craftsman bucket on Wheel Horse

Picture of bucket

Hugh-SS/16 said:

The thing you need to look at is the front of that tractor and see how it compares to you WH

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Ya think so? lol I haven't been able to get in touch with seller. Just have the picture. I'm sure it doesn't have a Tach a Matic on it.
Looks light weight to me. Of course, I've been looking at a lot of shop made buckets! Lot of nice work out there.

Well, if you have access to a bandsaw and a welder, it shouldn't be too much of a job. A winch to raise it and an actuator to dump it. lol It just has to be thought out.
And you're right, it does look like a lightweight bucket. Unless you have power steering, these lightweight buckets would be fine. My bucket isn't lightweight and I can probably lift in the neighborhood of 500lbs, but, with that much weight in the bucket, I can't steer it. Even 300lbs+ is hard to steer.

Bob

I have a craftsman bucket that appears to be the same as this one. I paid $400 new, lists at $500. Yes it is a lightweight with 250# capacity, however, I have loaded and placed a 10 yard load of gravel with it, graded the driveway and hauled around stuff very successfully. I modified it to fit on my i-1042 cub cadet and am working to fit it on my AC710. You should be able to mount it on any tractor where you can install the quick attach brackets 14 inches apart. I plan to modify it significantly with a winch cable lift and re-do the bucket-tilt latch.

The bucket is well made, but has a few design problems:
- the bucket latch is a junior engineer's dream design; it needs to be attached to the main bucket lift framework instead of the tilt mechanism. As is, it is a constant adjustment headache.
- The bucket only lifts 4-5 inches, so any small dip in your yard will cause it to scrape and spill material. It would lift higher with a differnent lift mechanism; that is why I am adding the winch.
- The lift and dump handles are very long and require a long arc to operate, but they do work okay.

ZTT42 said:

- The bucket only lifts 4-5 inches, so any small dip in your yard will cause it to scrape and spill material. It would lift higher with a differnent lift mechanism; that is why I am adding the winch.

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If you were to move the bucket forward, increasing the distance between the bucket and the mount hinge, you'd get a higher lift. From hinge-point to hinge-point, mine measures out at 25". I can lift mine 24". My bucket is a converted Bolens 42" plow. I also use a HF 2000lb winch and a 2 pulley system to reduce the amp draw. Doing it this way also reduces the speed at which the bucket lifts and at the same time, makes it more manageable.

Is this high enough?


Bob

This bucket is quite a design wonder! I think the engineers worked overtime trying to think up the most complicated design they could. Before I bought it I read reviews about taking several days and having to hire a handyman to put them together. I probably spent about 6 hours including modifying of the mounting brackets to fit my tractor.

It uses 3-1/2 inch long levers on a tube to do the lifting. The power is magnified by the 5' long handle. Figuring the geometry, that gives it about a 4-inch vertical travel. :fing20:If I replace it with a winch type lift, I figure I should be able to lift it as much as 20 inches.

The bucket dump mechanism is mounted on a different framework than the bucket lift, so the geometry changes as the bucket is lifted. That causes all sorts of interesting adjustment problems. Once I get started on the mods, I'll try to post some pix here. Probably won't be until after hunting season.

I would like to see If I can make a separate winch mount that will also operate the snowplow, but still use the quick attach feature.