes, but willing to pay if the quality is there. It was and I did and here's why: Like a ot of tractor guys, I finally figured out that good adjustable gauge wheels are the key to making blades, boxes scrapers, and rakes work well.

And these are designed so that they can be unbolted and swapped onto any other implement - maybe even including the FEL bucket or a front blade - by simply drilling 4 half inch holes and bolting them on. Height is controlled by the washer stack on the pivot of the yoke. If you do that, remember that gauge wheels are not rigid. They are supposed to be a bit floppy.

So it's not $600 to add gauge wheels to the landscape rake. It's $600 to get a set of gauge wheels that can be fitted onto most implements that I have. I love and live to experiment with mechanical anything. So for me the gauge wheels became a no-brainer. Sure I could make up my own set. But honestly it would cost me 2/3 as much even though I weld and have machine tools.
The gauge wheel tires are solid rubber industrial, wheels are ball-bearing, arms are 1/2" steel, solidly built yokes have grease zerks. Height adj is genius. Woods carries complete rebuild kits. So does Messicks.

HOWEVER, they are not perfect. The gauge wheel horizontal arm should be longer. As they are, they interfere with the rake tines when reversed. I will be making a telescoping arm extension to add a foot to mine.

rScotty

 

[WranglerX]

Usually a "grizzly " works for me as the cost of a rock bucket in out of the picture for my needs..... Not mine but something similar works for me...

 

[rScotty]

Usually a "grizzly " works for me as the cost of a rock bucket in out of the picture for my needs..... Not mine but something similar works for me...

View attachment 765726

Thanks for posting the photo of that grizzly. That looks like about as simple and strong as one needs to be. If I ever get around to building one that design is a good place to start.
I wonder why they are called, "grizzlys"?
rScotty

 

[scootr]

The moldboard attachment is great. Makes for a 2 in 1 attachment. Your woods rake is the best. I'm that guy who is messing around adapting wheels to his rake. I got the rake for $200 20 yrs ago from a neighbor... Honestly I should have and still think about just spending the $600. But I'm stubborn.
That grizzly looks too girly to withstand a whole lot of heavy use. I see them on CL made of steel.

 

[WranglerX]

Thanks for posting the photo of that grizzly. That looks like about as simple and strong as one needs to be. If I ever get around to building one that design is a good place to start.
I wonder why they are called, "grizzlys"?
rScotty

Go to GOOGLE IMAGES and look up "grizzlies".... They come on all shapes and sizes from light weight DIY to really huge massive things.... I have no idea why they are called "grizzlies"...

 

[JohnnyMX]

Did a similar thing to my grapple to allow me to better sift rocks. The default spacing on a W.R. Long long bottom grapple is way to large for sifting rocks. I made a removable insert that allows me to use it when needed, or remove the weight when not. Sod doesn't work well in either case is what I've learned. Dirt has to be pretty dry to sort and sift as well.

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[scootr]

That's nice that you can remove it when it's not needed.