A Practical Skid Steer Bucket Buying Guide

Of all the skid steer attachments we offer here at Spartan Equipment, our skid steer bucket attachments are some of our most versatile.

We also offer a lot of different types of skid steer buckets, many of which are highly specialized.

Here are some things you consider to help you make the best choice in your purchase of a new bucket attachment for your skid steer.

What Are You Going to Use It for? (Different Types of Skid Steer Buckets)

This is the most important question you need to answer before you get a new skid steer bucket, as your use for the attachment will determine what style and size to get.

Some of the most practical bucket attachments we sell are categorized as follows.

• Low Profile Buckets: Low profile skid steer buckets have a low profile which ensures greater visibility. They are configurable with or without tooth bars and can be used for excavation, construction, landscaping, grading, and general purpose applications.
• Long Bottom Buckets: Long bottom buckets are what they sound like - they have a longer bottom, no curveballs here. This design gives them a better degree of rollback angle and greater visibility, moreso even than our low profile buckets. Also configurable with or without tooth bars, they are used for the same purposes as our low profile buckets, but thanks to their longer bottoms and greater capacities, are more practical for grading, leveling, and carrying materials.
• Track Duty Buckets: Our track duty buckets are made from heavier duty steel to better withstand harder use and harsher conditions. They are also configurable with or without tooth bars and are suitable for construction, demolition, aggressive excavation, and carrying heavy materials.
• Snow/Litter Buckets: Snow and littler bucket attachments are optimized for volume. This makes them ideal for pushing, loading, lifting, and moving snow, dirt, and other loose materials, although they are not as appropriate for excavation as heavier-duty bucket attachments. They lack teeth but can be configured with tooth bars and cutting edges.

One Skid Steer Bucket, Many Uses

When looking through a collection of skid steer bucket attachments, remember not to get too lost in the details. While these bucket attachments are specialized to accomplish specific purposes, one bucket can perform many tasks.

In general, bucket attachments are useful for:

• Lifting and loading materials like sand, gravel, rubble, feed, salt, fertilizer, rocks and other debris
• Moving and compiling snow
• Excavation
• Leveling, compacting, grading, and landscaping
• Transporting root balls
• Construction and demolition
• Disaster cleanup
• And many other uses

Teeth or No Teeth

One thing you will need to consider when looking at new skid steer bucket attachments is whether you want a tooth bar or not.

Tooth bars, which can also be welded or bolted onto many types of bucket attachments, increase the efficiency with which the attachment can dig through compacted materials and loose earth.

If you are primarily going to use your bucket for excavation and moving earth, tooth bars are probably a valuable investment.

Side Cutters

Side cutters, like tooth bars, improve the bucket’s efficiency at cutting through earth and compacted materials. If you are only going to use the bucket for pushing snow and leveling land, they may not be necessary, but if you are going to use it for excavation or construction, they can be a valuable feature. 

The Importance of Wear Bars

Most quality skid steer buckets are made with wear bars on the bottom of the bucket. All things being equal, you should get an attachment that has them. They help prevent the bottom of the bucket from wearing through and will substantially extend the lifespan of the attachment.

Choosing the Right Size

You also need to give some thought to the size of the skid steer bucket you need.

The size you choose must be appropriate for the application. For instance, larger buckets with longer, wider bottoms will be better for pushing material, leveling, grading, and compacting earth, whereas smaller buckets will be easier to use for excavation purposes.

You can also choose a bucket size based on what material you intend to lift and load (if that is your intended purpose). To do that, you will need to calculate the capacity of the bucket and estimate what the weight of the heaped capacity would be, with respect to what material you intend to move.

Other Types of Specialized Buckets

In addition to the skid steer buckets mentioned above, we also sell a wide range of other, highly specialized bucket attachments for skid steer loaders.

• Grapple Buckets: Grapple buckets are made with manipulable tines that can be used to grapple a load with greater dexterity, hence the name. These buckets are perfect for moving logs, rocks, roots, construction, demolition, or disaster debris, and much more.
• High Dump Buckets: High dump buckets are specialized for one particular application, and that is loading trucks and hoppers. They are engineered to deliver extra lifting height and are perfect for loading earth, gravel, salt, sand, fertilizer, feed, and other loose materials.
• Stump Buckets: Stump buckets are also highly specialized. They are optimized for digging underneath, and ripping out, stumps.
• Rock Buckets: Rock buckets are specifically designed to load and move rocks, and have slotted bottoms that allow finer materials, like gravel and sand, to filter through.

• Side Discharge Buckets: Side discharge buckets are designed for lifting light materials like sawdust, mulch, ash, feed, and straw. They’re perfect for placing landscape mulch, filling stalls, and backfilling trenches and ditches, among other uses.
• Tine Buckets: Tine buckets lack a solid bottom and instead have a row of tines in its place. These are useful for cleaning up fields and barns, as they can be used like a bale spear to lift hay, straw, grass, and brush.
• Combination Buckets: Combination buckets have a wide range of uses but are primarily used for lifting and loading materials as the bottom of the bucket swings away to allow for easy release.

Skid Steer Bucket Attachments That Never Surrender

Spartan Equipment’s skid steer bucket attachments are made in the United States from American steel and powder coated for extra corrosion and wear resistance. They will Never Surrender.

They are also optimized for compatibility with a wide range of most major makes and models of skid steer loaders. Consult our catalog or get in touch with us at 1-888-888-1085 if you have any questions before purchase.