I'm about a week or two out from digging my footers for my house along with a trench for wiring/piping etc. The bucket on my backhoe is 18" which is far too wide for what I need to dig. Have any of you made your own or know of a good supplier for a 10" backhoe bucket where the pin holes are at least 1-1/4" diameter? Thanks
Years ago I searched hard for a used one for my John Deere 410, ended up buying a new one for about $ 700.00 What machine do you have ??
You're not so close - otherwise you could certainly borrow a 12" bucket.
I have a new holland lb 75. I dont want to spend over $500 for a new bucket. It should be very rudimentary where I can just dig out narrow channels. The smallest size I see for backhoe buckets are 12". Why's that? Is there another terminology for a narrow channel bucket? I saw a railroad cribbling bucket but they cost $2400 which is absolutely nuts.
12" is a very small bucket with most soil I spend more time shaking the dirt out of it than digging. 14" bucket is much faster and more room if if you have to get in the hole. For water lines or anything over a couple ft. deep around my place I use a 24" bucket.
i have seen one special made 10 inch bucket otherwise 12 inch is the smallest and its because the ears for the pins would be wider than the bucket so after your about a foot deep your pins would be making the ditch wider
I had a 12 inch for my Ford 4500 should be able to find a used one... not sure if New Holland kept the same size pins though.
Just got my 12" bucket, and it is my favorite bucket, by far. Perfect for trenching (cuts a nice size hole, which you can stand in, but not noo big), and works great on the hard-pan. One thing to consider is that the soil will get stuck inside of it. Without modification it was worthless. I took some advise and welded chain inside, now it works great. You will most likely need to do the same. I don't have the same problems with the larger buckets, they are tapered and the soil comes out much easier.
This....even my Bobcat backhoe attachment won't take a 10" bucket. Ed
could u expand on welding a chain inside? Thanks Greg
I see it's an old post. Yes...Interesting ... Can someone post a pic of that??
I have a 12" bucket for my Case 580K. I love it for digging big stumps, or digging around very large rocks. For trenching it is near useless. I dig power line trenches 46" deep. In VT I put 6" sand below a 4" OD conduit. This puts the top of the conduit at 36" depth where temperature will fall below freezing, but not as cold as shallower. Plastic conduit shrinks 4" per 100' with 100 degree temperature range. At 3' depth temperature might change 50 degrees. Plastic is brittle as glass at 0 degrees F. I say all this because a trench will not have vertical walls. Depending on soil conditions, you might see as much as 100% grade in the trench walls. No matter how precise you dig, some soil will fall to the bottom of your trench. A 46" deep ditch will have the same shape dug with a 12" bucket as with a 24, but it takes a heck of a lot longer to dig. Unless your trenches are a foot or less deep you'll prefer the wider bucket. If you are digging across a lawn you want to restore, a sacrificial strip of painter's plastic spread along side the ditch makes clean up much easier.
Previous digging with the 12" bucket here is tedious because of clay and damp soil sticking. Then rattling or banging the bucket stop to release the material. This takes more time and can't be good for the machine. Not using the smaller buckets for these reasons. Was wondering if the chain idea would help? What configuration are the chains welded? Most here are just getting rusty !
Same here Willie, while we don't have the freeze depth issues you have back there we found early on that the 12 inch buckets were almost worthless except for the one or two jobs you get a year where it's tight digging between something and you need smaller then 18/24 inch. It actually takes considerably longer to dig with the narrow bucket and even when you put chain/holes/floppers in them you still get sticking and reduced capacity so generally speaking it is always better to go with 18 or larger for any trench deeper than 10 inches. As for using the 12 incher on stumps we do use it for that just because of the prying and knocking dirt between the roots but even for things like this you are constantly switching buckets because you'll be digging all day on one stump at the rate of soil removal with the 12 inch bucket plus the narrow buckets don't work with most thumbs!!! so now you cant grab roots and stuff!!!
You All got me interested in the whole chain in the bucket idea, so I did a little looking... I found the thread below on TBN. It has a PDF attached. I saved it and pasted it here. Very interesting. Not sure I would use it, but interesting nonetheless. https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/262979-solution-clay-packed-twelve-12-a.html
Sure, Here are some pictures. I welded two heavy chains in a cross fashion, and one small chain in the base is bolted to keep the mess from coming out. I have not had anything stick inside the bucket since I did this.