Hi Mike
I wish I could help you off load some of your rocks but the distance and the border would be a problem.
The rock wall in the photo is six feet high so there is no way that either the 4-in-1 or the very handy thumb on the
L45 could have muscled most of the boulders into place. Fortunately for me a buddy with a full size Cat 420E rubber tire machine was doing some work in my village and he leaves the machine at my place when in town. I was able to hire one of his guys last weekend and with the two machines we built the wall in two and a half days. The 420E would lift them into place and than the
L45 would either spin them or hold them in place from above and behind the wall while the 420E withdrew. It worked very well but we lost almost a half day when we ran into the sixth rock from the left in the bottom row. We had placed all of the rocks to the left of it when we bumped into this one which was in the middle (front to back) of where the wall was supposed to go. I spent about 15 minutes trying to dig it out with the
L45 and realized that was a fruitless exercise and hopped on the hoe of the 420E. I spent at least 25 minutes on the 420E digging about three feet all the way around that rock and down about three feet in front of it but even at that point the 420E could not even make that rock wiggle so I new there was no hope of getting it out. We than removed the boulders to the left and realigned our wall to incorporate that big grey boulder into the wall. You know how it is with rocky property - you never know when you are going to run into a ledge or boulder that is just not going to move!
Wrt to the 4-in-1 to be honest I am a little ambivalent about it. I am glad I got it instead of the standard bucket because I don't need both (I kept the light duty bucket I had purchased for my
B26 which is only 6" narrower and so holds almost as much material) but I have had mixed results with the 4-in1. It is very good at picking up the odd root or log that I need to get out of the way but I have not had great results with rocks. I am nervous about breaking it so I have not tried to pick up any large rocks and I prefer to use my hydraulic forks anyway because I find they scratch the rocks the least. Most of the other 4-in-1's I see advertised have almost a dozer type blade at the back of the 4-in-1 when you open it but the Kubota one is split about halfway along the bottom so when open you have a mini bucket with about a 6"-8" bottom. The other thing Kubota does (for strength I guess) is they have welded a V-shaped piece on the bottom of the hinged piece which sticks up about 1-1/2" so it makes it a little harder to push into a pile of dirt or pick up a rock as this ledge actually tips the rock out of the bucket at first. I am still learning how to use the 4-in-1 and it is certainly nice for cleaning up the last of a pile of material but it is not as useful as the thumb on the hoe in my opinion. If I could only afford one I would get the thumb.
I have the optional cutting edge on both of my buckets and like the added strength that gives them but the bolts sticking up can be a pain if you throw bags of concrete or sand in the bucket as you have to unload the bags by hand to prevent the bolts from ripping the bags. I have thought about a toothed bar for the front buckets but with the hoe right there I find it a lot easier on me and the machine to back into the pile and loosen a bunch up with the hoe and then turn around and use the loader to move it so I will not be getting a toothed bar for the front but I'm curious to see what you come up with.
Regards,
Lauren
