Has anyone ever had any trouble with the 4 in 1 buckets? I may be wrong but something tells me if one gets into heavey digging and especially in rocks that if you push too hard maybe a little offsides or something of that nature one could concievably spring the hinged portion of the bucket so that it does not close completely or correctly thanks for any insight !!!:usa
Have used several 4in1 buckets (all my equipment has them) and never had a problem as you described. They all have a locking device on the sides that prevents problems with the hinge getting torqued, unless you try to dig with the bucket open which is a no no. The locking device on the sides is usually a staggered tooth design which also doubles as a gripping device when picking up logs etc.
For nasty applications,such as concrete & quarry work,a GP bucket is recommended. However,a 4:1 bucket makes your machine an indespensible tool,along with a ripper/scarifier.A tracked loader without these 2 things is only half a machine,IMO. In older machines,you'll find the bucket creeping open often.I always gently close it,just before commencing any pushing/digging work.The operator is the key to bucket preservation.
past experience well said!!! I guess it has been with my past experience with skidloaders and also have been runnning a welding and machine shop that made me wonder about the 4in1 buckets.....with that said I guess it just boils down to the operator and having good sense of what is too hard to do and forcing something loose or whatever. my concern was more to deal with tree stumps and etc. I cannot tell you how many skidloaders I ahve fixed with broken booms and buckets and backplates.. I had one customer come one time with a machine who had totally torqued the boom to the point wear it needed to be replaced........ I could not do a thing with it. on the same note there was a farmer who came to me asking if I cold fix his grapple bucket and when I looked at it not only was the bucket twisted, a half inch thick double backplate had been pushed through from the backside and had a 48" break near the top where the quicktach hooks under, in additon the grapple had a nasty kilter to it and the knervland tines that were in it were bent out like buck teeth. I found out later the man had been using the skidsteer for dozer work clearing stumps!!!! I guess if a skidloader can do that to itself, maybe you can see my hesitation about 4in1 buckets on an even larger machine....... as for the usefulness heck yes!!!! I can think of a thousand uses for that grapple characteristic!!!:usa
After using them on a skid steer & a couple TLBs when I buy my own machines I will definitely get it. I agree it all has to do with how’s its used and whose using it.
My only gripe is weight. They can weigh twice what a regular bucket does, my Case 1835C skid steer is nose heavy even with counterweights. If you are in the business of moving a lot of material, I would stick with a regular bucket, but if you use your machine to multitask a 4-n-1 is great. The old Gannon 4-n-1 I have on the Case has held up to 2400 hours of an abusive concrete contractor before I got it.
Even when using a 4n1 as it shouldn't be use it will still take a lot of abuse. Took 2 years for me and another operator to destroy one on a 963. Trust me we almost cried on some of the things we where told to do with it.
If anyone is looking for one of these 4n1 buckets on a CASE 450, I am letting mine go. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320267049540&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=011
A 4 in 1 is a must have for demolition and nice for many other things.
No offense, but you can keep your 4 in 1 bucket on your demo sites. I havent found a single one that has been able to do anything like a true demo bucket does
Turbo Never seen or got to use a true demo bucket but I bet yhat U are correct.
We have had 4 in 1 buckets on our machines for ten plus years. To me they are like a pocket on a t-shirt, handy as heck. We've got one on our 938F,310SJ, and our 160 Bobcat. We do our share of tree work and there sure is no substitute. The main thing we see in "how to damage your 4 in 1" is not getting centered with your load when trying to pick something up (stump, concrete). If you try to grab the load off center it will tweak the bucket. One ram will pull the bucket against the load while the other will have no resistance. Although it is much easier to grab a stump or what not from the corners, I wouldn't do it. I suppose the second most damaging thing we've seen is skidding to big of logs with our 4 in 1. Often we skids logs and if your not careful it will warp the bottom of the bucket. The way we do it is open the clam all the way and roll the bucket over. Then slide the log through a couple of feet and clamp down. As long as you don't try to roll the bucket back and lift the log like a carpet forklift, you'll be ok. :my2c
looks to me that u can't put as much rock in one
I use the crap out of my 4/1. I dug out a huge stump and after I pushed it out of the hole, I grabbed it with the 4/1 and it lifted the back of the machine. I tip-toed it out to the back 40. I couldn't pick the stump out of the hole because it weighed too much. 20,000 pound 125C International. cb1
4 in 2 is a great demo tool. perfect for demo with a 977 or some other loader.
my experience with a 4/1 was on a 943 clearing and demo was awesome:drinkup:notworthy the only problem i had with the bucket was it kept breaking at the top where the hingepins connected. that piece wasmade out of some kind of oddball cast steel. so i finally replaced with a gp. better for raking yards :Banghead:cool2