I am looking for anyone running a side discharge skid steer bucket. I need to use it to bed utility trenches using 3/4 road base material. I would like to know how well it works, what brand the bucket is and general thoughts. They are pretty expensive and I would to make sure they are worth the investment. Dumping bedding material in a typical way seems to waste material by getting it too deep and forces you to put someone in the trench to level it, which I would like to avoid as well. We never had to bed water and sewer in the past, but due to some rule changes, we now have to. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Side discharge skid steer loader bucket
- Thread starter KSSS
- Start date
Mike_IUOE
Well-Known Member
I've used a Cat brand bucket for bedding pipe. It works pretty good actually. It had a plate that went over the conveyor you could adjust the amount of material coming out. It works best with rock. Running dirt through it worked ok if it was good dry top soil, any clay with moisture didnt lay out so well. Depending on the trench width I found it layed it in best in a wide trench. We did a few 12" -18 " wide and we added a little deflector on it kind of like the discharge chute on a wood chipper. I was able to move a little faster with that on it. Maybe your dealer would let you demo one for a while to make sure its going to work for you?
I appreciate the info Mike, that helps. I am getting a price from CAT. No one has one of these sitting around to try unfortunately. Although with this rule change, I am sure I am not the only one here trying to figure out a better way to bed. I got a price from CASE on theirs which looks to be the same one built by FFC. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be price wise. The bucket on CAT's website says 9K with that number crossed out, it is about 3K at the price more than the CASE version. So do I understand that the drier the material, the easier it is shoot? The bedding material typically is damp, I am curious how wet it too wet. I am also curious if the attachment hyd. motor could handle high flow gpm's to gain more distance from the trench? Something I will ask about.
Mike_IUOE
Well-Known Member
Yes the drier material came out better. We were mostly using 3/4 minus, and at times it was pretty wet, but it still came out ok. It still works a lot better than trying to shake it in with a regular bucket. Padding with dirt is where I noticed the difference on moisture.