just bought an excavator. I have a few bucket questions

[special tool]

Originally Posted by volvo hans

Some explanation for you all. The 2.oo meter bucket is the ditch bucket. The 1.10 meter bucket is a small bucket to dig trenches. Both has a volume of 1.3 yards. The bucket for demolotion works has a open bottom with spiles and teeth . I have pictures of it, but can't post it. Otherwise go to www.bouwmachinesforum.nl and see the post Volvo EC 290C LR or go to company Biemond en van Pelt and see the pictures.

Gotcha - thanks

[tootalltimmy]

My 135 has a 54" cleanup bucket. The 200 size machines I see have a 60" cleanup. A 66" CWS bucket advertised for sale said it was for a 300 size machine. Do not know the capacities,

[danhoe]

On my 2800Q Linkbelt, weighs 50,000 lbs, long boom and stick, not a long reach, I am running a 1.5 cubic yard bucket, 48" wide with no sidecutters, my 30" bucket is .63 cubic yards to small for the machine, but I cut off the front pin holes added 1 1/2" to spread it out now I can use it with my quick disconnect. The new ratings are heaped not struck, that was back in the old days. I suggest going to the manufactures web site and see what they say, that would be your best bet. danhoe

[volvo hans]

I took a picture of the regular buckets which I use by the excavator. There are also some special attachments for the machine, we will transported them to the working aera when necessary.

[zxa]

on a 300 size....the best bucket with teeth is definitivly a 54 inchs!! on my 225 i"ve a 42 inchs but could fit a 48 inchs too...

[danhoe]

It does not matter the width of the bucket it is the capacity. There is a sewer contractor in my area that puts a 12" wide bucket on his Cat 385B. digger

[special tool]

Originally Posted by danhoe

It does not matter the width of the bucket it is the capacity. There is a sewer contractor in my area that puts a 12" wide bucket on his Cat 385B. digger

I agree with you, but I would still like to see a pic of a 385 with a 12 inch bucket. The bucket ears must stick out....what 1 foot on each side??

[special tool]

Originally Posted by zxa

on a 300 size....the best bucket with teeth is definitivly a 54 inchs!! on my 225 i"ve a 42 inchs but could fit a 48 inchs too...

You cannot say "best bucket".
If you are digging a 2 mile trench that only needs to be 2 feet wide, well then you will not be very efficient with a 42 or 48 huh?

There is, however, a best bucket for every application.

[Serv]

Just a quick question about the Geith setup.


Stock said earlier that "it would appear to have a Geith pin grabber type hitch which should make it easier to locate a bucket"

so if the pins on my bucket measure say, 3" in diameter, will I have the flexibility to use a bucket with 4" diameter pins? How about slightly different ear widths? Or am I limited to buckets for the Doosan 300 Solar LC V? Looking at some photos I took, it almost looks like the pins on my current bucket are smaller diameter than the ones on the end of the stick. Is the Geith that flexible?

I found a couple buckets laying around that I could pick up for next to nothing, but after measuring the pin diameters and centers, etc, they are slightly off, one way or another.

Here's one of the buckets I found. It appears to be for a kobelco machine and is in nice condition. My local scrap yard has it in a corner and said it's useless to him.

[Serv]

Here's some pics of my Doosan now that we've moved her to her new home.

I used it yesterday to air up a 29.5-29 that was being stubborn around the o-ring. This is a neat machine. Just pretty complicating to operate for someone that's never done it before. I checked out an (out of work) 68 year old operator the other day and he dug a very deep hole in around 3 minutes without really ever having operated anything other than Cat machines. He loved this machine BTW and starts this morning at 8am.

[JDMGrading]

Glad to see im not the only one that buffs my machines lol.

[Bellboy]

Nice Doosan Serv. Nice work on the bucket man.

[zxa]

Originally Posted by special tool

You cannot say "best bucket".
If you are digging a 2 mile trench that only needs to be 2 feet wide, well then you will not be very efficient with a 42 or 48 huh?

There is, however, a best bucket for every application.

and this what i meant.....every general application... have a nice looking machine serv.....these doosan are very fuel efficient by the way...

[Serv]

Originally Posted by Bellboy

Nice Doosan Serv. Nice work on the bucket man.

Thanks man. I've been searching for the right machine for over 6 months now and looked at what seems like over 100 machines from old and busted to nice and fresh ones.

Originally Posted by zxa

and this what i meant.....every general application... have a nice looking machine serv.....these doosan are very fuel efficient by the way...

That's good to hear. My local scrap yard had every brand imaginable running out there until they ran a daewoo. Now they won't buy anything else but daewoo or doosan. They swear by (next to zero) downtime and have never had to replace a pump like they had to on most of the other brands. In fact, they just bought a used 2005 doosan 420 about a week ago.

Originally Posted by JDMGrading

Glad to see im not the only one that buffs my machines lol.

Buffing sure beats having to paint the machine. Well, we didn't get around to polishing the boom and stick since the machine had to go to work today. We'll get to it next time around.




We top loaded my scraper about 30 times today in ~4 hours. And that's with the operator idling the excavator most of the time wating for the scraper to go dump. When loading, he was scooping 2 yards at a time with around 11 second cycle times at around 12 scoops per load. The machine is already well on it's way to paying for itself. I was very happy with the work that got done on its first day. The operator commented on how must faster and smoother this machine was than the cats he has always run. No offense to the Cat purists out there!!!

[AtlasRob]

Originally Posted by Serv

Just a quick question about the Geith setup.

it would appear to have a Geith pin grabber type hitch which should make it easier to locate a bucket

so if the pins on my bucket measure say, 3" in diameter, will I have the flexibility to use a bucket with 4" diameter pins? How about slightly different ear widths? Or am I limited to buckets for the Doosan 300 Solar LC V? ?

If you look at these two different hitches

This Miller has a back plate that goes behind the rear pin and the locking ram pushes against it.
As a result there is a small amount that the bucket pin centre to centre can vary because the hitch will not physically fit over the pins if too far apart.


This Geith (that Stock thinks might be like yours) has no back plate so the pins can be further apart. Provided of course that they are still within reach of the ram to exert pressure on it.
This generation 2 hitch has a gate mechanism to lock on the front pin.
With both these hitches the pin has to fit in the front lug and this will govern your bucket selection.
Generally 13t machine 65mm pins, 20t machine 80mm pin, 30t probably 100mm (4") pin. Just to add confusion these hitches take 60mm pins


Find the pin diameter of your machine and stick to that. Then measure the WIDTH of your hitch, this is the MINIMUM width required on any bucket you find, a bucket a bit wider between the webs will be ok. Now find out the minimum pin centre to centre by havining the hitch as in the picture and measure from the back of the front pin recese to the tip of the back plate add 1/2" for clearance.
Imagine that when you touch the hitch onto the front pin and crowd the hitch the rear lug has to miss the rear pin. MINIMUM pin centres.
To find the MAXIMUM pin centres, place hitch in locked position and measure from the back of the front lug to the INSIDE of the rear plate + 3/4 pin diameter.

Bear in mind that any bucket can have the lugs cut off and rewelded to make it fit.

Any bucket you try, make sure you view it critically and test it vigourously in a SAFE manner to ensure it fits SAFELY.
IF you are not capable or are unsure, find somebody who can check it for you.

on edit, a perfect bucket with pins too big could have the pins machined down to the correct size in the area between the webs so as to fit the hitch, leaving the pins original dimensions where they fit in the bucket lugs.