There is a brand of bucket for my cat 320 called “Toft”. They sell alot of different buckets. Any experience? Any reviews? Will they bend under pressure? Waste of time and money to buy one?
Anyone????
Chinese made?
Yes. Chinese.
Nobody uses chinese buckets???
What are those square blocks between the teeth ?
Wear plates
I understand what they are, I am asking why. Ussually you see a cutting edge there, very sharp edge.
Well I don't. I've been to China twice and had a peak into their manufacturing process which pretty much solidify my decision not to buy anything Chinese if I can help it. Saw a complete D6 high track knock off at a trade show. Terrible workmanship and total rip-off. The Marlboro's and Coke aren't real either in China. I'd rather pay twice as much for a Cat bucket. Have a 42" Cat bucket on our 321DL that has 8K plus hours on it and it's just now needing a cutting edge. We've added wear plates over the years to the bottom but the bucket is in structurally great shape.
That thing will be very hard to do anything with in tough clay or packed gravel. Square edges are not conducive to digging. What quality of steel. The kind that makes Them the most money. Simon C
If you took the square wear plates off, it would be a little sharper. This is for a farm excavator. Not a work everyday excavator.
You have no way of knowing what kind of steel they have used. Yes sharpened square blocks would dig better, but bucket may dig in more and crack once torqued. As CM 1995 stated! Simon C
Digging is digging.
I bought it for $3300 delivered. I needed a bucket asap. We will see!!!! I may have thrown my money in the china hole… maybe not…
I never had any doubts.....
Probably can't go wrong for that price. Let us know how it holds up. We're in business to move dirt and tear things up so I'm always looking at the production side of things.
We bought 2 bucket very similar to that one. One for a 349 and one for a 336. Both cracked the frogs. Talking to are local bucket builder said material is good they just over welded teeth shanks completely and put all stress into the frog. Would rip frost with a ripper then just chop up in between truck
Sorry. What are the frogs?
The part that the cutting edge is bolted to or teeth shanks are welded to
It is actually the beveled base edge. Excavator buckets of this size 99% of the time never have cutting edges bolted/welded half arrow in between the adapters. Those are very blunt lip shrouds which protect the base edge from getting scalloped out. I agree with the ad about HD spec - heel shrouds on the outside, pin-on side bar cutters, liner installed inside the bucket and lip shrouds - while it may look HD I would be very curious to see how it holds up in an HD environment….The idea is to protect all the parent metal including the base edge to give the longest life and lowest cost per hour (by using replaceable/sacrificial wear metal) AKA the base edge.
I have been using Swedish “half arrow” for a number of years now. Between teeth, and welded on cleanup buckets as cutting edge and as full length side cutters. I get it locally for a fair price from a supplier that stocks teeth/wearbars etc for some large local hard rock mines (Highland valley copper etc). The key is: Swedish steel is very high quality, takes arctec 223 rods very nicely (similar to 7018). About 10 years ago we started to see SEC buckets here; looked great (good thickness of metals etc)…but ripped apart like butter! On a side note an acquaintance acquired some “nice looking “Komatsu” excavators from China, turned out the complete machine was a counterfeit. Looked really good from 100’ away. Buyer beware….. But…. I am out of date, there may be some good Chinese buckets now! Good luck.
Our 210 came with 3 really nice Destec buckets. (Made in Kamloops,BC). I never use the “vee” bucket so just for interest I asked the manufacturer for a quote on a 66”-22” vee bucket. The price was $7800 5 years ago! So buckets certainly are not inexpensive. But the 66” cleanup & 34” dig from the same manufacturer have been shown over the last 8 years to be of very high quality indeed!
It looks like it would do some digging, that’s for sure. For what you paid, that’s a awesome deal, as long as you don’t try and work it too hard.
One issue may be getting replacement teeth a pins. I'm not sure I'd worry about replacing the wear plates between the the teeth on a 320 size machine.
The base edge bar thickness is 1-1/4” steel plate. Then the red wear plates are 2” thick. I was going to take the red wear plates off but they are welded on not bolted.
