Anyone built there own tilt bucket?

Hey folks, i've got a 29" clean up bucket for my 301.8 cat that i'm going to turn into a tilt bucket. I've got a general design but want to know if there's any tips or tricks or must haves before i dig in. Thanx

If noone has made one, does anyone have one around that size they'd be willing to take a picture of. Would help greatly!

I am looking to buy one for my 305C CR. I think the prices for what you get are rediculous. I also considered building my own. I have a 60" Geith for my 311CU, which I could copy. I sent an e mail to geith with a few questions and never got a response. If they would answer my questions, I may order one. Around $4600.00 for a 48" bucket with a cutting edge.

i put a helac rototilt on my 304C for about $5K, now all my buckets are swingers. (Yeah Baby, Yeah!)

I also looked at the helic, was quoted around $5700. Looks like a nice piece of equipment. It was 4+ weeks out to get one, same with the Geith bucket. How do you like it? Did you take off the cat manual coupler and just use that? Any pictures you can post? Where did you buy it at?

I have the Bobcat Power Tilt for my E50, which is really a helac. It cost about $5,000 and I love it. I have a 52" grading bucket on it. I have about 300hrs using it so far and have had no problems at all, it seams very well made. Here are two videos of it on my E50 and some pictures. And here is the link to the helac website kind of showing the innards.

http://www.helac.com/products-services/construction-attachments/powertilt/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRoUn5Oj9rU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJx7viF1cw

I was driving thru Durham the other day and saw your tri axel truck pulling a trailer with a Bobcat Skid steer on it. It stopped in front of the presidents house on Main Street. We are working around the corner backfilling a foundation.

we picked it up in ....Gorham? Maybe? Whats the place that sells the Allu buckets? Ill post some pictures monday. We actually cut the cat coupler and welded it to the helac so we can still use the qc on the cat buckets and the silt fence knife we made up.

bigbob said:

I was driving thru Durham the other day and saw your tri axel truck pulling a trailer with a Bobcat Skid steer on it. It stopped in front of the presidents house on Main Street. We are working around the corner backfilling a foundation.

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Yup that was us, we were re-infilling the permeable paver parking lot in front of hood house with 3/8" stone.

What's the cost of one of those rotary actuators, they seem like the cats a$$ instead of a cylinder to tilt.

hougie said:

What's the cost of one of those rotary actuators, they seem like the cats a$$ instead of a cylinder to tilt.

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seriously?

What part of that are you questioning, the rotary actuators or the cat's ass?

hougie said:

What's the cost of one of those rotary actuators, they seem like the cats a$$ instead of a cylinder to tilt.

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I think TomG mentioned that the cost of it was round about 5K. However the problem is that they weigh a bit, 160lb for the smallest model, which means you're production rate is going to be way down.
Not sure if someone else makes a tilt rotator for a 1.8 tonne class ex? For instance http://www.ozbuckets.com.au/tilt-buckets.php doesn't seem to make a tilt bucket for a small machine.
However they have a nice picture showing the mechanism http://www.ozbuckets.com.au/gallery/tiltbuckets/1.jpg
Also you have to remember that is some situations you can use your backfill blade to 'tilt' the bucket a little, however I very rarely have a need to tilt the bucket as 99% of the work is to level. In some specialized jobs, such as golf course construction, a tilt bucket would be ideal.
You have to weigh up the cons of a tilt bucket against the pros. The cons that I can see is cost, weight and difficulty in changing buckets. The only pros that I can see is that you can tilt your bucket for certain jobs.

