How many buckets equal one yard

[Frank Sorbello]

I have a PT-422 with I believe is the regular dirt bucket. How many of these full buckets is equivalent to one yard?

Thanks
Frank

 

[ernemats]

The small bucket is listed as 5 cu. ft. and the larger light material bucket is listed as 10 cu. ft. There are 27 cu. ft. in a cubic yard so it would take 5.4 small buckets to make a cubic yard

 

[ruffdog]

A 5 gal bucket (pail) is .668 cuft and there are 40.4 of those buckets in a yard.

 

[4570Man]

That’s a tough question to answer since it’s not as simple as the dry volume.

 

[MossRoad]

As mentioned the small rock bucket from PT is 5 cubic feet and the large, light material bucket is 10 cubic feet.

There're 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard.

So a tad less than 3 light material buckets = 1 cubic yard. And a tad less than 6 of the small rock buckets.

 

[CADplans]

Has anyone actually done the math??
There are "level buckets" and "heaped buckets"

A heaped bucket is more common type of measure,, :thumbsup:
few people will jump off the machine,, and strike off the extra material with a 2X4 to get a level bucket,,, :confused2:

 

[cqaigy2]

Has anyone actually done the math??
There are "level buckets" and "heaped buckets"

A heaped bucket is more common type of measure,, :thumbsup:
few people will jump off the machine,, and strike off the extra material with a 2X4 to get a level bucket,,, :confused2:

I think they are moving dirt, but yes, if i were selling gold by the bucket, i'd be right there that 2x4. :laughing:

 

[Big Barn]

I think there are discrepancies between manufacturers of buckets... what I call SOB. Standard. of Buckets.

The stated capacity may be level OR heaped. Unless you have a square bottom bucket it is pretty difficult to measure volume to figure out. If it’s really important to you most likely the “easiest”
way would be to fill one manually with a known one cubic foot container.


On our turf farm we operate a soil mart in conjunction with turf grass sales and as such a good portion of soil sales involve half and one cubic yard orders loaded onto pickups and trailers.





We have one yard and specially build NARROWER half yard buckets (for import size and short box pickup trucks). We ALWAYS HEAP the bucket when loading customers.

 

[ruffdog]

Has anyone actually done the math??
There are "level buckets" and "heaped buckets"

A heaped bucket is more common type of measure,, :thumbsup:
few people will jump off the machine,, and strike off the extra material with a 2X4 to get a level bucket,,, :confused2:

Just as an example, my Bobcat 68" GP bucket has a ISO capacity of 11.6cuft heaped and 8.5cuft struck.

 

[Scrambler82]

What are you doing ?

How important is the information; does it matter if the amounts are off a little or do you need it to the last shovel full ?

Just asking, because this info trail is getting deep !

 

[Big Barn]

What are you doing ?

How important is the information; does it matter if the amounts are off a little or do you need it to the last shovel full ?

Just asking, because this info trail is getting deep !

Plus is the OP digging into undisturbed earth to remove a TIGHT cubic yard? The end product coming OUT of the bucket would be MORE than a cubic yard.

 

[Frank Sorbello]

I have been buying mulch. I have an 18' hydraulic tilt bed with makeshift sides. My first load was half of a big Cat articulated FEL bucket. The loader said I had 6 yards on it. Yesterday, different guy on the FEL, same CAT articulated tractor put a full bucket full of mulch on my trailer and said it was 5 yards. First load of mulch I had 39 of PT422 buckets full. The second load is on the trailer, won't know how many buckets until later in the week when I have time to unload it.

 

[Big Barn]

I would venture to say the FIRST loader operator had no idea how big his bucket was. Would have been a huge azz wheel loader to handle a 12 yard bucket.

If you haven’t unloaded the second load yet, rake it level in your trailer and then MEASURE it. Length x width x height (in feet) divided by 27 will give you the cubic yards.

 

[ruffdog]

A 18' x 7' trailer has 126 sqft area and if the mulch is 1' deep, it would be 4.67 yards.

 

[Oldoak]

I think they are moving dirt, but yes, if i were selling gold by the bucket, i'd be right there that 2x4. :laughing:

I don't think any CUT could lift a bucket full of gold. But I sure wouldn't mind trying.

 

[4570Man]

I don’t think any piece of equipment designed for moving dirt or rocks could lift its bucket full of gold. Gold weighs 1200 pounds per cubic foot and solid rock weighs 150 pounds per cubic foot. Loose rock or dirt weighs less.

 

[Big Barn]

I don't think any CUT could lift a bucket full of gold. But I sure wouldn't mind trying.

I agree. But no point in being greedy. I’d be quite happy with whatever it could lift!

 

[fried1765]

A 5 gal bucket (pail) is .668 cuft and there are 40.4 of those buckets in a yard.

The OP is talking about the size of his PT-422 machine bucket, rather than a 5 gal. pail.

 

[MossRoad]

We're talking about the volume of the empty bucket, not whether the material in the bucket is fluffy, dense, etc...

 

[Big Barn]

The OP is talking about the size of his PT-422 machine bucket, rather than a 5 gal. pail.

Then he would need to see how many 5 gallon buckets it takes to fill his bucket. This is most likely the most foolproof way of determining bucket volume. Rather time consuming though.

It would be best to use a light weight medium to make the job easier.