tilt-tatch

klaar · #1 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 12:22 AM

I am unfamiliar with this attachment from Bobcat, but I am very interested in it. Has anyone used it, and if so, in combination with what other attachments, and on what type of loader?

Bill Schwab · #2 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 10:49 AM

I'm not sure of the Bobcat nomenclature, however, Cat has an attachment you place between the iwork tool and the machine that you can tilt the work tool similarly to a 6 way blade. What is cool about that is say you are carrying a pallet full of block and you encounter a slope. By tilting the work tool, you can keep your materials level and still drive them back to the job site. Same as if you are digging a swal. If all you have is a bucket, you can tilt the bucket and gouge into the earth like the 6 in one would do. Cost wise they are about $1,500.00. We use ours all the time.

klaar · #3 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 11:23 AM

The CAT salesman with whom I am working knows nothing of this attachment. I'll see if I can find it on CAT's website. I wonder how much length it adds to the machine.

It seems to me that working without this attachment would be quite a handicap. I believe I will buy it, along with the multi-purpose bucket.

Thanks, Bill.

Bill Schwab · #4 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 11:43 AM

Klaar:

It is available through Hawthorne equipment, and I'm sure Patten tractors in the midwest. It may be called something completely different than what Bobcat calls it. You can very easily get by without this tool if you are creative as to how you would start a swale, or how you would keep materials level on slopes. In the tight spaces we operate in, it really cuts the amount of thinking down.

One other thing....I'm not sure that Cat makes this tool. It may be made by someone like Bradco.

klaar · #5 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 11:30 PM

Bill:

Yes, I think the tool would come in handy in narrow spaces where you cannot turn your machine 90 degrees to start a swale (or start cutting a level path into a side hill).

I'm also thinking of situations in the past where I've wanted to dump material in a narrow row, so to speak. I would think the tool would be helpful in coaxing a partial load (of gravel, for instance) into one side of the bucket. I realize that I should be able to dump materials from a truck, or scoop materials so as to position them in a particular side of the bucket, but it doesn't always work that way for me for one reason or another.

I will give this purchase some more thought. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight.

Bill Schwab · #6 (**permalink**) 04-25-2005, 11:44 PM

We just purchased a side dump bucket. Works very well for walls under 10' with a toe slope. In order to make the 7' to daylight rule there is a pad 6' wide so you can drive along backfilling the wall. Next we are going to get a conveyor or some type of dry rock pump. That would save alot of labor.

klaar · #7 (**permalink**) 04-26-2005, 12:10 AM

Side dump bucket for the 257B?

Sorry, you've lost me somewhat: What is the 7' rule you refer to?

Bill Schwab · #8 (**permalink**) 04-26-2005, 12:19 AM

We have a rule in the county. If your wall footing is sitting on a toe slope (a slope that drops in elevation as it goes away from the wall toe) you must have 7' from the wall face to the open part of the slope...In other words, you can put a wall on a slope unless you have about 5' under ground, or, you have to see about 6-7' from the leveling pad of flat surface. Most are the lader I described, so, a side dump bucket is the fastest way to back fill the wall if you can't get up on top....

klaar · #9 (**permalink**) 04-29-2005, 02:02 PM

To all:

I am doing grading work/ picking out rocks (6-24") with a CAT MTL. Once again it seems that a tilting attachment would be indispensable, especially working at grade changes and in narrow areas.

Please reply if you have any experience with this item. Thanks.

Bill Schwab · #10 (**permalink**) 04-29-2005, 10:09 PM

If you are grading the 6-1 blade is the best. If you have alot of rocks, a grapple bucket with a tilt tach might be the one.

Myself, being around equipment is like an addict around recovering dope heads. I could have one of everything no matter weather I used it or not. That said, you need to decide what toys in the box will be most valuable most of the time and get the special toys when you have extra cash and the need. When I see that need, like with the side dump bucket, I built the $6,000.00 cost into the first job we used it on. And since that time, it has come in handy more often than I ever knew.