I think there's a misunderstanding, i don't want to know what a tilt with rotary actuactor costs, would like to know if anyone knows what just the actuator costs i will be building everything to go around it. Thanx for your input hendrik, i'll look at those as soon as i am done typing. I've got a job lined up to clean up about a mile of drainage ditch. I plan to only use it on my clean up bucket. So even if i get a coupler it will only be used on one bucket. Would really like to just build it onto my current bucket. The company that makes the buckets for finning( my bucket) has made them and will make them for 3900 but they won't divulge any kind of information that would help me.

hougie said:

I think there's a misunderstanding, i don't want to know what a tilt with rotary actuactor costs, would like to know if anyone knows what just the actuator costs i will be building everything to go around it. Thanx for your input hendrik, i'll look at those as soon as i am done typing. I've got a job lined up to clean up about a mile of drainage ditch. I plan to only use it on my clean up bucket. So even if i get a coupler it will only be used on one bucket. Would really like to just build it onto my current bucket. The company that makes the buckets for finning( my bucket) has made them and will make them for 3900 but they won't divulge any kind of information that would help me.

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Hmmnh, yeah well TomG said 5k for a bobcat tilt 'actuator'. The website for the manufactuer http://www.helac.com/products-services/construction-attachments/powertilt/ shows a generic unit with a manual quick coupler (like I have on my ex) but as I said the smallest they make is 160lb. I would think that the cost of the thing is not so much in the coupler or head but in the actual mechanism.
Anyway do a google picture search for tilt buckets, lots of pictures to get ideas on how to built yer own http://hoganengineering.com.au/buckets-tilt.htm
Also, why do you need a tilt bucket to clean a drainage ditch? Can't you work from the side of it?

I can do it from the side but i think it would be much faster to stradle it and slope it as a go. I've been googling for about a week, issue i'm having is that there all 1200mm buckets and mine is 30 inch which limits cylinder travel quite a bit if i side mount it like most cylinder type tilts, although i see bobcat has a different design where the cylinder is vertical.

hougie said:

I can do it from the side but i think it would be much faster to stradle it and slope it as a go. I've been googling for about a week, issue i'm having is that there all 1200mm buckets and mine is 30 inch which limits cylinder travel quite a bit if i side mount it like most cylinder type tilts, although i see bobcat has a different design where the cylinder is vertical.

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30 inch is 762mm, which is rather small for a 1.8t machine, the mud bucket on my 1.6 tonne Kub is 900mm and I have seen excavators in that size with wider mud buckets but they where not as deep as mine.
However with a full load of heavy material in the bucket I have to careful when I swing the machine if the bucket is out a fair way.
This shows the vertical cylinder design http://www.mascus.co.uk/Constructio...-attachment--42-ditching-bucket/xfycmpvo.html
Perhaps find a wider mud bucket to add tilt function to?
Yes it would be faster to drive the machine into the ditch and work from the bottom of it but if you plan on straddling it sideways, you will be re-positioning the machine a lot and it will be slower than working from the side.
Perhaps you could clarify how you plan on doing the job and some people who have done this sort of thing can advise you on your options. Hard to say unless we know the size of the ditch.
To be honest I cannot see the sense in spending time and money to built a tilt bucket for one job, a job on which you may gain 20-30% efficiency by having a tilt bucket.
I would think that if your machine can reach across the ditch you're best of to work from the top, a 1.8 tonne ex with a 30inch bucket is not likely to tip over, unless you're inexperienced or have to position the machine with one track on the slope of the ditch. If you can easily reach across the ditch, you can use the boom swivel function to clean a fair bit before having to shift the machine.
If you have a quick hitch fitted, you can remove that as well to reduce weight on the boom.

It's a small drainage ditch, maybe 2 feet across and 2 or 3 feet deep but the cattle have collapsed it so the plan is to slope it out to 4 or 5 feet so that if the cattle walk on it, it won't cave in if it's sloped. Thanx for your help hendrik

hougie said:

It's a small drainage ditch, maybe 2 feet across and 2 or 3 feet deep but the cattle have collapsed it so the plan is to slope it out to 4 or 5 feet so that if the cattle walk on it, it won't cave in if it's sloped. Thanx for your help hendrik

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Sounds like the sort of thing that is easily done from the side but I can see how a tilt bucket would increase the productivity a little. However the best way to do this is with a grader, or a 3 point grader blade on the back a tractor but you only use the tools you have at your disposal.

It's in a flood plane so i think the mini hoe will work the best.