Im buying a wheel loader for the farm soon for cleaning up trees (after excavator), snow removal, general use. a 4 in 1 bucket is coming up for auction nearby. It looks like it would be useful, but Ive never ran a wheel loader so I'm not sure. Does anyone have a positive experience using this 4in1 bucket or is it a gimmicky tool? Thanks
When you say clean up trees, are you thinking of grubbing up all the limbs etc? Then yes it would be handy. What you have to watch out for is stobs poking holes in your very expensive tires. Otherwise, yes, a wheel loader with a 4 in 1 could be the bee's knee's. Without it you are going to struggle to clean up much brush with a straight bucket. A set of forks with a top grapple would be the absolute best.
https://www.google.com/search?q=nor...-nf-rev1&prmd=sivn&hl=en#imgrc=W3iMVvuIGHw12M One of these things is best for cleaning up trees. 4n1 buckets are very easily twisted and won't close properly and get very frustrating when they release while travelling
I agree with Tones! FWD
I agree with tones for just tree removal, but in this case the op was asking about after an excavator has done the grubbing and then further use for things after tree removal. so 4in1 is perfect What cheap piece of junk have you been using? a proper 4in1 bucket has positive open and close so how does it release? As for twisting " very easily " again cheap junk if it is, if you mean "they were trying to crush a bolder with one end of a 4in1" then of course they are going to twist it, operator error is not a failure of a part, it's failure of the operator. With a good operator that is sympathetic to the machine being used, you'll be hard pushed to beat a 4in1 bucket for productive general work with minimal downtime, which is what I assume the OP was looking for.
I have seen 4n1 loader buckets on backhoes so twisted the operator couldn't pick up bedding sand for laying pipes all because they had been doing trees prior. And yes they can let go when they are near max pressure, go over an unseen bump,a little extra pressure on the relief and wooska dam logs on the ground. BTW I haven't yet seen any tree or log that's the same diameter at each end so a 4n1 only grips 1end only and that is why they twist.
Great for Demo work, Great for dumping into trucks or trailers without rolling bucket, Not so hot on trees or brush, Rake/Grapple better idea.
I see what yall are saying. I'll keep looking for a rake/grapple. They're pretty rare to find in the midwest it seems. Thanks for your guys' real world experiences
I've got a 4 way bucket on my skid steer and the ag tractor at work, I wouldn't be without one for what I do. If you're doing cleanup on a job site you can get all but a few shovels full of a soil pile into the bucket. Very handy for a number of chores, I've used it to pull fence posts, saplings and move stumps. Around a farm you'd find all kinds of things to do with it. If loading trucks with material is the main work a standard bucket is a better choice. The added weight of the 4 way will reduce the loader capacity somewhat and hurt production levels. For brush work I have a grapple rake for each machine, they can't be beat in that application. You didn't mention what size machine you're planning on, that will determine what attachments are available. Larger machines tend to have fewer attachments available. The link below is the grapple rake I have for each machine https://erskineattachments.com/products/industrial-log-brush-and-rock-grapple/