I have a hay feeder that typically ends up with a heavy, sodden, wet mat of hay, manure, and mud on the ground surrounding it. It is like shoveling cement mixed with molasses if I try to get it up by hand. The ground around it slopes in various directions, so if I use the FEL on the hoe, one side digs in, and the other side is six inches off the ground. This leaves most of the muck in place. Structures around the feeder limit access from other directions that might help the FEL bucket to sit flat. I could 1. Order a 36 inch, scraping bucket without teeth for the back arm, and use that to scrape out the crud, leaving the soil underneath intact. That would probably cost $1500. 2. Create a flat area around the feeder so I can use the FEL bucket to scrape. That would require delivery of some stone dust / sand / gravel to fill the hollow spots. Any other ideas come to mind? Thanks
Get most of it, then cultivate it and plant potatoes. You'll never get it all, it's trod into the dirt already. Actually scraping with the narrow backhoe bucket into a pile, then loading is probably the best possible solution. Just too slow for you?
Unless your hay feeder is way bigger than I am picturing, doing like Delmer says is probably your best bet. Just use the hoe like a rake and pull it into a windrow and then scoop it up with the front bucket. I am often amazed at how heavy the wet hay and manure is around my horses' feeder. There can be no rain for over a month and just a few inches below all that muck, the hay is sopping wet. In general though, you can only grade to what your rear wheels are doing. I run into this all the time with by bobcat, trying to clean out ditches. Some people will build a earthen berm or windrow for one wheel to force the front bucket into an angle. That doesn't seem practical to me, especially for road work where I have gone to considerable effort and money to bring in gravel. They make rotating attachments for skid steers that allow you to angle your blade, similar to a dozer. I've never seen one for a TLB.
It takes some engineering and cash to get your infrastructure right. If you design it to drain and also to fit your equipment, daily chores get really easy. Wait for dry weather and fix it up with your hoe in mind. Remember to consider the wheelbase and overall length of the hoe. Make it flat 18' before you want the bucket to be down and scraping flat, for example.
Guess I'm a flat spot maker. Just did a flat circle on uneven ground for a firepit. When ahead and made it 40ft in diameter for good measure too.
That's the thing about a back hoe, you can use your out riggers to set your back bucket at any angle you want. get a plate made for your bucket. the ones we use are welded to the outside set of teeth. Get a couple extra teeth, and you can swap them out if you need your teeth. That is as long as your outside teeth are not angled out a bit. The plate normally stays on our back hoes as it is rare that it gets into any hard digging.
Emmett I thinks someday you would like a cleanup bucket for that hoe. 36" smooth edge buckets are really nifty and you use that outrigger tilt feature that cuttin edge describes above and you can make nice. Short term an edge like he describes will work.
In spring I use the tines from a grapple on my CTL to rake the muck where we feed round bales. Move it around to dry and burn it before dry times.
A buddy of mine made a 36" flat blade for his backhoe bucket out of a scraper blade. It mounted to the teeth of the bucket. Worked pretty darn good too.
Something to consider is to check for even air pressure in both rear tires. 5 psi difference can make a drastic effect on front bucket.
If you have further use of the smooth edge bucket then that might be viable. At $1500 I think you may have underestimated for current market conditions (your profile pic shows a Deere 310?). If this would be the only real use for the new bucket I would just use the one that you have. Another excellent option (also already mentioned) was to use a section of cutting edge and weld it to a couple of the bucket teeth. I have done this many times and it works well. I would just use a couple of old teeth to weld the cutting edge to. I have the teeth mounted to the bucket when welding. I, however, would not weld it to the outside teeth. They are often installed at an outward angle which makes it so one can't slide the whole thing off without cutting the welds off. I use the (2) teeth that are on both sides of the center tooth (I am assuming that yu are welding to a bucket that has (5) teeth). DO a good job on your welds because they will be tested. As has been mentioned above...The TLB front bucket side-to-side tilt is usually controlled by what they rear tires are on at the moment. Also mentioned above is how the outriggers can be used to level the machine, or use them to tilt the machine to match a particular target angle (only works when using the back hoe). What has not been mentioned is the fact that one can also use the weight of the boom to counter-act a certain amount of tilt. In other words, if your machine is leaning downhill to the right, one can swing the boom to the left, and even boom down, until the weight of the off-set boom counter acts the tilt. If you really want to get aggressive one can even crowd out. Obviously one has to be careful not to go so far as to tip. One must also be aware of hitting objects that are to the side of the machine.
Does AIM make decent buckets?
I have no experience with AIM buckets so I can't offer much on the quality. I would, however, like to say that buckets, or any other ground engaging tool (GET) are simple things and you can never avoid the truth of the fact that you will get what you pay for (as it relates to quality and longevity). I have never found success in buying a "cheap" (or rather less expensive) bucket. This is where the rubber meets the road and I will always go for quality over economy with buckets.
How do you determine what is a cheap bucket? If it’s as thick as the oem, are you safe?
You could try filling your back bucket with some dirt or something for weight and swing the boom to the side you want to cut with the front bucket. It’ll work both to lower one side and raise the other. It takes a little getting used to and you need to keep one arm on the swing lever to make adjustments. Just go slow and steady. Of course, you have to be careful since the backhoe boom is to the side.
Step 1. Move feeder out of the way. Step 2. Use the TLB to scrape down entire area until you can accomplish said task in operable area. Step 3. Replace feeder.
If possible make a flat spot with your tail to start pushing with your bucket. The bucket operates on the same plane as your back wheels. Alternately just gather up the mess with your tail. If the teeth are a complication use them front-back a little but focus on scraping side to side with the flat back of your hoe bucket against the ground. I think others have already said exactly what I just suggested. Every time a customer asks me to do something with the backhoe that is uncomfortable or poorly configured or seems like a dumb pain in the ass, I figure it has to be easier for me to find a way to do it with the machine than for them to do it with a shovel and a wheelbarrow. So, with that in mind, I'm generally able to come up with some way to make it happen. I'm certain you can too.
Another technique is to have the front bucket somewhat full for added weight to help cut hard material. Also, there’s a balance between down-pressure and using the weight of the front of the TLB.