Excavator Bucket Types: A Comprehensive Guide

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Table of Contents:

1. The Most Sought-After Excavator Bucket Types
2. Choosing an Appropriate Excavator Bucket  
3. Excavator Buckets and More

An excavator is one of the most efficient machines on every construction site. However, it can be equally inefficient if you don&#;t operate it with the correct bucket type. It is a challenging task to choose not only the right excavator bucket but also a trusted manufacturer that produces quality tools. Thankfully, we are here to help with both. In this article, we will focus on the most popular excavator bucket types and give examples of the most efficient models on the market.  

The number of various available excavator buckets may be overwhelming. However, every attachment has its application. That is why we divided the types of buckets accordingly to help you choose the one best suited to your needs.  

Digging Excavator Bucket  

Application: Digging and moving material (including hard surfaces). Perfect for general construction and landscaping projects.  

The digging bucket is an excavator bucket's most basic and universal representation. It has various applications, but the primary one (indicated in the name) is to dig. Breaking up the harder material is possible thanks to the buckets' teeth placed at the end of the tool. They also allow for scraping the material into the bucket. Digging buckets come in various sizes to best fit the given surface. Noteworthy, a digging bucket is not the best equipment for all digging applications. Extremely hard surfaces will benefit more from using a rock bucket or a frost bucket.  

Rock Excavator Bucket  

Application: Penetrating and breaking up hard, compact, and solid surfaces such as asphalt, stone, and large rocks.  

Breaking through a hard surface is a task for a solid and powerful bucket with a powerful punch. One such tool is a rock bucket. It can be called a heavy-duty version of a digging bucket. Its reinforced design with thicker wear plates allows it to withstand a significant amount of pressure. The wear plates, along with sharp teeth, guarantee success in harsh conditions, penetrating even the most stubborn surfaces.  

Utility Excavator Bucket  

Application: Digging near utility lines, pipes, and cables, where avoiding the risk of striking them is crucial.  

It is not uncommon that the construction works take place near the utility lines and other underground constructions. Because it is hard to navigate the machine, not seeing clearly what is below, manufacturers designed a special type of excavator bucket. The utility bucket protects the utility workers by deflecting the cables away from the digging tool. The tool has a double-enforced rounded edge ensuring the excavator doesn&#;t catch the underground systems.  

V Bucket  

Application: Creating and cleaning V-shaped trenches in preparation for laying piping and utility cables.  

Since we have already spoken about protecting the utility cables and piping from damage, it is time to introduce a type of bucket that helps in their installation. V bucket (or a trenching bucket) has been specifically built to create narrow V-shaped trenches where the piping will be laid. Such trenches can also serve as a form of drainage. Trenching buckets can either have teeth (for more solid surfaces) or come without them. Most importantly, they need a powerful excavator to dig V-shaped trenches successfully. Therefore, they will work best with large excavators.  

Skeleton Excavator Bucket  

Application: Construction projects where separating dirt and soil from larger aggregate is crucial.  

A skeleton bucket resembles a standard digging bucket to some extent. The main difference is the construction of the back of the tool. In a skeleton bucket, that part consists of a grid or a slotted surface. Such a build allows for digging the larger material and, at the same time, sieving the finer material and reusing it in other aspects of the projects.  

Grading/Ditch Cleaning Excavator Bucket  

Application: Leveling, profiling, and smoothing the ground made of softer materials such as fine dirt and sand.  

Most excavator buckets usually perform some digging function. However, the grading bucket has a slightly different application. It doesn&#;t dig but levels and smooths the surface. That is why this tool is wide but short and shallow. Grading buckets will not be effective in moving any heavy material. The long, flat edge of grading buckets distributes fine dirt and sand thanks to the dragging movement. Grading buckets are often called finishing buckets. It is because they are usually used at the very end of the project as a final touch in leveling and clearing the area.  

Frost Excavator Bucket  

Application: Breaking up surfaces that are extremely compact and hard.  

Essentially, frost buckets are similar to rock buckets. They are also designed to work in very hard ground conditions. However, frost buckets are specifically used to work the hardest surfaces. To do that, they have extra teeth at the backside that enable ripping even through the frozen ground. The solid construction makes the frost bucket a perfect tool for work in mountainous environments and cold climates to rip through practically any material.  

Rake Riddle Excavator Bucket  

Application: Digging roots out of the ground while sieving fine aggregate.  

When it comes to construction, rake riddle buckets are similar to skeleton buckets. They have slats allowing finer material to fall through. However, a rake riddle bucket uses its teeth to loosen and dig up tree roots, grass, and shrubs. At the same time, the remaining loose soil can be reused in further stages of the project or a completely new job.  

Clean-up Excavator Bucket  

Application: A finishing bucket used for cleaning up a job site from loose material.  

