As you can see by my # of posts, I'm new here but have been reading and have learned a lot from your discussions. I've run a home made little backhoe for some 20 years, and now upgraded to a little 6 ton miniexcavator. When I put on a new set of teeth on the bucket, a friend who has run a 580 backhoe most of his life told me that this was a sign of an amateur... because I installed the teeth so the flat of the tooth was flat to the ground (parallel to the bottom of the bucket). He said to flip the tooth over.... so that the bucket can dig in properly. Is there something here that I'm missing? I never tried them in the other orientation. They seem to be working just fine the way they are. Suggestions?
It's okay to install the teeth with the "pocket" facing up. I will change the tooth orientation according to the ground conditions.
Some guys swear by the pocket side facing up, they say it digs better in hard ground. Some will swear by the pocket down so they can grade the bottom of a trench easier in sandy soil. Around here in SW Ontario probably 70% of the guys tend to dig with spade teeth only so doesn't matter what way they are on. The only use for the regular teeth are if they do winter watermain breaks. Even then some swear by a single frost point to break the frozen ground then they switch to the bucket with spade teeth.
Run em the way YOU want to & dont worry about your "expert" friends.
Always looking to learn something, so I thought maybe I was missing something. This is a "mini excavator", (bucket is only 24" across) When I got the excavator home the bucket was in pretty rough shape, so I welded in new sides and added a little Stoody hard surfacing in places. I also built up the area between the frogs and slipped on new teeth. Plan to replace the bottom this winter. Seems to dig just fine with no drag on the bottom of the bucket when cutting, so I guess as zaxis suggested, I will leave the orientation as is.
Here is a photo.
Errol, Run em the way you think they run best! We sell thousands of teeth, each month, and when asked this question, we tell the customer to install them opposite of what you have them shown. I think that the theory here (at least with the bucket manufacturers) is that the tooth point should cut into the earth and create clearance for the floor of the bucket, thus allowing you to take maximum advantage of the machine breakout force. It makes no difference for a asymetrical tooth, as their orientaion is the same either way.
I have some questions, and I'm not an excavator operator, I guess this is questions more toward the "expert friends" that Zaxis referred to. First of all, as equippartsdir said, we're not talking about an asymetrical tooth, a tooth that is the same in either installation. We're talking about a tooth, that, installed one way, it points downward from the cutting edge, leading lower than the bucket bottom. In the opposite installation, the bottom edge of the tooth is more parallel to the bottom of the bucket. OK, lets operate the bucket and dig earth. If we hold the bottom of the bucket, say from 20 degrees to 90 degrees of the earth being dug, does it matter which way the tooth is installed? I don't see how it matters, because at these angles, the tooth is doing the breakout work regardless of which way it's installed. So, in theory, the only time the installation orientation would matter would be when the bottom of the bucket is horizontal. In this case, if the tooth was pointing down, it would bite dirt the earth below the bottom of the bucket. In the other orientation, it would bite the earth even with the bottom of the bucket. Is there enough difference here to make a big difference? I ask because I don't know. But, it seems to me there's no real advantage to have the tooth biting below the bottom of the bucket for this reason; if I need to "dig", I'll tilt the bucket in the 20 - 90 degree range and let the teeth dig. But if I need a smooth trench bottom, I'll flatten the bucket out and pull with the teeth and bucket bottom near horizontal. It seems to me that having the tooth pointing down would be a detriment for "finish grading" applications. And I don't think I would want to have to constantly switch the teeth between "dig" and "finish grade" position, when all I have to do is "roll" or "flatten" the bucket to achieve these two digging applications.
bucket tooth orientation: That's the way I see it too... and I've used them booth ways. OCR
One application where we used put the teeth facing down is when excavating with a crawler loader. You can keep the front bucket "flat" for easier grading yet the teeth will scratch below the level of the bucket floor and help "peel" dirt up and into the bucket as go move forward until the bucket is full. On a front end wheel loader you would put the teeth facing up to leave a clean sweep behind the bucket. Also, wheel loaders usually push into a pile or bench. On a backhoe or excavator you have much more geometry to control what angle the teeth work at. You also usually pull trough trench or against a bench to help "heap" the bucket.
Fangs Looks like a hitachi bucket mate. I remember reading somewhere ( might have been a john deere page on the net ) that the less distance between the tip of the bucket tooth and the bucket pin the greater the breakout force. My hitachi buckets have the teeth slightly pointing up and I can cut to grade a lot quicker and easier with them than with my aftermarket buckets which have the teeth pointing downward making them pull in and take too much. Just my two bob mate
The teeth shown in the photo have 65 hours on them and they are wearing evenly. Atcoequip really explained it perfectly, kind of what I had in my brain, but couldn't put it into words. That's why my expert friend had me going. I thought I was missing something. I change the angle of the bucket to either dig or grade. I am also doing a bit of stumping work where I go by "feel" to catch perimeter roots. I didn't want to flip the teeth over unless I knew what the difference would be. So now I will just leave them as is and keep on digging. Thank you for your feedback.
i always thought that the teeth..as pictured..are correctly installed..as you dig the teeth penetrate and "peel" the ground as they penetratr..also having the "flat" of the teeth in that posistion offers more strength to the teeth in that it is pulling against more meat..