Hello all, I have been looking for a good used bucket for my volvo 240. Currently i'm equipped with a 2.25 54". Something narrower would be nice to have for trenching. My problem is the volvo quick coupler is unique making used buckets impossible to find. Does anyone have experience with a bucket conversion. Used buckets are very inexpensive at auction, but i am told that converting it can cost more than the job is worth. Material (q100) is very expensive, and hard to work with. Any thoughts? Ken :beatsme
Your best option is to find a bucket that you like, have someone torch the lugs off and weld on lugs that will fit your quick coupler. That is, of course, if you don't come across a bucket that will work seamlessly with the Volvo Q/C.
I`m courious what is unique about the Volvo coupler that makes it impossible to use other buckets? Post up a couple of pictures if you get a chance. What are the pin sizes and distance between the pins of your bucket as well as the width between the ears? As far as having new ears welded on no big deal around here it runs about 2,500 hundred dollers. If you dont have to line bore it. Of course then you have the cost of a couple new pins to stay with the newly fitted bucket at about $350 a piece, thats for a 300 class machine. Good luck.
Thanks, and i'm glad you asked! Volvo qc buckets dont have pins in the normal sense. Sorry i don't have any pictures handy. here is a brochure which happens to show a bucket for my machine. http://www.craig-mfg.com/productsheets/Craig_EXB_BB.pdf If you look closely, you can see that the bridge is actually inside the bucket, not outside. To do it properly, converting from one design to the other means torching and reconstructing the entire top of the bucket. Very expensive to do it properly. This design minimizes the extra space and weight needed for a qc relative to a non-qc setup. In other words, they added a qc without sacrificing tooth force terribly. The tradeoff is interchangability, in that no others buckets will fit. The design also allows for shims to correct for pin wear etc. Its nice to be able to shim an old bucket to make it tight as new again. And since its kinda unique, and works well, they market it as a feature. Every Volvo I've ever seen is equipped this way. Thanks for the interest.
I took one look and said thats an old Akerman design............... by the time I had started to type, the bit between my ears had perked up and finally caught up with what the eyes had told it, ........... Yep, who took over Akerman..........................VOLVO :Banghead. watglen, despite all the design drawings and salesman speel do you actually need and use to maximum benefit that bit of extra breakout force that you would otherwise loose by running a pin grabber hitch? I ask as a previous boss provided me with a brand spanking fill your boots new Volvo 360 one day with only a big digging bucket. They then welded a D6 cutting edge across the teeth so I could salvage and load the type 1 limestone that was under the concrete roadway that I was lifting. I asked why the hell didnt you pay the extra and buy a QH, a narrow bucket and a smooth edge ditching bucket then I could swap between the 3 as conditions dictated. Loose too much breakout force with a QH was his reply. :Banghead In my opinion very few lever pullers can use a machine well enough to worry about that slight loss of breakout and very rarely are in a situation where it would make any difference. Generally if that bit of extra grunt is required on a continual basis then a bigger machine is needed. IMHO :drinkup I am intrested to know if the lack of a good secondhand bucket supply due to this configuration is more of a loss than the sacrifice in breakout force would be with a standard !!!! QH. :drinkup
My thoughts as well Rob. I think I would invest in a quality quick connect, and the run what ever buckets I please. All the volvos in my area run quick connects (pin grabber style). Thanks for the link. Do you have a thumb on your machine?
Absolutely, I understand your points. For me, cost is the only factor here. I am a farmer, and this unit is for personal use. I need a second bucket which will work with my coupler without spending a fortune, ya know. Changing my coupler makes my existing bucket useless. So what i should do is search for an old akerman bucket?
Fair comment and I am sorry for assuming that you were a contractor. I have been told many times DONT ASSUME! :Banghead Yes I would look out for an old Akerman bucket as first choice.
And if it was easier to make a buck in this world, we'ld all buy new buckets! Doesn't matter what business you're in, or where, its a lifetime spent just trying to pay the bills! Used to be if you owned a business, you were in good shape. Not anymore!
