What's your thoughts on adding side cutters to mini buckets? Do they help the bucket penetrate better? Help get a fuller bucket? Worth adding to prevent side wear? Or are side cutters only beneficial on larger machines?...:beatsme
It depends what your doing.I like them for grubbing trees & rock out of the ground.I Like a smooth sided bucket when I am laying pipe in a ditch.
Personally, I think a mini is much more likely to be in a situation where you're trying to dig something in tight quarters, and the less there is to snag that gas line or telephone conduit, the better I like it. I don't think they offer enough of an advantage otherwise to make them worthwhile anyway.
I remove the teeth and sidecutters from any bucket which I will regulary use for excavating in sensitive areas. When excavating in rocky ground, digging up concrete or pulling up roots/stumps then teeth/side cutters are a must for allowing you to make progress efficiently and without wearing out your machine. The narrower the bucket the less of a requirement for teeth as the breakout force is concentrated over a smaller area - Its up to your personal requirements though in the end, try it and if it doesn't work you can always bolt the teeth back on!!!!
Now that you mention it, that's another reason I don't like them. It seems I'm always trying to pick up and move something (a slab of concrete sidewalk for instance), that's too large to fit in the bucket. If I can get beneath it, and get it up and balanced on the bucket sides and teeth, I can do with it what I want to. Side cutters make that a whole lot more difficult.
Yup, and you'll never get that big potato in the bucket, either.
That is a disadvantage as well - I try to compress the concrete/slab between the bucket and dipper arm to hold it in place.
Our 334 bobcat buckets came with side cutters on them. They seem to work good. I never thought of taking them off. It also has a hyd thumb and I find the side cutters help get more bite when clamping down with the thumb.
My experience as well... I need help on grubbing out stumps and trees. So in my operation I think they're a plus.
You guys 'accross the pond' seem to love your thumbs, Here in the UK I barely ever see one on a machine at all, especially a mini. When I do see a thumb it is a fixed one usually on a large machine sorting scrap in a recycling facility!! I certainly can see the advantages of one though.
Life without a thumb would be aggravating....:Banghead
Gotta have a thumb.
I obviously don't know what I'm missing!!!!
Depending on your machine size, you might be better off staying blissfully ignorant of the wonderful world of the thumb...$$$$$$$$$:drinkup
Thats what I am telling myself anyway!!
Side cutters are great and aid digging in many ways from trimming along batters to allowing easier passage for the bucket through tight ground and reducing wear. Also here we dig foundations in 200mm,250mm,300mm,350mm,400mm,450mm, and 600mm widths, depending on what the engineer calls for in his wisdom. side cutters allow for the 50mm width increase without buying more buckets.
I have a fixed thumb "there when I bought it" & using this thing in the monutians I hit lot's of roots. I cut 2 plates out of 1/8 inch stuff that just fit the top of the bucket to make it level just to see if it helped in roots and it was great ! . I took it back to the garage tacked it on a little better, ran 2 beads down the cutting edge, hit it with a side grinder and it works real well. Small roots don't even slow it down now & a 301.8 is pretty easy to slow down Course I am sure when the time comes and I get into rock I will be back out there grinding welds loose to remove the addon to the bucket but so far I have been lucky.
ellrod. Have any pictures?
I can take some. I just purchased this thing and just now getting underway making it usable. You want a pix. of the modified bucket ?? I have done very little work so far, little ditching in the roots and playing. Took 2 days to hit the ground after years of a John Deere joy stick ! now when I get on my little John Deere everybody runs out of reach REALLY I will take some tomorrow but I just took a plasma cutter and cut a piece of 1/8 inch steel that fit the top of the bucket and tacked it to it to make it level from the back to front and sharpened the weld I put on the edge.. might not be pretty but works real good. I will try to take a pix. tonight when i get in if it's not to cold... We hit 80 on sunday and it was 28 degree's last night and up to about 35 now and colder tonight !!! This global warming is killing me
ellrod. Your cat may have a valve to switch the controls from cat to deere. I just checked cat web site and its standard equipment on the C model. You may want to look into it so your not all messed up when switching back and forth.
