Attachment answers / Buckets
What is a severe-duty bucket and when do I need one?
Short answer
A severe-duty bucket adds abrasion-resistant plate, a full wrapper, extra wear straps, heavier side cutters and reinforced pin bosses. Specify one for rock, shot rock, recycled concrete and demolition. For dirt it is the wrong buy - the extra weight comes off your payload.
Last reviewed August 2026 · Quarrymark Attachments sales engineering desk
Severe duty is a wear package, not a strength class. A standard bucket in the correct tonnage band is already strong enough for the machine driving it. What severe duty buys is service life in material that removes metal.
What is actually different
Abrasion-resistant plate - AR400 or AR500 grade - on the wear surfaces instead of mild structural steel. A full-length wrapper, so the outer skin is continuous through the radius where a standard bucket has a weld. Additional bottom and side wear straps that take the abrasion and can be replaced. Heavier side cutters, usually bolt-on so they can be renewed. Thicker doublers around the pin bosses, because rock work puts shock into the linkage that dirt does not.
Some severe-duty buckets also carry weld-on shrouds between the teeth, which protect the lip itself - the most expensive part of the bucket to repair.
When you need one
Blasted or ripped rock. Recycled concrete and demolition debris, where rebar is as damaging as the aggregate. Shale, caliche and heavily cemented material. Quarry and pit work of any kind. Anywhere you are currently replacing side cutters more than a couple of times a year, or where a standard bucket's heel has worn through inside a season.
When you do not
Topsoil, sand, clay and normal site excavation. In those materials the extra plate is 15-25% more empty weight for wear life you will never consume, and that weight comes out of your payload on every single cycle for the life of the bucket. Over a few thousand hours it is a slower machine, more fuel, and no benefit.
Skeleton buckets are the adjacent tool
If your problem is separating rock from soil rather than surviving rock, a skeleton bucket - a bucket with a slotted or barred bottom - is the right tool. It sifts fines through the bars and leaves the rock, which is what you want for site clearance, rock picking and demolition sorting. We build them with teeth, in severe-duty specification, because they see the same material.
Does a severe-duty bucket hold less material?
Slightly, yes. Thicker plate and internal wear straps take up volume, and the profile is often a little flatter. Expect a small capacity reduction alongside the weight increase.
Can I add wear plate to a standard bucket instead?
You can, and it is a common repair. It is not the same as a bucket built with a full wrapper and heavier bosses, because the reinforcement stops at the skin - the load path underneath is unchanged.