I have seen buckets converted form volvo to what you call pin grabber type and basically they just made up new ears and welded them to a 13mm plate this plate was in turn welded to the top of the bucket and the ears from the front pin ,I haven't seen a Volvo hitch in about 7 yrs here as most considered them a disaster due to wear and interchangeability no one wants a rogue machine in a fleet .
If cost is an issue, ever thought of ditching the QC, and just using pin-on buckets? I have changed buckets like this many times, and takes no more than 10 minutes. Especially since you are a farmer, and not in high production pipe laying. Then you can invest in a pin grabber in the future.
I agree Watglen's opinion. Bucket is wear-out part,it does not like the electronic product. New one is the best choice.
Go out and buy a bucket you like and then weld on a conversion kit to it, they can be bought as separate pieces or welded up on a plate at the correct measurments. A new conversion kit can be had for about 400€ around here. I'm sure Craigs can sell you one as well. This is the dominating coupler here but is slowly loosing ground the S series coupler system. Noone uses pin on buckets unless it is a big machine that always use the same bucket. Most tracked machines have atleast 2-3 buckets, grapple, hammer, forks and a wheeled exc bring even more with them when they come to a jobsite.
That is a very good suggestion. Too many of us forget the obvious. All you need do is check your pin sizes and width of your dipper. For your sort of operation the pin centres wont matter too much. This way even a bucket fitted with pins ( provided they are not welded in ) will be suitable and as such I would expect more available and cheaper. You could then sell your existing hitch and bucket.
This may be a cheap option in the short term , my experience is that an excavator with out a hitch is a machine that is abused,with a hitch the operator will use the bucket most appropriate to the job in hand ,if you have to use a bucket for 15mins you wont spend 20 min on a bucket change and with a cartridge of grease per change well make up your own mind,to get the best out of your digger bite the bullet and get a grabber hitch or a bucket that fits what you have. IF you put a pin grabber on the machine,down the road it will be more desirable on the resale market for the reason you have standardized it to the attachments readily available and so the replacement digger will fit your existing buckets.There is no short cut or cheap option to this scenario I you plan to keep the excavator make life easier for yourself but ...... think wisely the pin grabber it seems to me is the most popular hitch and may become the industry standard ,no hitch is not an option . Stock
Watglen, Your EC240 would have a Volvo S1 or S2 coupler on it. As already stated, Volvo couplers descend from Akerman and there's thousands if not tens-of-thousands working in North America. Most popular regions are New England (almost all machines have them), Ontario, and some oddball places and applications like Arkansas and on wheeled machines. There should be a ready supply available, you just need contacts. If you're interested please email me your contact info and I'll see if we can help. The S couplers are "dedicated" with a hook and wedge setup, unlike pin-grabbers. Benefits are much lighter weight and less breakout loss when compared to pingrabbers. Cheaper too. Some periodic shimming is required (like most attachments) and they'll last for years in tough applications. The "dedicated" label is incorrect in one way: Dedicated to Volvo yes, but if you have an S1 on an EC240 you can carry the same attachments as an EC210, EC160, EW160, EW180, EW210, ECR235. . . an S3 on an EC330 can carry EC360 and EC460 attachments . . . etc. More flexibility than most pingrabbers, if your fleet is mixed that way. Volvo sells the pin-grabbers now, too, but the S couplers remain more popular.
I understand where you are coming from but I think the important thing to remember is that this is a farm machine not a front line production piece. The original post revolved around the availability of a narrower bucket for some trench work. If the machine is not used on a daily basis doing several different types of excavation/grading/clearing I really see no problem at all with having a couple of pin on buckets although I will admit humping bucket pins for a 25t class machine is not my favourate pass time. As said originally my first choice would be to try and locate an old Akerman bucket, which seeing the other posts does not sound as difficult as I thought it might be. Good luck which ever way you dig