Choosing a rock bucket attachment

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Randy Scholtz, production manager, Budget Attachments and Parts

On the Maryland farm where I grew up, we had a lot of rocks. We had one field we called "rock city." The rocks bred and multiplied there, and set up little communities. A few boulders for hardscaping the garden or edging the lane come in handy. But, if you have a thriving stone metropolis and want to level it, you need a rock bucket attachment.

Randy Scholtz is a production manager for an attachments manufacturer, and says a rock bucket works like a giant sifter.

"The rock bucket is designed to pick up boulders and rocks and still allow the dirt to fall through the bucket, so you're only removing the rock, you're not removing any of the earth," Scholtz says. "There are various tines along the length of the bucket. It'll hold rock that's bigger than 3-1/2 inches, but everything else falls through it."

For a compact tractor or skid steer, rock buckets range from 48 inches to 82 inches wide. It's important to match the width of your machine's tire span as close as you can. If you fall short of your track width, you can't ride in the hole you're digging -- you'll roll right over it.