A clean-up bucket is also called a finishing bucket due to its use at the end of the job. However, it is worth noting that clean-up buckets have a larger carrying capacity than standard finishing buckets. Even though you cannot dig with the clean-up bucket, the carrying capacity makes it perfect for removing large materials. Clean-up buckets are one of the most versatile buckets, as you can also grade and level the surface.  

Micro trenching bucket  

For more information, please visit Digger Bucket Types.

Additional reading:
Choosing the Right Crusher

Application: creating trenches for laying pipes, cables, or irrigation systems  

Micro trenching buckets are the equivalents of V buckets. They also create narrow trenches to help in laying underground structures. However, micro trenching buckets create smaller trenches, which saves time in various construction projects. It is the time spent not only on digging but also backfilling the trenches. Micro trenching buckets used to be a tool exclusively used to create trenches for fiber-optic cables. Hence another name for this tool is a fiber-optic bucket.  

After introducing the most popular excavator bucket types according to their application, we can now give you a few other factors to consider while choosing the best bucket type for your circumstances.  

Site Conditions

  

Consider the size of the area and whether it is open or closed up. It will help to choose the appropriate size of the excavator and, consequently, the bucket.  

Weather and Climate

  

Even if you work with moderately hard ground, the climate might change the circumstances entirely. The frozen ground will require extra force to break through. Such force can only be assured by working with a powerful excavator and solid bucket.  

Ground Conditions

  

Ground compactness is perhaps the most important factor the operator needs to consider before choosing an appropriate excavator bucket. Harder material may require a rock bucket or a frost bucket. A digging bucket will be sufficient if the ground is made of finer materials. However, harder materials will need more heavy-duty buckets, such as rock buckets or frost buckets, to complete the job successfully.  

Hazardous Surrounding

  

Digging next to irrigation systems or utility cables is another factor you must consider when choosing an excavator bucket. A utility bucket will be the safest option in case of the occurrence of any underground installation.  

With so many available excavator bucket types, it may be troublesome to choose the appropriate one. Luckily, you have come to the right place. Skidsteers.com carries many excavator buckets made by the best American manufacturers. Available in our offer, Blue Diamond skid steer attachments excavator buckets are a perfect fit for brands such as CAT, John Deere, Kubota, and Takeuchi machines. These reinforced tools are available in several widths to best suit your machine. Do you need more information? Don&#;t hesitate to contact our team. We are always happy to help.  

10 Different Types of Excavator Buckets

The construction industry is constantly growing and changing to keep up with the needs and demands of the users and operators in it. Where having the correct equipment for the job is essential. So, choosing the appropriate excavator bucket for your machines are necessary to efficiently tackle the specifications of the job and the type of material you are handling. There are now a huge selection of different types of buckets, so you might not know where to start if you're new or just looking to try something else. We have complied a list of 10 Different types of Excavator Buckets and what we believe are their best uses.

1. Digging Bucket

Also known as a general purpose excavator bucket, the digging bucket is the attachment you will most likely recognise. Digging buckets are the most common bucket provided with mini diggers and excavators when buying or hiring. It's primary use is what the name suggests - bulk digging through soil and rubble in construction, landscaping or groundworks environments.

The digging bucket is most commonly seen with fitted with teeth to help penetrate tougher, more compact ground. The teeth break through the material allowing you to scrape it into the bucket to be moved or removed. They're also becoming popular to be fitted with a blade for creating a flat bottom to your trench or to be used around utilities. The general purpose digging bucket usually comes in a large variety of widths to best suit the job at hand. For example, Rhinox mini digging buckets are available for 0.75 to 25 ton excavators, in 6", 9", 12", 18" and 24" to best suit the application, whether that be digging a small ditch or clearing a larger area.

2. Rock Bucket

Although a durable bucket, the standard digging bucket may not always be the most suitable bucket for your digging job. The rock bucket is a heavy duty version of the standard digging bucket. Rock buckets are reinforced with much stronger and thicker wear plates to add 'bulk' to the bucket and are fitted with sharper teeth. These modifications reinforce the bucket for use in much harsher conditions and help penetrate solid materials. A popular use is continuous breaking up of rocks and extremely abrasive, compact materials, like in quarries. Rock buckets are currently not available at Rhinox.

3. Utility Bucket

The utility bucket is a modification of the standard digging bucket, featuring the addition of the Uni-tusk - a rounded edge, bolt-on blade. The Uni-tusk is a Rhinox invention and was initially created to help protect utility workers when digging near utilities as it deflects cables away from the bucket. The unique Uni-tusk blade system has been manufactured as a bolt-on edge option to replace teeth or standard bolt-on blade options. As well as, the improved safety for utility works, the rounded, cast steel blade locks the side plates and lip plate in place, to increase the structural integrity of your bucket. It is also heat treated to 550 HB to further maximise the wear strength for continuous digging in harsh conditions.

