4 in 1 bucket?

[dfkrug]

I'm not sure of your method, but I'll describe it in case it may help: First, you have to be able to close the jaw and curl the bucket at the same time. If your 3rd function is diverted from your curl/dump it will be very difficult if not impossible. Approach your pile. Open the jaw almost all the way and dump the bucket until the dozer blade has it's cutting edge scraping the ground. The blade (back wall of the bucket) should be at or <45 deg angle from the ground, away from the tractor. Start to doze your pile. Once you have it all it front of the blade and collected, start to close your jaw. The jaw blade should contact the ground beyond the opposite side of the pile. If not, dump the bucket more so that it does. When the blade of your jaw contacts the ground, continue to close the jaw as you curl your bucket at a rate that keeps the jaw blade in contact with the ground. If you curl too fast you'll skip over some of your pile, too slow and the jaw will stop closing or dig. Once it's closed, if you've kept the jaw on the ground, everything will be in the bucket.

That's an excellent description, BJCSC. We were discussing this on
another recent thread. The downside of electric diverter hydraulics was
one point made.

I have been practicing this method and it certainly DOES take practice.
I watched a pro do it over and over with his 580 and it sure looked easy.
I am getting better, but my B21 is going up for sale very soon.

CURLY: Good point about dumping the load without using the curl
function. That would be an advantage when loading material into a dump
truck. (Good luck selling your house in Woodside.)

 

[Jason977]

Dreamingreen,

I noticed in your sig that you have both the JD 61" bucket and the Frontier 4in1. Now that you have the 4in1, do you ever see the need for the "regular" bucket? Just wondering, because I'm about to order a tractor, and I'm considering only getting a 4in1, from all the good things I've read about them, and they seem to make a regular bucket obsolete.

 

[DreaminGreen]

Dreamingreen,

I noticed in your sig that you have both the JD 61" bucket and the Frontier 4in1. Now that you have the 4in1, do you ever see the need for the "regular" bucket? Just wondering, because I'm about to order a tractor, and I'm considering only getting a 4in1, from all the good things I've read about them, and they seem to make a regular bucket obsolete.

The dealer was'nt giving me what I thought was a decent price for the regular bucket on a trade to the 4in1 so I kept it. Definetly no "need" at all for the regular bucket. one observation I have made, the 4in1 is made out of thicker matierial and re-enforced much more than I thought it would be. I have used/abused it grubbing out partialy buried large rocks several times and it is standing up very well no bending or warping at all. I can't say enough about how handy and useful the 4in1 is grabbing large rocks, pulling small trees out by the roots. No need to get out and put a chain on something, just drive up clamp it and drive off.

 

[CurlyDave]

...pulling small trees out by the roots...

I have gotten pretty good at this. Even though my bucket will only raise to 10', I have pulled trees up to about 15' high.

Open the bucket and raise it high. Drive up with the bucket in to the side of the tree and just a bit in front of it.

Using one brake and as sharp a turn as you can, you can almost make the tractor rotate around one rear wheel. This lets you push on the tree with the side of the bucket, where it will bend over and spring up between the parts of the open bucket.

Now lower it, moving back to keep the tree upright until you can close the bucket on it a foot or so above ground.

The only problem I have even found was breaking the tree off instead of grasping it with the bucket.

 

[dfkrug]

[
Open the bucket and raise it high. Drive up with the bucket in to the side of the tree and just a bit in front of it.

Using one brake and as sharp a turn as you can, you can almost make the tractor rotate around one rear wheel. This lets you push on the tree with the side of the bucket, where it will bend over and spring up between the parts of the open bucket.

Now lower it, moving back to keep the tree upright until you can close the bucket on it a foot or so above ground.

Sounds like tractor ballet, CURLY. If you post a video, a lot of us would like
to see it in action!