Skid Steer Bucket-from Dirt to Snow

[Muckin_Slusher]

I would like input on bar spacing that will hold back snow. My goal is the sweet spot of being able to see through the bars and somewhat holding back fluffy snow.

I'm in the process of converting a dirt bucket to snow. I'm raising the back part of the bucket mostly so balls of ice don't land in the cab. I added 4 two inch receivers at the top of the bucket and cut some 1.5x2 inch tubing spikes to drop in the receivers.

I'm gonna weld horizontal bars between these uprights. I've got diamond drill rod that measures 1.75 diameter. I'm thinking the bars should have 1.5 inch spaces between them. Three rows will give me added height of 13 inches.

If most types of snow are just gonna fly right through a 1.5 inch opening, then I might as well only put two rows and have better vision through the bars.

Anyone with experience care to give their input?

 

[harley jim]

Plowed a lot if snow. Never tried that but if too much comes through maybe put some mesh or lexan on it?

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[zkdiesel]

Plowed a lot if snow. Never tried that but if too much comes through maybe put some mesh or lexan on it?

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Light material bucket works well for me. Aka snow/mulch oversized bucket

 

[Mattlt]

I'd second the mulch / material bucket. I think you're going to spend a lot of time and effort on this and not be very happy with the results.

Maybe look for a used tractor bucket and add a hitch plate.

Years ago, my dad had a manure loader bucket on his John Deere B. It was less than 3' wide, manure is heavy. In the winter, he has some steel wings that he bolted on for snow removal. Made the bucket at least twice as wide. PITA plowing snow with a tractor that didn't have "live" hydraulics, but it was definitely better than a shovel.

 

[Stang65]

I started fabbing up a way to mount a 3point quick hitch to my bucket. That way I can use my backblade on the front as a snowplow. Then I can push straight and angle it.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Whole thing weighs around 50 lbs, and is easy to remove and install. I`m 100% sure if I had used 2x2 tubing it would bind so bad in multiple receivers that I`d need to use the machine to pull it out.

Spacing ended up being 4.5 inches between bars.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Only meshed the bottom so far, I`ll wait to plow to decide if I`ll do the upper as well.

You can see the upper bar does hold back snow, but quite a lot still comes through. I can still easily make fluff snow and big balls of hard pack come over the top. Could probably use a fourth row.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

I started fabbing up a way to mount a 3point quick hitch to my bucket. That way I can use my backblade on the front as a snowplow. Then I can push straight and angle it.

I`m assuming your machine does not have a quick attach.

 

[tarmy]

I converted an old bucket too...I went the solid route to use it for debris clean up in spring...