4. Grading Bucket

The grading bucket is known by a wide variety of names, including: dyking bucket, finishing bucket or ditching bucket. The grading bucket is a wide, shallow bucket used for levelling and profiling the ground. The low profile shell design was designed to increase the width of the bucket without increasing the weight, as not to overload your excavator.

As mentioned, these buckets are best used for profiling, particularly softer materials and aggregates. The wider shell enables you to cover a wider distance in one motion. These buckets create a smooth finish to the material you're profiling due to the flat edge of the bucket, as well as the flat bottom. But they can also be used for a variety of other tasks such as: cleaning ditches, loading material, back-filling and sloping. The grading bucket is commonly fitted with a bolt-on blade to strengthen the lip plate and provide additional resistance against wear to prolong the life of your bucket. Grading buckets are available in a wide variety of widths to suit your excavator size. For example, Rhinox mini grading buckets are available for 0.75 to 25 ton excavators, in 30" to 84" wide.

5. Tilt Grading Bucket

The tilt grading bucket is exactly what the name suggests, it is a grading bucket that has the ability to tilt. A tilting bucket is the solution to grading and profiling on an angle. They're manufactured with a hydraulic hook up to allow them to tilt from left to right, providing greater flexibility when working on more complex forms and shapes, such as levelling slopes, cleaning ditches and maintaining sloped landscapes. The Rhinox tilt grading bucket is manufactured with 1 ram to allow you to tilt 45 degrees in both directions and plugs straight into your standard auxiliary or hammer hydraulics making it quick and easy to attach them ready to use.

6. V Bucket

The V ditching bucket is a triangular shaped bucket, designed to form clean sided, sloped drainage trenches. These V shaped dyking buckets are also commonly used for digging V shaped trenches used for laying pipes and cables across large plots of land. These buckets are usually manufactured for larger excavators due to the complex design required to create the trapezium shape. Currently, Rhinox do not manufacture v buckets but some of the popular manufacturers of this bucket on the market include Bucket Warehouse and Digbits.

7. Frost Bucket / Hardpan Bucket

A frost bucket or hardpan bucket looks and performs similarly to a rock bucket but has a bonus feature...a ripper tooth style attachment fitted to the reverse of the bucket. Depending on the manufacturers design, they might fit multiple of these ripper teeth features, with the purpose of these to further increase the digging ability. They provide additional penetration to help break up extremely compacted grounds, where your standard digging or rock bucket can't quite cut it - helping to loosen rocks and other aggregates as the bucket curls round. Rhinox do not manufacture frost buckets.

8. Micro Trenching Bucket

The micro trenching bucket, also known as a deep dig or fibre optic bucket, is a deeper, narrower bucket than any other. The micro trenching bucket was initially designed for digging narrow trenches for the installation of fibre optic cables but is now used for a variety of applications, such as laying standard cables, pipes and irrigation. The main benefit of the micro trenching bucket is the time spent digging, backfilling and remediating surfaces. The amount of time taken to dig out the initial trench is drastically reduced alongside a reduction in the amount of time spent backfilling the area you have dug out. You can also save large amounts of money on materials usually required to reinstate the surface to it's initial condition, such as retarmacking a public footpath. Rhinox micro trenching buckets are available for 0.75 to 4 ton mini diggers, in 3", 4", 5" and 6" widths at depths of 400mm and 700mm (15" and 27").

9. Riddle Bucket

The riddle bucket is also referred to as the skeleton bucket due to its design or a shaker bucket due to the action required to use it. Riddle buckets are manufactured with a slotted back and used for separating different sizes of material, for example removing bricks and roots from soil. They are primarily used on building sites to remove larger aggregates from the ground to be reused or recycled. Most often, it's more cost effective to separate the aggregates on-site and arrange for their collection or repurposing, rather than disposing of them as mixed aggregates. Rhinox riddle buckets are manufactured using a similar design to our standard digging buckets which allows us to produce a variety of sizes, from 24" to 60" wide, to suit 0.75 to 25 ton excavators.

10. Rake Riddle Bucket

The rake riddle bucket is a combination of your standard land clearance rake and a riddle bucket. Also known as the rake bucket, the rake riddle bucket is a shallow bucket with a slotted back and narrow tines along the front edge. As the name suggest, the rake riddle bucket allows you to rake through materials in the ground like tree roots or brambles and then riddle the material of bricks and larger rocks in one movement. The rake riddle bucket is designed to save you money as you not only save space required to store two separate excavator attachments, you also save money on purchasing and maintaining two separate attachments. Rhinox rake riddles buckets are currently available for 0.75 to 8 ton excavators.

In conclusion, excavator buckets come in various shapes and sizes, each tailored to meet specific construction, excavation and landscaping challenges. From standard digging buckets to specialised attachments for rock excavation, grading and trenching, these versatile tools are essential for maximising efficiency and productivity on sites, as well as saving you money on repairing or replacing damaged buckets. Understanding the unique features and applications of different types of excavator buckets ensures smooth and successful project execution.

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