Looking for some thoughts on what folks here might consider the ideal sizes for a general purpose digging bucket and a finishing/ditching/clean-up bucket for a 3.5 metric ton machine. If it makes any difference, I happen to own a 2004 Yanmar VIO35-3 with the hydraulic coupler. It can take a 35mm, 1.5" or 40mm pins. It's used mostly for residential excavation and grading work... with a fair amount of stump pulling and large rock removals to contend with. I am leaning toward going with Caterpillar buckets since they are readily available in my area... in which case the 20" digging bucket (made to fit a CAT 303/303.5 mini-ex) looks pretty good to me. It is price competitve with the TAG buckets now standard in the USA on Yanmars. I can also put my hands on a new 18" TAG digging bucket locally if that makes more sense. I plan to add a pin mount-type hydraulic thumb of my own design sometime in the future. The store-bought ones are just too expensive. On the finishing/ditching/clean-up side, I have the following options: 30" TAG bucket, 36" TAG bucket (expensive) or a 40" CAT bucket. The CAT bucket comes with a backside cutting edge. The TAGs do not. For now, I don't intend to get a tilting system... just too expensive. The CAT bucket seems very nice, but I am concerned that it may be a little too wide and possibly too light-duty for my machine. It is only available in 40". The 36" TAG bucket is very heavy-duty and seems perfect, but it is quite costly and not exactly local. The 30" TAG bucket, also very heavy-duty, just doesn't appear to be wide enough for effective use as a finishing bucket. Any and all thoughts & input on this greatly appreciated! Thanks! Dougster™ :usa
My understanding, for what is worth ( not a lot ). Generally on the size machine you have, buckets are graded by the pin size. Beyond that it comes down to what you are doing with it. Rather like with loading shovel buckets. The machine might be rated from 1cu.m > 3.25 cu m. bucket. You wouldn't use the big bucket if you were digging a dirt face, and you would want the biggest you could get if you were loading wood chips. The same applies to your operation. If you are grading rather than digging use the widest shallowest bucket you can get, if you have to dig and grade eg topsoil out of a truck and grade it you might be better with a slightly narrow bucket due to penertration and tip over limits. Bear in mind the wider it is the more prone to twisting, whos using it ? I'm afraid it comes down to personal choice, cost, availability, safety, productivity, and a large portion of common sense/experience related to the planned operation. Hope this helps. :drinkup
Dougster, Welcome to the Heavy Equipment Forums. I have the Vio 27-3 and tun the following: 12" w teeth 18" w teeth 16" gummy (no teeth) 24" gummy 40" gummy 40" rake/trash bucket. The 40" sand bucket we have gets a lot of use. It is rated for the 27 & 35 machines. Mine is very heavily constructed for a 3 tonne class machine but would be ideal on the 35 which is actually over 3,700 kgs as it sits. The 40" is excellent for cleanup and we dig retaining wall footers with it regular when the skid can't get in. I have had good luck with Cat buckets in the past but all my current ones are made by local manufacturer's (down under). The guy who actually ordered what became my 27-3 ended up getting a 35-3. I used it recently to pull some stumps...it has some of the best breakout I have come across for that size mini...the are a great little machine to operate. This is the only pic I have of my 40" bucket
Thanks Rob - Part of the problem is that my other machine is a compact TLB... and I've been spoiled by the luxury of having different dirtworking buckets on both ends of the machine. There is little I couldn't do with a very excellent deep-but-narrow toothed digging bucket on the backhoe end and my choice of four quick attach buckets of various sizes and shapes on the loader end. But the addition of the mini-ex to my stable was inevitable for tight access work, long reach work, work on slopes, deeper digging and a little more rock and stump "popping" power. The problem is that I can't be carting two digging machines to every job and so I must strive to make the mini-ex as versatile as possible. I was disappointed to find that most digging buckets for 3.5 ton machines are somewhat shallow and low in capacity as compared to my backhoe bucket. This poses a problem: To get the capacity I want and need for efficient everyday digging means going to a wider digging bucket than I am used to... but then that will mean a more difficult time with rocks and stumps. Hence my request for advice in this regard. What is the optimum??? My readily available choices are 18" TAG, 20" CAT or 24" CAT. The 24" would obviously be better for general digging, the 18" would be terribly slow for digging but great for rocks and stumps. The 20" is a compromise... but not really great on either count. The finishing bucket choices pose a different problem. The 40" CAT bucket just seems too wide for my machine. I worry about the possibility of overstressing the quick coupler. It's also a bit shallow and delicate looking... and I am confused about the usefulness (or lack thereof) of the rear cutting edge. The TAG 36" seems better but it is very costly. The TAG 30" just seems too narrow. Maybe I need to keep looking for a 36" that won't break the bank. Dougster™ :usa
Holy Cow!!! Six buckets!!! Mama Mia!!! You folks must be awfully rich way down under!!! Thanks very much for the pix and input... VERY interesting! Your machine looks like it is in great shape too! How do you keep it so clean??? Up here, Yanmar now uses TAG buckets exclusively. No more Yanmar-made buckets. I'd be interested to hear what brand they use down under. CAT buckets are most readily available around where I live. I can get all I want (or can afford) in one day. Getting any other brand is a struggle and a 3-4 week wait. Sounds like you have no trouble at all handling a 40" bucket. Maybe I should go with the 40" CAT finishing bucket after all. :drinkup Dougster™ :usa
Some of my buckets are from Salmon Buckets Australia but their website is currently offline. The 40" is from OZ Buckets http://www.ozbuckets.com.au/ and look very similar to some I have seen on US sites. My 16" and 24" sand buckets are custom built by a local guy with a small workshop....he's better known as Bob (The Bucket) the Builder or "Sludge" if your on a first name basis. The Yanmar was near new in those pics...but she gets the pressure clean fortnightly....well thats the plan anyway. The 24" gummy is on the machine in this thread: and the rake bucket in this thread:
