Is it unreasonable of me to want a picture of the actual bucket they want to sell me ?? To want to know the thickness of the attaching ears ? How long should I wait for a response from the manufacturer ( through a dealer) ?? I'm a pretty easy-going person but I don't feel like throwing down $2 grand and waiting to see what they send.... One company says that thier model for an 8 ton ex has a "side wear strip"... Thier drawings for a different model have "heel plates" which I want > are those the same things that they have Two names for ??? This is making me crazy ! I wrote to 3 more manufacturers over the weekend. All American made/assembled....hope they can do better.
If they can’t send you a picture or at least an accurate print/drawing there is no way I would trust what steel they are going to use. These days that should all be a pdf CAD file they can email you.
What are you putting it on?
My Cat 307. About the same size as a bucket for a 580K. I have a 28" bucket that is not original. Can't find a 28" bucket so I'm looking at 30" but thinking about springing for a custom bucket cause I don't really want or need it wider. Sure seems like someone put the worst bucket and tracks from thier fleet on this machine before they sold it. It also had a crushed door .
It may be easier to have it rebuilt to your specs.
But the bucket I have isn't even a good match. One of the 'shims' is 5/8" thick ??? The corners are worn Very thin and the sides dented. You can see the form of the ear plates from the inside. Does it sound like something you would rebuild ? It was worn when I got it and I mess around with rocks quite a lot...building rock walls and sorting them out of the dirt.
Heavens...... That one sounds in pretty good shape. I have rebuilt them already with the bottom completely torn out of them for quite a bit less than new.
I'm not the man to give advice. I've rebuilt buckets unrecognizable. For me, buying used buckets only starts a rebuild. You won't often find a near new bucket for sale. The market offers new, or trashed. I've got a 12" for the 580K I drove 200 mile round trip to buy a near unused bucket. I probably have 25 hours, $400.00 in the rebuild.
Willie B- you have pretty much shown why I'm shopping for New. At $60/hour, you have $1900 invested in that bucket. I can buy a New bucket to Fit for $1200 - $1900. I just can't get anyone to tell me much more than the price.
Try the guys at North American attachments. :// www.na-attachments.com Very good guys to deal with and make a quality product. I have gotten 3-4 things from them over the years. They even made me a attachment of my design. Always found there pricing fair.
Most dealers barely understand the equipment they sell they have no idea about attachments When I rebuild a bucket it would cost close to 3 grand to buy one how I fix them I also look at bucket repair as what it is never ending so yea buy a new one sure but in about 800 hours it going to need attention I have buckets with good onlys how many hours on them we just keep fixing them in reality my time is cheap only because I am tight but a good half a Saturday is good for 6 months
I got a price on a custom bucket made about 150 miles from where I live. It is AR450 ( Hardox). Cost more than twice as much as the others but I can expect support and quality and I'm leaning that way. I've been cheap by nessessity my whole life. At 67 years old, I don't want to go on another bucket hunt. I never bought much of anything new; not cars/trucks, not even clothes except socks ( made in Vermont) ....but I sold a house I owned for 40 years and I want some good stuff. I'm sick of chinese stuff. If people don't buy quality American made products then those products won't be there to choose in the future. https://www.wimmerna.com/hardox-450/
Well at your age your likely never to wear it out so for 3500 hundred bucks you wont have to think about it again