Skid Steer Bucket Attachments

How to choose skid steer bucket attachments

Start with the material, not the bucket. Dense wet material fills the front of a bucket and puts the load far forward of the coupler, while light bulky material such as litter or snow needs volume more than strength. A dirt bucket loaded with sand and a manure bucket of the same width behave very differently on the same machine. Once the material is settled, three things follow: width, cutting edge or tine style, and weight. Width should at least cover your tires or tracks so you are not driving through the pile you just cut. Edge style controls whether the bucket slices into a bank, skims a hard surface without gouging it, or sifts material and leaves the fines behind. Weight matters because every pound of attachment comes out of what the loader can lift. Star Industries publishes struck-and-heaped volume on its LP22A heavy duty bucket at 15.0 to 21.0 cubic feet across the 60, 66, 72, 78 and 84-inch widths, which is the kind of figure worth comparing directly against the attachment you are replacing.

Bucket types in this collection

Manure and slurry bucket attachments for sale: what the terms mean

Buyers searching for a skid steer or skid loader slurry bucket attachment are usually describing one of two different tools. An open-tine manure bucket is built to sift loose or dry material and let fines fall through, which is what the Loflin Fabrication Skid Steer Manure Bucket does: 1/2-inch thick steel tines over a 1/4-inch reinforced back plate in a 72-inch width, made in the U.S.A., intended for manure, manure cake and similar organic waste. A true slurry bucket for free-flowing wet material is a different, sealed-side design that holds liquid rather than draining it. If your material is genuinely liquid, look at sealed slurry equipment; if it is packed, caked or bedded, the tine-style manure, cake manure and turkey litter buckets in this collection are the closer match. Read each product page before ordering rather than assuming the two are interchangeable.

Demolition buckets, grapple buckets and rock buckets

A skid steer demolition bucket is a heavier-plate bucket, usually paired with a hydraulic top clamp so broken concrete, wood and mixed rubble stay put while you back out of the pile. Star Industries lists the 175DG-72 demolition grade grapple bucket and the Slab Eater concrete slab bucket for that work, along with a root grapple bucket for brush and stumps. Rock buckets take the opposite approach: an open skeleton frame lets soil pass and keeps the rock. The Loflin Old Style Rock Bucket with teeth is built on 3/8-inch steel with a 3/4-inch by 6-inch cutting edge and welded-on teeth, available in widths from 36 to 84 inches, with a treaded step for safer cab access. If you want a bucket with a grapple for mixed material rather than dedicated demolition duty, the 4-in-1 combo and the Vestil grab buckets cover lighter versions of the same job.

Matching the attachment to your loader

SAE J818 defines rated operating capacity for skid steer loaders as a percentage of tipping load rather than as raw lift capacity, so a machine's advertised ROC already includes a safety margin — and the attachment's own weight eats into it before any material goes in the bucket. Compact track loaders are commonly rated on a different percentage of tipping load, so check the machine's own spec sheet instead of assuming the numbers transfer. On the coupler side, most full-size attachments here use the universal skid steer quick-attach pattern; Loflin lists it on the Old Style Rock Bucket and the manure bucket, and Star Industries builds the LP22A on a 3/8-inch plate-steel universal quick-tach. Anything with moving jaws or a hydraulic function — grapples, the 4-in-1 combo, the hydraulic concrete bucket, the power rake — needs auxiliary hydraulics, and you should compare your machine's published flow and pressure against the attachment's stated requirement before buying.

Wear, maintenance and operating cost

Cutting edges and teeth are the consumables. A bolt-on edge, offered as an option on the Star LP22A alongside standard and toothed edges, is cheaper to replace than rebuilding a worn bucket lip, and it is worth specifying up front if you work on abrasive material. Grease every pivot on grapple and 4-in-1 buckets on the schedule in the manufacturer's manual, and check hydraulic hose routing where it crosses the coupler, since that is where hoses chafe first. On job sites, OSHA 1926.602 covers material handling equipment used in construction, including rollover protective structures and seat belt requirements for loaders. Vestil's skid steer buckets, grab buckets and rock graders are made in the USA and listed with a 1-year limited warranty; check each product page for the terms that apply to the model you are ordering.