Watching a kid build a sandcastle on Lake Michigan made me think about our bucket teeth

Last week I was on a break near Muskegon, watching this little guy dig a moat. He kept hitting wet sand that kept caving in, so he started angling his plastic shovel to slice down instead of scooping straight. It hit me that's exactly what we do with worn bucket teeth on the ladder. I used to just run them until they were nubs, figuring more metal meant more bite. But about three years back on a gravel job in Ohio, the foreman made us swap a set way earlier than I thought we needed. The production jump was crazy, like 15% more yardage per hour because the clean slice let the material flow instead of getting packed. Now I watch that angle like a hawk. How often do you guys actually change out teeth versus just running them into the ground?

4 comments

4 Comments

victor_nelson1mo ago

Man, that's a perfect example. I change them when the leading edge rounds off, not when it's totally gone. That little bit of lost angle makes the bucket work way harder for every scoop.

quinnprice1mo ago

Read a forum post once that said exactly what you're talking about, @victor_nelson. It called that rounded edge "efficiency loss" before it even looks worn out.

kimblack7d ago

Round edges on a bucket just mean it's getting broken in. A little curve can actually help it slide into a pile better. I've run gear for years and never noticed a real drop in work until the metal gets thin.

cora8131mo ago

It's like that with so many things. You lose a little bit of performance long before the thing actually breaks down.