Does anyone use a 3 foot digging bucket on a 3.5 ton mini? If so, what kind of ground do you use it in and how does the mini handle it? I could use a 3 foot bucket but I'm not sure if my 3.5 tonner could handle it.
Totally depends on the material, never used one, but the material typical in my region makes a 3.5 ton want to slide with a 24", we wouldn't have a prayer with a 36".
I've got a 3 foot digging bucket on a 3.5 ton machine with a long stick and it handles topsoil, clay, stone digging dry or wet with no problem. obviously if your reaching real far and high off to the side it'll be tippy but for the most part it doesn't seem to care or notice. I've also got a 4 foot ditching bucket and it works well, its not real deep but you can load it up and it works good.
I would love to have a 42"-48" ditching bucket for finish grading and handling loose material. I have a takeuchi tb135 with a wainroy quick coupler. I think your machine will be fine with a 36" most of the time depending on ground conditions.
I have a 42" cleanout bucket also. Works great in all loose materials.
eric12, thanks for the reply. That's exactly what I was looking for. What kind of clay are you digging in? I encounter hard clay sometimes that can be hard to dig with a 2 foot bucket. Is the clay you dig with the 3 footer soft and wet?
We use a 3 footer on our case works great mainly used for finish grading and loading out loose stuff but you can dig with it ok just slower then a toothed 2 foot, the only thing it useless for is hardpan and frozen ground. I have also used a 3 footer on cat 3.5 ton... they get tippy easier than the case.
Use caution when digging anything hard. Keep the load centered in the bucket. Side loading these long buckets cause undue stress on the dipper by twisting the boom. Like picking up long logs from near the end instead of the center balancing the load. If used properly a long bucket 3' or larger can be your favorite bucket as is the 3' one I use on a TB015 weighing in at #3500 lbs. also watch your swing when using a loaded bucket there is a lot of weight out there. Stopping he swing to fast will also cause undue stress. Use caution and you will love it.
Dwan is right. I had a buddy of mine bend the boom on a JD 35 with a 3' bucket. He put a side load on it. I think they were digging and ran into a stump and instead of changing buckets they tried to grub the stump with the 3' bucket.
Would you happen to have a photo of that 3' bucket on the TB015 Dwan?
Not handy but if it don't snow any more tonight I can put it on and take one or 2.
in australia its common for 1.5 -1.7 tonne machines have 900mm buckets (roughly 3ft) and many 3.0-3.5 sized machines have 1250mm buckets (4 ft) you should be pretty right with a 3 footer on your 35
I would really appreciate this if possible, Thanks
Dit snowed a foot last night so it will be a day or 2.