Backhoe What size bucket to buy for a JD #7 backhoe

[gordon21]

I am considering buying a new 7 backhoe for my 790 tractor. There are several options on bucket sizes 9"-13"-16"-19". It will be used on the top of a mountain in western NC. Most rocks are beachball size or smaller with 4-12" of brown dirt/topsoil/thatch over a packed base of red dirt. It be used for general digging, tree planting, stump removal and limited trenching. I have reads posts where the 9" buckets tend to clump full and won't dump properly. I also don't want to buy too big

 

[RRacing]

I found in my area that the 9" bucket was the best. I had other size buckets. But if I hit a root or decent size rock the bigger buckets had too much surface area and it didn't give me enough breakout force. I hope this helps.

Jim

 

[RobS]

I have the 16 inch bucket on my #7. It suits me just fine though I've not tried anything else. The 16 incher is pretty shallow so it takes the right sized bite of dirt for the little #7. If the narrower buckets are the same depth, it could take quite a while to move a lot of material.

Only once, when digging wet clay, did I have any problems with it not clearing fully. I suspect the narrower buckets would be more problematic. I will say, I have not done much stump work where narrower could be better. At the same time, I cannot imagine a wider bucket due to the limited power of the #7.

Hope this helps and good luck with your investment /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[ACKBill]

Gordon:

I bought both the 9 & the 16. The theory being that the 9 will be fine for narrow/minimum disturbance trenching as well as the hard digging and the 16 would be available for the easy stuff or when I just needed to be able to move a larger volume faster.

BILL