I recently purchased a small 4,000 lb IHI 15NX excavator. It came with a 12" wide Werk-Brau bucket. This bucket is just fine for the general digging I plan to do but I will soon be needing a much wider bucket without teeth somewhere around 30" to do some ditch cleaning. I have searched online for about 2 days now but have not found a single bucket for sale that specifically states that it is compatible with my machine. The 15NX seems to be a fairly common machine so I don't why I can't find a bucket for it. Is there an easy way to tell if a bucket fits my machine? Is there some type of standard bucket mounting patterns or does every machine use a bucket type of its' own? Is there a more common machine that has a bucket compatible with my machine that I can search for? I know I've asked a lot of questions lately but I am very green when it comes to these types of things and could really use the help. Thanks, Jason
Virtually every machine from every manufacturer has different pin-on bucket mounting specs (i.e., stick pin diameter, link pin diameter, bucket width at stick, bucket width at link). They do this on purpose to discourage compatibility & lock you into their machine. Nice, huh!! You can refer to my thread for a listing of many machines & their pin-on bucket mounting specs. Before you get another bucket, you might want to consider getting a quick coupler to make changing buckets easier. For your small machine, you should consider a quick coupler that is very closely mounted so as to not increase the bucket tip radius & thereby reduce your breakout force. Werk-Brau makes such a coupler, called a KLAC. I have one myself. The only downside is that buckets have to be made/ordered to work with it. Pin-on buckets can be modified to work with it. Werk-Brau also sells the mounting plates used in the modification. So, you could order a KLAC for your machine, & a ditch cleaning bucket made to work with it, all from Werk-Brau. And modify your existing trenching bucket to work with the KLAC. But, it's not cheap.... Those with larger excavators, where there is breakout force to spare, usually opt for a pin-grabber style coupler. They offer the advantage of working with standard pin-on buckets & can usually work with a range of buckets with slightly different mounting specs, offering some compatibility & flexibility in bucket selection. Hope this helps...
Thanks for the explenation. That is an awesome idea on the bucket spec list. I checked it out but my machine isn't listed. If I ever do find out the specs for the 15NX I will certainly foward them to you so that they can be added. Thanks again for the info. Jason