I think the correct terminology is an ISO/SAE changeover valve - may help locate it!!!!
I don't think this one has the ISO/SAE changover valve but I will break the parts book out and look to see where it is located when I get a chance. A cat fellow looked at it few days ago and said he couldn't find it so it might not have one. I will get a picture on the add on to the bucket when I think of it. I was down there today and never crossed my mind till I got back home. All I did was cut a piece of cardboard, laid it up to the bucket on the side, marked it, cut it and drawed the outline on 1/8' steel and cut it out with a plazma cutter, tacked it on and sharpened the top edge. I did take a mig and draw a beed down the cutting edge & sharpened it after I saw it was going to work. The 18' bucket is level now from back to front of the orignal bucket. It added about 2.5 to 3 inches in the center of the bucket where the curve is. I just spotted it to the bucket so if I trash it I can hit it with a grinder and put it back orignal but it is great in small roots & vines. ALSO on the thumb " I love it, I can root out a place on the bank where I am trying to widen or build a road and pick a rock up & place it where I want it. I guess if I were any good on one I could do that anyway huh.. Anyway thanks fellows & have a good weekend, it's time for me to go play Papaw for a while. Bubba
Strott depending on the type of work it might be well worth the money to put a thumb on your machine, I couldn't ever imagine having a machine without a thumb. This might just be the type of work we do, but I would be lost. Country how do you like your new machine? Are you keeping the 442 busy?
Yeah, I may look at getting one which is stationary mounted and removeable e.g. the thumb doesn't move so you clamp items against it using the bucket.
Hey Bill, I'm happy with the 442 (especially with the deal I got), but I'm still trying to work the bugs out. Got it starting a lot better, but now that it's getting warmer out, I'm having trouble with over heating....:Banghead Maybe mine is a Lemon?... It does run smooth and strong (as long as it doesn't get above 60 degrees outside)...
Is that a brand new machine?? - If so it sounds like you have a friday afternoon machine!!
It's an "06 with 200 hours on it....
Country, Have you actually checked to see if it was overheated ,cause my bobcat showed hot right after it was new and was a bad sensor. After rereading your thread i get the imppression that it is heating up and running different. Scott
Yeah, I wish it was a sensor, but it's defiantly getting hot. Bobcat suggests turning down the hydro pump to it's minimum setting to see if that helps.... They think it may be turned up too high and that's over working the engine. We're going to put some gauges on it and see where it's set now. I'm going to take it in later this week.
Do you know why the machine had so few hours on it when you bought it? - could it be that it was traded in due to these faults? If the pump was turned up too high then surely the engine would hunt/struggle when doing the simplest of tasks and the machine would operate faster than others. You'll have to try and run your machine then jump on another 442 and see if it moves slower than yours or if the engine runs faster which could be another cause of overheating.
It was repo'd on "good terms" from a "long time regular customer"... We're going to put a gauge on the pump and see what the pressures are. No other machines to try and this is the only one I've ever run.
Hope you get it sorted. Is it costing you a lot in lost productivity on jobs?
I babied it through the 1st job. Luckily this work is only on the side for me. If I was making my living with it, I wouldn't be so laid back and easy to get a long with at the dealer....
Dang country I feel your pain only not as bad my machines not as new but still it hurts to buy a machine then have to turn around and work on it. Strott if your machine already has the aux hydraulics plumbed in theres no point in building a stationary thumb it'll just end up being a hassle if your not using it exclusively. Otherwise no matter how small a machine I think a hydraulic thumb is a must my newest machine don't have one but I'm gonna build me one just as soon as I get a chance and once you use it you'll wonder why it took so long
Yeah my machine has auxilary lines plumbed up to the dipper arm so powering a hydraulic thumb isn't a problem - just not sure that I would want all the extra weight of another ram and thumb on the front end, however I could make it all removeable so it can go when not required.