Toothbar advice

[blklab68]

I have a Woods 1016 Loader with a 66" bucket (64"ID) and need a toothbar. I have several questions:
1) Are replaceable teeth worth it?
2) Weld on or bolt on?
3) Who makes the best (product) for the least (cash)

Thanks..

 

[PILOON]

A lot depends on your usage.

If you frequantly load loose materials and manure then no teeth are best.
Also backgrading cannot be done with toothed bucket.

Digging/loading virgin soil works best with teeth.
With vs without is night and day.
The resistance of a long cutting edge vs 6 or 8 teeth is what it is all about.
However working with teeth always makes for a messy site, so it is all a comprimize

Remouvable tooth bar allows best of both worlds and certainly you want to be able to replace the teeth as they will wear out.

You can purchase fabricated tooth bars in the $200-$300 range from some TBM advertisers or build your own if you have welding capabilities.

I built my own for about $75. all told and a few hours of time.

For components you can visit Fabco web site
www.fabco-inc.com

Good luck!

 

[RalphVa]

There's a current thread on this in the JD Owner's forum. I suggest to look at what we said there.

Ralph

 

[IslandTractor]

<font color="blue">1) Are replaceable teeth worth it?
2) Weld on or bolt on?
3) Who makes the best (product) for the least (cash)
</font>

1) Not in my opinion, not unless you are using your tractor a lot more than most folks here on TBN. I cannot imagine destroying the teeth on my toothbar unless I was using it daily for hours all year long.

2) Bolt on has the advantage that you can "bolt off" and get your regular bucket back for smoothing of dirt or simply lifting mulch etc.

3) Markham is one popular manufacturer. there is also a guy from Massachusetts who sells similar toothbars on Ebay. You should expect to pay between $275-325 for a toothbar to fit a 66" bucket.

 

[KiotiJohn]

Removable teeth, no. Removable toothbar, yes. Very convenient to remove in about 5 minutes for those fine finishing jobs or those where you just don't want the teeth on.

I backdrag all the time with my toothbar on. I use a combination of dragging with the teeth and using the bottom of my bucket for final finishing. Granted, it's easier to backdrag without the toothbar on, but not impossible at all.

Another good use of the toothbar when working in dirty soil is that one can just put the teeth down, backdrag and remove roots and trash before digging and removing the soil.

I had a great example of this the last two weekends. I removed several stumps and needed to prepare the ground for a crushcrete floor pole barn. There were thousands of roots all through the area. Between digging out the largest with my backhoe, and backdragging with the toothbar, I got most of the offenders out.

The next weekend, landscape rake and boxblade along with using the toothbar, and the area was cleaned completely and leveled, ready for adding the crushcrete.

Just an example how versatile the toothbar is, and that backdragging in certain ways is helpful as all get out!
John