Anyone ever use a side dump or 'shooter' bucket?

[stuvecorp]

We did a commercial retaining wall and one area that just sucked up the time was the back fill/putting the drain rock behind the wall. I think J's box would work if I had a mini but since I will not likely be getting on for a while, how about a side dump or a bucket that meters out material? I need to eliminate all the shoveling.

[Ground Effects NH]

something like this, maybe with a movable chute? I think it would be a big time saver

[RockSet N' Grade]

That looks like an FFC side discharge bucket. The FFC is drives the materials out, others you have to dump the bucket. Never used one, but have thought about them a whole bunch......I looked at prices, $4k plus. Do you have enough jobs to justify a $4k plus attachment or would it be more cost effective to use labor. Labor is super cheap right now.....hire temps to shovel and let em go.....

[bobcat_ron]

Case and Deere have their own (branded anyways) you can make a side tilt bucket with a Bobcat Tilttach, and take an old bucket and modify the side and weld the Q/A plate on so that when the Tilttach is tilted all the way to one side, the material spills out, and when the bucket is tilted to the other side, it is flat on the ground.

[stuvecorp]

something like this, maybe with a movable chute? I think it would be a big time saver

I had seen something like that years ago and always wanted to try it.

[stuvecorp]

That looks like an FFC side discharge bucket. The FFC is drives the materials out, others you have to dump the bucket. Never used one, but have thought about them a whole bunch......I looked at prices, $4k plus. Do you have enough jobs to justify a $4k plus attachment or would it be more cost effective to use labor. Labor is super cheap right now.....hire temps to shovel and let em go.....

That is a problem, as I don't have any walls now for awhile. I am trying to stay small, for this project I got another landscaper, a mason and a lawn guy. The labor is cheap but will give you so many headaches that the $4000 may not seem bad.

[stuvecorp]

Case and Deere have their own (branded anyways) you can make a side tilt bucket with a Bobcat Tilttach, and take an old bucket and modify the side and weld the Q/A plate on so that when the Tilttach is tilted all the way to one side, the material spills out, and when the bucket is tilted to the other side, it is flat on the ground.

First thing Ron, Snowball is awesome.

I'll think about this as I would love to have a tilt tach anyway.

[bobcat_ron]

First thing Ron, Snowball is awesome.

I'll think about this as I would love to have a tilt tach anyway.

Snowball is a pussy with attitude.

[J. Peterson Grading]

The thing about the side discharge buckets, is that you still have to get close to the wall or behind it. You wont always have that kind of room. So your back to square one with the shoveling.

J.

[Construct'O]

Nice job on the wall Stu ! Looks great:usflag:

[stuvecorp]

Nice job on the wall Stu ! Looks great:usflag:

Thanks, did things dry up for you?

J, that would be another drawback to the bucket idea. I know I need a bigger compactor so we can increase our lifts but the drain rock just kills any production. If I could get it figured out then I'd be dangerous because we can throw down the block. I wonder about using some redi-mix for the base instead of the base course/class 5 since we use the forms, if we could get a truck close would it be faster?

[J. Peterson Grading]

Ryan.

Free yourself up this week, and come down here. We have a job that my box is going to be on all week long. And to say we are going to use it lightly is an understatement.

You need to see first hand what all we can do with it.

Another thing is, you need a tool that will work everytime. Not something thats going to create more head aches. The bucket would be cool and all, and would prolly work. But tracking along a freshly built wall, just to get another lift in behind it freaks me out every time.

J.

[stuvecorp]

Ryan.

Free yourself up this week, and come down here. We have a job that my box is going to be on all week long. And to say we are going to use it lightly is an understatement.

You need to see first hand what all we can do with it.

Another thing is, you need a tool that will work everytime. Not something thats going to create more head aches. The bucket would be cool and all, and would prolly work. But tracking along a freshly built wall, just to get another lift in behind it freaks me out every time.

J.

Yah that is bad and even with the small machine you will move the wall(ask me how I know:nono:). I just have some odd stuff this week so it would probably work out.

Another thing, this was my first project that I had to travel for(hour twenty away), am thinking about doing more out of town.

[J. Peterson Grading]

Just call me tommorrow. We can figure something out.

J.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Don't know how much material you put in each lift, but what about just calling in a rock shooter and have them shoot the wall with gravel? Don't know pricing in your area or if you would calc it out to use a truck load and what the hand labor cost is.........that's your figuring out part........but, I love rock shooters and would use them every chance I could. Just a thought..........

