I have work with a lot of old school guys, but this is a first. We have older Cat 980s they have large like 40lbs. a link chains on each side that are welded to top inside of the bucket and hang down to the cutting edge with a 6"x10" steel plate welded at the end. I always figured they where for lifting something, but I asked one of the bigwigs and he told me they keep the bucket clean from dirt build up. They don't really work though, they just scare the sh*t out of me when I'm loading trucks making me think I hit something with them banging around. Anyone else seen this?
I operated a 980B feeding crusher that had chains in the bucket like you're talking about. A royal pain for sure, they would break off and end up tangled in the crusher. Never worked worth a damn.