Rock Bucket for Kubota B7610?

[baddaddy]

I cleared a piece of ground here in New England for a half acre garden last spring. Seems like I'm picking more rocks out of the ground this year than last year. I'm running a KK II, and it does a great job, but I'd like to get the rocks out. Has anyone put a rock bucket on a Kubota? I've got a B7610 and from what I can see, I need to put a universal skid steer mount on the loader and use either a brush fork or a rock bucket. Does anyone out there have any experience that I might benefit from? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Barneyhunts]

Sounds like a good idea! I'll be interested in the replies because I seem "to grow rocks" as well.

 

[ChuckinNH]

You will find that the skid steer QA will take up too much of your loader lifting capacity, and that most rock buckets are really heavy. How big are your rocks? It could be that you could take every other tine out of a landscape rake, use the scarifers on a box blade, or something like that depending on what you are dealing with. Some landscaping tooth bars for your loader bucket might work too.

 

[tessiers]

I built one for my 790 because the factory ones were way too heavy for a small tractor. I used 1" Round stock for the tines and the JD already has a quick attach. I have had real good luck with it and I also use it to move firewood from the pile into the wood shed because it leaves the bark and sawdust outside.

 

[arrow]

Virnig Industries makes a rock bucket specifically for a compact tractor. On it are QA plates that you can easily weld short pieces of channel iron drilled and wide enough to fit your pins. For a rock bucket, you do not necessarily have to get the same width as your dirt bucket saving more weight.

 

[newbury]

Virnig Industries makes a rock bucket specifically for a compact tractor. On it are QA plates that you can easily weld short pieces of channel iron drilled and wide enough to fit your pins. For a rock bucket, you do not necessarily have to get the same width as your dirt bucket saving more weight.

linky Skid Steer Loader Attachments - Virnig Manufacturing, Inc.

 

[jinman]

While the Virnig rock buckets are very nice, I think they are still too big for a B7610. The smallest one is 60" wide and weighs 540 lb without skid steer attachments. You will be at 600-650 lb before you even start digging rocks. A rock bucket is also much longer than a standard bucket, so your curl will be severly limited. For a small tractor, what you need is a 36" bucket that is less than 400 lb. I have a 5' rock bucket and grapple that weighs about 700 lb on my 45 hp tractor. When the rock bucket is more than 3/4 full, it takes all my tractor can do to lift it. Right away, you'll also have to add ballast to the rear if you don't have a backhoe or something similar.

I think you could build a tiny rock bucket for your specific use or just bite the bullet and pick up rocks in a 5-gal bucket. I'd bet you could find somebody to pick up your rocks by hand and save a lot of money and irritation. I love my rock bucket/grapple, but I think a B7610 is really too small for a rock bucket.

EDIT: I went back and looked at the Virnig site. They do make a compact rock bucket that weighs under 300 lb (48") as arrow suggested. However, the tines are less than 1/2" diameter. This has to be more of a "comb" than a rock bucket. I guess it might be okay, but I still think a bucket that's 36" wide and has larger tines will be a lot more use on a B7610. I bend my 1-1/4" tines a lot when I hit softball size rocks or wedge in around roots. I carry a 3' section of 2" pipe with me to straighten bent tines. I thiink the thin tines will really be easy to damage.

 

[baddaddy]

Thanks for the input guys. I've checked out the Virnig site and have exchanged emails with Dean Virnig. It seems that their buckets all use the universal skid-steer hook up. And according to the note from Dean, it won't work on my B7610.

It's too bad I' not a welder because Virnig makes a rock bucket for a compact tractor, srv48-ct, which is only 285 lbs. Ideally, I'd like to weld pin insert locations that mimic the bucket on my Kubota's LA352 loader. Then I could swap buckets to work the rocks and I think that would be ideal. I think there are universal skid-steer attachments out there to put on some Kubota loaders to effectively make them compatle with what I'm trying to do.

My other option as was suggested is to keep picking up rocks in a 5 gallon bucket, which is what I've been doing. At this pace, It'll be another 5 years before I get the majority of the rocks out. I don't worry about anything half the size of a baseball, so the virnig compapct rock bucket just looked like a reasonable alternative to use after tilling with the KK II.

Thanks for all the help and any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[arrow]

[

EDIT: I went back and looked at the Virnig site. They do make a compact rock bucket that weighs under 300 lb (48") as arrow suggested. However, the tines are less than 1/2" diameter. This has to be more of a "comb" than a rock bucket. I guess it might be okay, but I still think a bucket that's 36" wide and has larger tines will be a lot more use on a B7610. I bend my 1-1/4" tines a lot when I hit softball size rocks or wedge in around roots. I carry a 3' section of 2" pipe with me to straighten bent tines. I thiink the thin tines will really be easy to damage.[/QUOTE]

This bucket has much going for it for that size tractor. Primarily the grade steel and it is reinforced with gussets. I built tines for my bucket as well. They are made with grade 36 steel and are 1 inch square. They stick out 16" and before I braced them laterally, they could bend like pretzels. I should of built them with cold roll rod. The Virnig bucket is much stronger than what I made.

 

[baddaddy]

Thanks Arrow. I agree that a 36 inch bucket for rock work would be ideal. I think I'm going to look into the Virnig bucket and look to have it set up to work with my LA352 FEL.

I've already planted the garden, so I've got all summer to sort this out.