[stuvecorp]

Don't know how much material you put in each lift, but what about just calling in a rock shooter and have them shoot the wall with gravel? Don't know pricing in your area or if you would calc it out to use a truck load and what the hand labor cost is.........that's your figuring out part........but, I love rock shooters and would use them every chance I could. Just a thought..........

We don't have such an animal here. Someone was having a concrete truck show up and place the drain rock but you would need a really big wall to do that. They use a concrete truck to spread drain rock underneath basement slabs sometimes also.

I was going to ask, how many have a working back-up alarm on their equipment and do you always wear your seatbelt? Commercial work has some interesting things. Hard hats suck.

[Scag48]

I was going to ask, how many have a working back-up alarm on their equipment and do you always wear your seatbelt? Commercial work has some interesting things. Hard hats suck.

Every day! haha. Brain buckets, safety glasses, and ANSI class 2 vests are minimum high vis requirements. Seat belts required, once or twice without may get you a warning, after that, find yourself a new gig.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Back up alarms on my trucks with hard hats on the floor with safety vests under the hat. Just gotta have them there. Skid is disconnected on the alarm, but reconnected if we ever get the chance to do commercial. I love commercial........residential always seems to debate the color of white and wants a different shade - and extras for free.

[Construct'O]

Drying out some,but still wet in places i have to work:rolleyes:.

If you used the bucket with the conveyor belt i would make a hopper off the end and use a flixable chute.That way you would have control of the rock as you was placing it ,plus give you distance from the work arera.

Here farmers are always asking me for 8" tile(tuff and flixable) to use on there grain augers to use to spread the grain as they load in trucks and wagons.Just a thought.Good luck.:usflag:

[stuvecorp]

Back up alarms on my trucks with hard hats on the floor with safety vests under the hat. Just gotta have them there. Skid is disconnected on the alarm, but reconnected if we ever get the chance to do commercial. I love commercial........residential always seems to debate the color of white and wants a different shade - and extras for free.

I prefer to work residential but I like the scale of commercial, would like to have a mix of each.

[SpecOne]

I was going to ask, how many have a working back-up alarm on their equipment and do you always wear your seatbelt? Commercial work has some interesting things. Hard hats suck.

Safety is big thing for me on a jobsite. Non functional back up alarm is a no go item on the job :nono:. If I absolutely have to work with that piece of equipment w/o an alarm, then I have a laborer assigned to keep the area clear while that piece is working. Hard hats required as well as ANSI vests. Safety is something you just have to accept as part of the job when working public jobs. Safety has its on section when estimating a job: what special safety concerns? Do we have the necessary equipment in regards to safety? If not what do we need?

Cheaper to spend a little up front than loose it all in a lawsuit! :dizzy:

[stuvecorp]

Safety is big thing for me on a jobsite. Non functional back up alarm is a no go item on the job :nono:. If I absolutely have to work with that piece of equipment w/o an alarm, then I have a laborer assigned to keep the area clear while that piece is working. Hard hats required as well as ANSI vests. Safety is something you just have to accept as part of the job when working public jobs. Safety has its on section when estimating a job: what special safety concerns? Do we have the necessary equipment in regards to safety? If not what do we need?

Cheaper to spend a little up front than loose it all in a lawsuit! :dizzy:

I agree that safety is important but you can be lit up like a Christmas tree and have barricades around you and not be safe. When you are on a site and trucks, lulls and whatever else is backing up the alarms start to be meaningless.

[SpecOne]

True, but it's CYA, because if you back up and damage someone's property or, even worse, injure someone, even one of your own workers, and the lawyers find the back up alarm not working, whether the accident is your fault or not, whether there were 100 different alarms going off, your company won't be your company for long. Just my 2 cents.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Stuve........alot of alarms sounding, I agree, become a little meaningless.......UNTIL, they start getting louder and louder and louder.......that is when you turn your head to see the elephant and run! A friend of mine, whose family owns a large paving company back east, was paving a road.........roller had no alarm, rolled right over him........turned him into a frisbee by the time they realized.......Still don't want to picture that one in my mind's eye.

[stuvecorp]

I know the whole point is to prevent injury or death and I will never win an argument but I don't believe OSHA is for safety, more willing to believe it's how much fine money they can go after.

[Junior M]

Stuve........alot of alarms sounding, I agree, become a little meaningless.......UNTIL, they start getting louder and louder and louder.......that is when you turn your head to see the elephant and run! A friend of mine, whose family owns a large paving company back east, was paving a road.........roller had no alarm, rolled right over him........turned him into a frisbee by the time they realized.......Still don't want to picture that one in my mind's eye.
And thats kind of where the operator should come in and not depend on the back up alarm and look around. maybe the circumstances in that situation were different, but how could you not see someone when running a roller?