When it comes to handling materials on site, few machines can stand up to the reliability of a wheel loader. Scooping, lifting, dumping and scraping, wheel loaders are often the machine of choice for handling materials, loading trucks and making big piles smaller and small piles bigger. However, a wheel loader without a bucket (or other attachment) is nothing more than a fun way to bounce around the yard, and today bucket design is more than a universal decision. If you’re wondering which bucket is best for your wheel loader, we’ve put together this short overview of buckets to help you make your decision.
The most important factor in any bucket decision is the material you are moving. Finding the perfect bucket is all about balancing the design, weight and construction of the bucket with the weight, density and diversity of the materials you will typically be working with. Heavy and dense materials require a heavier bucket to carry the load, while lighter and less dense materials can be moved with a wider, taller and lighter bucket. Your excavator’s moving arm can only carry so much, and the weight of the bucket is always a factor in that equation.
In addition to the weight of the bucket and the thickness of the material it is made from, the shape and design of the bucket also affects its ability to perform a specific job. When evaluating a bucket, it is important to consider both the material you will be using and the work it will routinely perform. Even the size and design of the other machines it will be used on the job site may be a factor in your decision – look at the trucks and hoppers it will fill, the bulldozers it will move, the scrapers it will move. You will accompany and consider how the bucket design will work with all the machines on a typical site.
