Digger bucket + sticky clay = problem

Rovi

Looking for some input from the digger pilots here:

I'm opening an open drain across a field into a wet hollow; the 'topsoil' in the hollow is very peaty and the subsoil is sticky grey crap not unlike Plasticine in nature.

My problem is getting this stuff out of the bucket.
It sticks badly in the bucket and I'm having to shake and rattle it pretty hard to get it out, and even then I sometimes have to get resort to the old JCB Mark I (shovel) to clear it out.
When it does come out, it's often a nice mould of the inside shape of the bucket.

I'm going to damage the bucket pins and shake the digger to bits if I keep doing this, so I'm wondering if there are any tips or tricks to make this sort of material easier to handle?

The bucket is a straight-edged (no teeth) 2m Scott, if that makes any difference.

Builderfromhell

Interesting problem.
I drive a digger occasionally but not full time.
I'd imagine if you used a bucket with teeth you could break up the sub soil better.
I wonder if you scraped the bottom of the the hole 8" at a time and than used the whole bucket to take out the smaller chunks of clay.

Jonty

I've seen lads that cut turf using buckets with what I'd describe as a shallow "ar$e" in them. Seems to help.

The same thing as above said about not ramming the bucket into the soil

leitrim lad

firstly i personally would have no time for a scott bucket, the flat top really puts me off i have seen to many of them burst,

a tighe bucket is probably the best on the market in ireland at the minute, second to that would be geith,and third would be hillhead, in fermanagh,

i have used them all and miller are the dearest to buy but they are only scrap aswell, if you hit a big stone with a miller you need a new cutting edge, so they are a waste of money,

on the stuff sticking to the bucket, there is a few tips i can give you ,

firstly, i know this will get head wrecking when your driving the machine,but pick up half buckets and dont sqeez the stuff into the bucket as it will catch the air and cause a suction inside the bucket,

secondly if you have access to a welder and a piece of angle iron, weld the angle from one side of the bucket to the other width way, just at the back of the cutting edge along that origional line of weld,and stick it good with the angle facing the sky, this will send the muck up away from the floor of the bucketstopping the stick and suction,

you will get a bit sticking, but its no harm ,i do this to all my ditching buckets,shoreing buckets, turf buckets, and generally all buckets that are dealing with land work, topsoil,and turf and so on,

i dont do it with the bigger machines because they are normally loading, or working with rock or so on

its a simple enough task that should help you out, but i have my doubts about the shape of that scott bucket, its more of a square design than the nice round tighe,

leitrim lad

sorry i left out a bit,

i use 6 foot tighe shallow profile ditching buckets with teeth. and the big teeth, on all my 10-14 ton machines for land work,they have 8 big teeth, and wont be beat for tidyness, and finishing,and are easy on the machine shallow profile because of their shape and weight,

on the 60 i use a similar bucket in a 5 foot with the same teeth as you would put in a 120 bucket, again savage job on the land, and i have the peice of angle welded just behind the cutting edge inside the bucket

oflynno

i had a problem with a dumper shifting the same shyte

i cleaned out the skip,every bit of it and poured in a litre of veggie oil and gave it a run of a brush

the muddy crap didn't stick to it and i got most of a day out of it

i went for veg oil so i wouldn't be polluting anywhere

try it, its worth the 1.50,but make sure the bucket is totally cleaned out first

Rovi

Thanks for all the feedback folks, it's most useful and interesting.

I told a bit of a fib earlier, it's a 1.8m bucket, not 2m.

To be honest, I was almost finished the job when I posted this thread and was looking to do a bit of venting on the subject, so I didn't try any of the suggestions, except perhaps the one about not packing the bucket full.
Which did improve things.


Leitrim Lad: I'll certainly try the angle iron trick when I get the bucket back within reach of a welder, it sounds like a good wheeze.
Do you mean welding it in this way: L
...or this way?: ^

Don't be telling me that a Geith bucket would be much better, I let a very fresh one go with an earlier digger a few years ago. :mad:

This Scott came with the digger; if/when it falls apart I'll go looking for a better one.
Here's a mad cool one from Geith, I'm sure it's insanely expensive:
http://www.geith.com/Scripts/BrochurePage.asp?PageID=53


I took a few photos:






Thanks again to everyone for your help.

Slidey

I saw those tilting buckets when working in Australia putting in water mains.

Very handy for filling gravel into a narrow trench with a large bucket. Reduces the number of passes the machine has to make.