The teeth have part numbers on them. They look like komatsu teeth.
I've never heard of the term either.
I don't know if they're exactly the same but my boss picked up a couple about like that for our 320s and 538 road builders (a beefed up 320) a year or two ago. They seem to be okay. The top front is slightly arched up and looks like it got bent slightly trying to break out something tough. I didn't see them when they were brand new so I don't know if they're actually bent or made that way. They dig stumps and rock and handle boulders and logs.
The frog is the permanent part welded to the bucket that the tooth mounts atop. I have no idea where the name comes from, but the 'frog' is always the part that supports the cutting edge or tooth. searching a bit, I found this link which lists: frog noun a thing used to hold or fasten something, in particular • an ornamental coat fastener or braid consisting of a spindle-shaped button and a loop through which it passes. • an attachment to a belt for holding a sword, bayonet, or similar weapon. • a perforated or spiked device for holding the stems of flowers in an arrangement. • the piece into which the hair is fitted at the lower end of the bow of a stringed instrument. • a grooved metal plate for guiding the wheels of a railroad vehicle at an intersection. ORIGIN early 18th cent.: perhaps a use of frog 1 , influenced by synonymous Italian forchetta or French fourchette ‘small fork,’ because of the shape.
Wait, I thought it was also a slur or derogatory name for my ancestors?
Frog is also an old term used for the forged switch points on Rail Road track.
Must be a regional term. The term "frog" is not used here.
That was what it was called in Northern Ontario when I worked at the railway. Simon C
Re: my earlier comments. We cut the ears off this one and the rest will go back to China. I don't know the details on how it happened but I've never seen it before on any other of our other buckets.
Ouch!
Steel looks the same to look at plate, but big difference from mild steel to T1 or Hard-OX. They sell for maximum profit. Simon C
I have seen those SEC buckets at RB auction with fresh paint hiding horrible welds. No wonder there is always a bunch for sale....
Chinese bucket #2. Also, without a straight edge it's hard to tell for sure but it looks to me like the top is arched up just a little.
okay, this begs the question: Do they only export the garbage buckets? I mean, they have excavators there in China too - don't they get pissed about expensive buckets failing like this? So... do they keep the good stuff and export the crap?
They do, when you have American Purchasing agents demanding lower and lower prices. "You want cheap, we give you cheap"
At least in my experience no. I've been to China twice and the majority of the equipment working looked like it should either be in a bone yard or insurance claim holding pen. Absolute raggedy assed equipment working everywhere. This is just the quality they make. They have a different business model and acumen than we in the West. It just is what it is. Of course just my short experiences there with a healthy dose of opinion so take it with a grain of salt.
We sold some mining claims last fall. The new owner of our claims had some pretty nice looking ‘Komatsu’ 135’s (I think…) excavators with blades in his yard. I said..”those look pretty nice” and he said that he was worried about any hard digging as felt the booms/sticks may become compromised! (Let alone the cheap buckets) He called them “counterfeits”; and was fairly upset… Without giving details they had come in via Vancouver, BC…. I have no personal experience with these machines, but when I expressed an interest in a possible purchase he basically declined and to his credit gave me this backstory. I always thought the standard 36” Dig buckets on our Hitachi’s looked a bit “scant” on metal…but turned out those factory buckets were of high quality steel. No deformation/damage in all the years we used them.
Not surprised at all with a fake Kommie excavator making it over to NA. When I went to China everything was fake. Fake Coke, Marlboro's, Johnny Walker - you name it and it was fake. Got a few Rolex's in a box somewhere in the attic..
Looks like the bucket did a bit of digging though.
Looks like the top is buckling already. Looks like tooth shank blew out. Not worth even fixing unless you have lots of time. If frame is inadequate, nothing else will work. Simon C
Just remember the line in the song "You can anything you want at Alice's restaurant..." when looking at these made in China items.
How has the bucket held up ? I'm also thinking about trying one for my 330
I have been very impressed with it.