bolt on vs weld on bucket teeth

[lively1]

I'm in the process of making a bolt on tooth bar for my loader. I think it was mentioned before the increased strength given to the loader bucket with the bolt-on toothbar. I am using a old cutting edge from a larger loader as my bar and then welding my adaptors on to that. I hope that it will give the loader bucket some extra strength.

My two cents would be keeping your options open and put a bolt-on toothbar on... that way if you have an application where you cannot have a toothbar on during use you could ...uhmmm.... just take it off. Why limit your options when you can have equal performance with a bolt-on.

 

[MarkV]

Why limit your options when you can have equal performance with a bolt-on.

Not sure I can agree that you get equal performance out of both systems. With the bolt on tooth bar the teeth, at least mine, hook over the cutting edge of the bucket for support. This leaves the teeth below the cutting edge and pretty much you lose the ability to finish grade with the large flat surface on the bottom of the bucket. You could remove the tooth bar to grade, though I find the digging and grading process often is going on at the same time. Just depends on your needs.

Another alternative are teeth whose base bolts to the cutting edge of the bucket and the teeth are roll pinned to the base. Check out a Bob Cat skid steer bucket, this is the system they use on many of them. The teeth and base can be removed by removing 2 bolts on the base per tooth. I think on a compact tractor you would have to add a heavy cutting edge to use that system.

MarkV

 

[Maine_Polack]

it seems we have 2 camps

those that take there tooth bars off for snow removal.

and those that THOUGHt they would take them off, but havnt touched the bolts in a number of years. as well as those with welded on teeth with little/no regrets."




Gee...I must be camping alone Mother always said that I was different than the rest of the boys....

I am lucky enough to have 2 buckets. Large one with plain edge, and a 5 footer that I have made into a dedicated digger.

The digger did have a bolt on tooth bar. As seen in the picture, "stuff" would get wedged under the bar pretty badly. So I welded it on. Try as I might, I cannot break that little bucket.

 

[moeh1]

I too have the bolt on version I made. It comes off in 2-3 minutes flat, nicer than having the teeth sticking out all the time and very important to be able to remove now that I am trying to fab a clamp-on snow plow attachment.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Another consideration for the bolt on toothbar is the bar itself adds rigidity and strength to your existing bucket lip. I know I would have bent my bucket with some of the boulders I dug and popped up.

I've used my bucket for a lot of general cleaning up of a property I bought and got it into more things than I care to remember. I can't imagine how much damage I would have done to my bucket without my toothBAR there to reinforce it.

On the flip side, for me, it's awfully nice to be able to take the toothbar off in the winter when I need to scrape up snow from pavement. If I need to move a pile when there's a warm up and it's hardened, the toothbar goes back on.

I'll mention a couple things to consider if you're going to get a toothbar and not leave it on all the time in regard to the bolts you use to attach your toothbar to your bucket. First, make sure you keep the bolt heads to the outside of your bucket (essentially, insert them from the outside). Second, when you put your washer, lock washer and nut on the bolt, if you have any thread still showing on your bolt, put another nut on it so that your bolt threads are completely covered even if the second nut won't go all the way on. That will protect the threads on your bolts so that you can get the nuts off easily and reuse your hardward when you reinstall your toothbar.

Personally, I think the odds of damaging/bending/breaking the bolts is less if they're inside the bucket, I'm certain that the odds of damaging/gashing/breaking an ankle on one is FAR less on the inside of your bucket.

Good luck with whatever you decide. I hope this helps.