Anyone ever use a Multi-ripper bucket?

[gmads01]

Like the title says - has anyone ever had first hand experience with a Multi-ripper bucket from Leading Edge Attachments? They have videos on their site, but most of the machines shown are huge - Hitachi EX1200 and Cat 385. Plus, without first person feedback, who knows how hard the rock is in the videos. Just wondering how it compares with a traditional rock bucket.

 

[Hendrik]

This concept is great for a situation where the ground conditions are just a bit too tough for a traditional bucket but not hard enough to warrant the use of a single ripper, hyd breaker or dozer with ripper.
Yes you would need a big machine with a small multi ripper to make this work, otherwise you'll probably find that the bucket won't penetrate or drags the machine towards the dig.
It would be worthwhile if you have contract to dig a trench for a say a 400mm pipe and the trench needs to be 600mm wide but will this replace the more traditional method of switching to a single ripper to loosen the material and then back to a digging bucket to clean up? I don't think so, especially seeing that most machine have quick hitches which makes switching an easy and quick thing.

 

[JGS Parts]

well i have built ripper bucket funny you should ask about these yesterday we where having a board meeting and these came up to be honest they are not realy a ripper and not really a bucket like Hendrik said they are in the middle and also you need to look at the desigh as see Komatsu also build them the smallest machine they build them for i know is a PC450 and there buckets are angled little hard to emplane i might up load some photos. but basicly mate you need to look at the ground type i would not use one where i needed to use a ripper not just because the bucket mostly likly wont hack it but also the amount of extra load you are putting your machine under if its a smaller machine.

 

[gmads01]

If I used one, it would be on a Komatsu PC400. What made this interesting, is that I don't have a quick-coupler on the machine. It would be nice to rip and clean with a single attachment. Interestingly enough, they make these buckets for all sizes - even down to mini excavators. A supplier I called in central TX only had some buckets for 6000lb excavators! If they cost half of what they wanted for one I would get one just to try it - they are pricey. We are hitting the trench today with a traditional rock bucket and will see how it goes.

 

[mancavedweller]

I'm in tight access excavation and one thing I've learned is it's all about concentration of force / weight. When you put the same amount of weight on a smaller area it's going to dig in a lot easier. My excavator is only 1.8 tonne so believe me I come across this issue all the time. I get very jealous of even a 3.5 tonner LOL

The last 4 years I've been setting myself up for making my own attachments; big CNC plasma cutting table, lathe, mill, 3D cad software, etc, etc. One of the first things on my to do list is actually a ripper bucket. The LEA attachment design sequentially puts each ripper tooth in contact at a time to concentrate the weight of the machine on each tooth. To me that's a no brainer, it is going to break out the ground the equivalent of having the tooth of your ripper hook doing it, just not very deep that's all, and you have to rotate the bucket fully to engage all 5 ripper teeth across the width of the bucket. If the ground is not like rock then I was thinking a flat cutting edge over the main bucket front teeth could be used to scrape the bottom of the trench. That would have varying degrees of success depending on how hard the ground is. So you'd rip and finish off with the flat scraping edge.

So sorry, I don't have any first hand experience of using a LEA ripper bucket but I do believe it will work as advertised, just by thinking about how it operates. As for their patent which I think is based around the ripper teeth being positioned on the edge of an imaginery arc (SHARK - shanks on an arc) whose centre is at the bucket pin, I think that's a bit of a laugh and more of a marketing thing to win buyers. Like our diggers stay perfectly still and the stick doesn't move/bounce up and down as we dig and having the teeth on an arc assists the digging process. I need a bit more convincing on that one. In any case the bucket would have to be specifically designed for the machine if it has any sort of hitch, because the hitch would change the centre of rotation and the "shanks on an arc" wouldn't be there any more. Excuse me if my mechanical nerd side is coming out.

 

[REGS]

I've used several of multi-ripper buckets and rippers mounted on a Hyundai 450 CAT 320 and hyundai 360, they have worked great in really hard surfaces where there is fragmented rock. It is true that sometimes there are going to be solid rock where you will have to use a hammer but that is rarely seen in the trenches we´ve worked in.

Only issue is that teeth wont last that much on very hard surfaces but you will get a lot more production than with a hydraulic hammer for sure and without using your machine´s hydraulic connections, it has less manteinance cost as the hammer also.


I have taken several videos of these multi-ripper buckets and rippers so you can decide if these really work or not! For me they sure did!

Good day to all of you!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7PI55hJzuU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWx5SMrmk9U&feature=relmfu