I've got an L2501 with the 66" SSQA bucket. I've done a good bit of grading and moving/loading wet and heavy clay soil and rocks with that bucket, and it IS right-sized to the machine for that type of work. Backhoe is always on for counterweight.
Where I run into trouble is when I'm cleaning up around the property. I typically fill the loader bucket by hand with trimmings from bushes, sticks, shrubs I've pulled out, etc. In fact, right now, we're shoveling out all our old mulch beds and putting new in, and the actual cubic foot capacity and shallow depth of the 66" bucket is VERY limiting. Same thing when I move firewood. The bucket fills up very quickly, but I have plenty of weight capacity left on the loader and end up making lots of trips to either my dump trailer or the compost pile.
I'm thinking of getting a larger bucket specifically for general yard cleanup/mulch work, and have been looking at either a 66" or 72" light material/snow mulch bucket. The ones I have found so far are intended for skid steers, but still look fairly 'light' for their capacity, weighing in ~400lbs for just under a cubic yard of capacity. Doing the math, it seems like even with the 400lbs of steel in the bucket, I'd still be able to fill or nearly fill that bucket with things like mulch, firewood, and general yard waste. The stock 66" bucket is ~1/3yd capacity for comparison.
Curious to hear from other folks that have gone down this rabbit hole already on how it worked out, if they like what they have, and/or what they would have done different.
Where I run into trouble is when I'm cleaning up around the property. I typically fill the loader bucket by hand with trimmings from bushes, sticks, shrubs I've pulled out, etc. In fact, right now, we're shoveling out all our old mulch beds and putting new in, and the actual cubic foot capacity and shallow depth of the 66" bucket is VERY limiting. Same thing when I move firewood. The bucket fills up very quickly, but I have plenty of weight capacity left on the loader and end up making lots of trips to either my dump trailer or the compost pile.
I'm thinking of getting a larger bucket specifically for general yard cleanup/mulch work, and have been looking at either a 66" or 72" light material/snow mulch bucket. The ones I have found so far are intended for skid steers, but still look fairly 'light' for their capacity, weighing in ~400lbs for just under a cubic yard of capacity. Doing the math, it seems like even with the 400lbs of steel in the bucket, I'd still be able to fill or nearly fill that bucket with things like mulch, firewood, and general yard waste. The stock 66" bucket is ~1/3yd capacity for comparison.
Curious to hear from other folks that have gone down this rabbit hole already on how it worked out, if they like what they have, and/or what they would have done different.
