2 in stock · ships from Charlotte, NC
Skeleton Buckets
Screening buckets that keep the rock and drop the dirt: land clearing, demolition sort, rock picking.
What it is for
A skeleton bucket is a digging bucket with the floor replaced by spaced tines, so soil falls through while rock, brush, roots and debris ride out. On a clearing job it removes the loading step entirely, because you are separating and stockpiling in a single motion.
Tine spacing is the whole specification. Narrow spacing (roughly 1.5 to 2 inches) retains gravel and small debris and is the right choice for demolition sorting; wide spacing (3 to 4 inches) sheds dirt fast and is what you want for rock picking and land clearing where the fines are worthless.
The tines take a beating on the ends, so ours are gusseted back to the bucket wall rather than cantilevered off the cutting edge. A bent tine on an unreinforced skeleton bucket is a field weld on a Friday afternoon.
How to size it
Skeleton buckets carry less material per pass than a solid bucket of the same width, so size up one width if your machine has capacity. The material is lighter once the fines fall through, which is the whole point. Match the tine spacing to the smallest thing you want to KEEP, not the largest thing you want to drop.
Which machines is this for
14 machines in our database take a skeleton bucket
Graded on operating weight, pin diameter and coupler style, not on a marketing compatibility list. Pick yours to see only the units that pin to it.
Straight answers
Before you order
Skeleton bucket or a screening bucket with a rotor?
A skeleton bucket is passive: it separates as you dig and costs a fraction of a powered screening bucket. A rotary screening bucket produces a genuinely graded product and needs auxiliary hydraulics. If your goal is to get rock out of dirt, buy the skeleton bucket. If you are producing saleable screened topsoil, you need the rotor.
Will it damage the tines to dig hard-packed ground?
Digging virgin hardpan with a skeleton bucket puts the entire breakout force into the tine ends. Break the ground with a digging bucket or a ripper first, then come back with the skeleton bucket to sort. Used that way the tines last for years.
Can I use one for demolition cleanup?
It is one of the best uses for it. Brick, block and broken concrete stay in the bucket while the dust and fines fall out, which cuts the tonnage you pay to haul and dump. Choose the narrow tine spacing for that work.