Thanks Squizzy! :drinkup Great pix!!! You really do get the most out of that little machine!!! :notworthy No way I could ever financially justify having all those buckets for my work... but I can see where you need a variety. Maybe I do too... perhaps 3 new buckets instead of 2 (not including my old beat-up "backup" bucket). But then, of course, I've got to cart around one more 200+ lb bucket! Believe it or not, these Yanmar mini-ex machines are far supported better down under than they are up here in the states. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is. I'm betting you have better access to buckets and other attachments as well. I need to order my replacement parts through a helpful dealer 1,500 miles away because the local dealers are so poor. I almost had to send an order down to Australia for a couple things that no one had or could get up here. I eventually found & made some substitute parts. Buckets are a big problem too... hence having to turn to the CAT dealer and 303/303.5 buckets for the best availability and selection. Thanks again for the pix and help! :drinkup Dougster™ :usa
Dougster, I am informed that the Hitachi and Yanmar mini machines are produced in the same factory, which doesn't necassarily mean they are identical. Certainly the 35's have the same Yanmar engine although the sticks are different. Something to keep in mind if you have a Hitachi dealer close by:beatsme
Yeah, I actually went "bucket shopping" at the local Hitachi excavator dealership recently... only to find that Hitachi uses a completely different bucket attachment system than Yanmar. There may be lots of common parts between them... but buckets sure weren't in that category. :beatsme Dougster™ :usa
In my opinion cat buckets are weak. On my deere 35 I have 12" 24" and 42" clean up. The 24 is great for any digging and the 42 is wide enough to scratch lots out and load material. They are all cp buckets and Q/A and while the coupler is a bit sloppy it and the buckets are pretty heavy duty.
Well, I wouldn't exactly call them "weak", but it's true that there are stronger ones out there. Some of the American premium brand names blow away the CAT mini-ex buckets, especially with their " extra heavy-duty " series. But they also cost as much as 50-60% more than the CATs and can be very hard to obtain in my area. They are also all "special order" and that means huge single-unit shipping costs too. CAT apparently did have a weakness problem with the bolt-on teeth on recent production 303/303.5 buckets. They have now all been replaced with welded/pinned teeth in my area. Also, I personally inspected well over a dozen used and rental 303/303.5 machines to see how their CAT buckets were holding up. The plain fact was that they were all holding up very well. They were certainly holding up a lot better than the Yanmar OEM bucket on my VIO35-3. Yes, there are stronger buckets out there... but none I'm aware of that I can put my hands on quickly and at a fair, affordable price. Sometimes it's a good thing to go with what's available, plentiful and well-supported in your area even if it's not the absolute best. :beatsme Dougster™ :usa
Thanks for the input. That manufacturer you mention is exactly 3,051 miles away from me. Looks like really good stuff, but every price I've ever gotten on a left coast-manufactured product has been killed dead by insane shopping costs to cross the country. Here is Taxachusetts we don't have any manufacturers like that. I wish we did. The sky high cost of doing business here in the liberal Utopia has driven them all out. Nearest bucket folks to us are in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Even their one-piece shipping costs are staggering. The bottom line: In this crazy world of $5 diesel fuel and insane shipping costs, sometimes you just have to take what you can get. :beatsme Dougster™ :usa
Correction... I've now been told that I may have been misinformed on this point. I'm now being told that it was CAT's "top pin" teeth for the 303/303.5 buckets that were failing prematurely on these buckets. Now I don't know which story is true. :beatsme All I know for sure is that new production CAT 303/303.5 machines are now coming through with "side pin" teeth on their buckets as standard equipment. Dougster™ :usa
And I did. Picked up two CAT buckets yesterday afternoon: a 20" digging bucket and the 40" cleaning/ditching/finishing bucket. Ended up with a much better deal than expected on a brand new "take-off" bucket (the 20" digger) and a "slightly used" one (the 40" ditching bucket). For now, I am in business! Only thing left to consider: the possible future need for a 12" (or 18"?) trenching/stumping bucket. Dougster™ :usa
Hi, I noticed on a post that you have / had a JD 35 with a 42" cleanout bucket. I am thinking of getting a cleanout and considering a 48" or 42". Will the 48" be too big / heavy for my JD 35C? Thanks, John
JD 35C cleanout bucket size humboldt deere, I noticed on a post that you have / had a JD 35 with a 42" cleanout bucket. I am thinking of getting a cleanout and considering a 48" or 42". Will the 48" be too big / heavy for my JD 35C? Thanks, John
Dougster I would suggest looking into a used Bobcat excavator buckets , they have two lines general duty and severe duty. I have a 36" clean up and a 24" severe duty for my skidsteer hoe , the 24" is built strong enough to be on a 5 ton machine no problem and it deep enough to hold 3.4 cu ft heaped.
A 48" should be fine generally speaking, however in some circumstances (such as lifting heavy material, heaped high in the bucket, over the side of the machine) you may have to be careful. I have a 900mm (36") cleanout bucket on my 1.6 tonne machine and it is a little bit tippy in some circumstances.
This thread is over 2 years old now and I went with the CAT buckets (see post No. 14 above) back in June of 2008. They have worked out very well as far as I am concerned, although I will still concede that some other brands do appear to be stronger. The only other bucket I have added since then is a 12" trencher purchased from USA Attachments. I am very pleased with the USA Attachments bucket and several other things I have purchased from them. They are good people. If memory serves me right, I don't think the Bobcat buckets would have fit my Yanmar... although things may have changed since my last bucket shopping experience. Dougster™ :usa