I currently run a toothed bucket. I have a hard time keeping the bucket from diving when I'm cutting the topsoil off. Would a serrated edge help stop the diving? Would it help cut the grass off cleaner as well? Thoughts, experiences, opinions, welcomed. TIA
That’s the enigma with a toothed bucket. As much as I love mine, for striping topsoil that has grass, I want a bucket as sharp as possible. The scalloped edges are only good if sharp and in my opinion, not worth crap.
Do you have a bolt on recommendation for removing topsoil?
I ran Rezloh edges on almost all my CTL buckets. No complaints. Been using them since '08ish. They are pricey, but they were definitely worth it.
Basically you need to clear an area to the right depth. Then set the tooth bucket level at that depth. Drive forward a few feet leaving the bucket level. You will only be able to pick up a load the width of the bucket, and the depth of your set bucket . Don't spin the wheels or the tracks. You will only be able to get like quarter full bucket loads so like 6' wide x 3' deep x 6" tall. What make and model of machine? Track machines will do this better than wheeled machine. Also more powerful machines will do this better.
I've got a cat 246d, but I have over the tire tracks. It does a good job getting a bucket full it's just hard to gage the tilt of the bucket when I can't see a tooth. Mostly on the 1st pass. Sometimes I can cut a sheet of topsoil that hits the door and other times it takes a nose dive and I gouge out a huge chunk. Trying to find something to keep me more consistent.
What is the best use for a serrated edge? Where do they shine?
We did municipal sewer projects. Miles of traversing yards, driveways, streets, etc. Nose down did a nice fluff/ groom on yards. Flat/ not inclined, did a decent job at road scraping, and it cut the top grass/ dirt off yards cleanly. Straight edge buckets did a little better at road scraping. Tooth bars did better at excavation. Nose diving while cutting the top off a yard is more of a bucket fitment issue. The placement of the tach frame vs the bucket back makes a big difference. Park your machine tracks on some 2x4s. Set the bucket level. How much lower than the tracks is the bucket bottom? Best yard shaving is done when the boom is fully down.
I find as long as my lift arms are against their stops, this works a lot better than floating.
I think a lot of this depends on whether the soil is soft or hard. If the ground is super hard, you will need to use a tooth bucket tilted down a bit and wiggled up and down a bit as you move forward. I think it's best to go slowly, watch carefully the front and sides of the bucket, then pick up just a couple of feet of soil, then lift the bucket and shake it back into the bucket, then get a bit more. Just putting the bucket into the soil and driving hard forward until the bucket is fully loaded is going to be messy. If you dig a bit too deep, just spill a bit of your load out over the deep section and put the bucket down flat with the tip of the bucket down a hair more and float the bucket as you move backyard.
I ran into an issue cutting a swale where I was needing about an inch more cut and the ground was hard. It took awhile to shave it down enough without getting too aggressive with the tooth bucket. I think the serrated edge may have been great in this situation. I'm starting to have more of a need for micro cuts and I think this may be the better option especially at the end of building a pad where I'm trying to get it perfectly level.
After having a toothed bucket, I won’t ever have a tooth bar again. It’s just so easy to switch between buckets. I wish my straight bucket was wide enough to fit my toothed bucket, for transportation purposes.
This is important and may be some of the cause of your difficulties, regardless of the type of cutting edge or teeth your are using. By adding the over the tire tracks you've thrown the geometry of the machine off, my guess is it's riding a good 1-2" higher than it was meant to. As a result, in order to cut 'flat' your bucket must be angled down slightly, which will cause it to dive in soft or inconsistent materials. Cheap 'universal' aftermarket buckets can also be a source of this problem. When setup properly, sitting on a flat concrete floor, a skid steer or CTL should have the boom down against the stops and the bucket be sitting dead level/flat on the floor.
The skid steer had boom rest extensions that I removed. It sits flush with the floor. That was one of my concerns in purchasing a wheel machine and putting tracks was that the bucket angle would be off but luckily I was able to make it flush. It's a cat bucket too.