Ditch Cleaning Excavator Bucket

Overview

A ditch cleaning bucket is a wide, shallow, tilting excavator attachment built for shaping and clearing drainage ditches rather than digging holes. A normal digging bucket is narrow and deep so it tears out material; a ditch bucket is the opposite, wide and flat with a smooth profile, so it skims a long even surface, lifts out silt and weed, and leaves a clean graded channel that drains. A hydraulic tilt lets the operator angle the bucket to the slope of a bank without repositioning the machine, so one side of a ditch can be graded smooth in a single sweep.

The attachment combines the wide Bucket Shell, a Tilt Unit unit, the Coupler Mount to the excavator, a bolt-on Cutting Edge for grading, and a Drainage Grating so water and fine silt fall away as spoil is lifted.

The bucket shell

The Bucket Shell is the body that shapes the ditch and holds the spoil. Its Back Plate is a broad gently curved plate that sets the profile of the cut and cradles material as it is lifted, while two Side Wall end walls close the bucket and help cut the bank shoulders. Because the shell is wide and thin it would flex and crack under load, so a set of Reinforcing Rib ribs stiffen it and bolt-on Wear Plate plates take the abrasion from soil, gravel, and silt. A Fastener Set holds the bolt-on parts. The wide flat shape that makes this bucket good at grading is the same shape that makes it weak, which is why the ribbing and wear plates matter so much.

The tilt unit

What separates a ditch bucket from an ordinary one is the Tilt Unit. Two Tilt Cylinder rams rotate the whole bucket about a Tilt Pivot, so the operator can lay the cutting edge flat along a sloped bank and grade it smooth without crabbing the machine sideways. The tilt swings on hardened Pivot Pin pins in greased Pivot Bushing bushings, fed by a Hose Set from the excavator auxiliary circuit and sealed with an O-Ring Set. Tilt turns a two-sided ditch from a job of repeated repositioning into a steady pull from one machine position, which is most of why these buckets are bought.

Mounting to the machine

The Coupler Mount ties the bucket to the carrier. A Mount Bracket carries two bored Pin Ear pin ears that take the excavator stick and link pins, either pinned on directly or through a quick coupler. The ears run on Mount Bushing bushings and are kept greased through Grease Fitting zerks. The mount carries the full digging and tilting loads back into the excavator arm, so it is the most heavily stressed joint on the attachment and is built from thick plate.

The cutting edge

The Cutting Edge is where the bucket meets the ground. A long bolt-on Cutting Blade skims and grades the ditch bottom and banks to a smooth finish, and two End Bit corner bits protect the blade ends and finish the bank shoulders. A Plow Bolt Kit of countersunk plow bolts holds the blade flush so nothing snags. The edge is a wear item by design: it bolts on so it can be turned or replaced as it wears without scrapping the whole bucket. A straight smooth edge is what leaves a graded channel that water runs along instead of pooling.

Drainage and grating

A ditch bucket lifts wet silt and weed, and carrying the water as well would halve its useful load, so the Drainage Grating sheds it. A Drain Grating panel and a pair of slotted Slotted Plate plates in the back let water and fine silt drain straight back to the ditch while the solid spoil stays in the bucket, and a Mud Flap rubber flap keeps spoil from washing out. Without drainage the operator would be lifting and dumping mostly water; with it, each bucketful is mostly the silt and growth that needs removing.

Use in the field

Ditch cleaning buckets are standard on excavators that maintain farm drainage, roadside ditches, and field outfalls. Drainage ditches silt up, grow weed, and lose their grade over a few seasons, which floods low ground and rots crop roots, so they have to be reshaped and cleaned out. The wide Back Plate skims a long even surface, the Tilt Unit grades both banks from one position, the Cutting Edge leaves a smooth fall for the water, and the Drainage Grating keeps the spoil dry enough to spread on the bank. The same attachment is used to start new ditches and to trim the profile of canals and balancing ponds, anywhere a smooth graded earth channel is wanted rather than a rough trench.