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 | jbs
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 25 Issaquah, WA 
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2004-02-10 76576
Hi all, Just wanted to know how many of you have 4 in 1 loaders and how you like them. I'm thinking of upgrading my JD 4300 bucket and hydraulics.
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 | Abbeywoods
Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 110 New England
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2004-02-11 76613
It would help to know what make and model tractor, how many horses, etc. My early experience with 4in1's was luke warm, the one I had on a CC 7275 never lived up to the advertised claims. It had a nasty habit of twisting the hinged top half if I closed it on anything substantial (rocks or big stumps) that didn't take up the full bucket width. I was forever straightening it out. It never really worked well as a grapple either, always spilled more material than it lifted. As a dozer blade, it did work fairly well pushing sand, loam, and gravel. It was no substitute for a crawler dozer. I think these units work best on very large machines. One area it did shine, grabbing a pile of mulch by just lowering the top half on the pile. ....
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| jbs
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 25 Issaquah, WA
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2004-02-11 76634
The tractor is a JD 4300 with 32hp. The 4 in 1 bucket is made by deere. How big was the tractor that you had the 4 in 1 on? ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada 
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2004-02-11 76642
I have always had a 6 in 1, which is a grapple bucket with integral fold-away forks, on one of my machines for years and would be lost without it.
HOWEVER, as my friend from Abbeywoods stated, they are a real comprimise on a light machine like a CUT. The added weight of the 4 in 1 also reduces the usefull lifting capacity of the FEL.
Mine is on a full-size TLB (see my pic. # 3) and is a far cry from what you are looking at. It is made of 1/2" high-tensile steel and is designed to mate to that machine. The fact that it is mounted on a 20,000 pound machine makes a HUGE difference too. It will easily rip a 12" pine stump out without hardly breaking a sweat, and a 16' long 18" diameter freshly cut maple log is an easy snatch & grab.
As mentioned the lighter units are very easily twisted by just the machines own hydraulics.
IMHO, you would get more use and satisfaction from a set of pallet forks instead.
Best of luck. ....
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| Oly_Mark
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 15 Oregon, Washington
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2004-02-11 76690
I have a 4 n 1 bucket on my 4310 E-Hydro. The only problem I have experience is that I wore down the cutting edge and the only solution I am told is to cut off the edge and reweld it. I think someone must sell a bolt on edge or has a better idea.
As for how it works, well I love it. I can lower the bucket over just about anything and grab it and lift. I tore some brush that was well rooted right out of the ground. It would have taken hours to do it by hand. I lowered the bucket, opened the clam shell, grabbed the brush and pulled everything out by the roots. I was working on a fairly nice house and this made the whole process of removing and replanting much quicker in a fairly tight situation.
My neighbor borrowed my tractor and moved large rocks he used to make a waterfall. I don't know how heavy they were, but they looked fairly large.
Also, I hauled large rounds of firewood by opening the clam and simply grabbing them, then lifing them into a pickup. Sure made the whole process much easier. The grip on the item seemed fairly strong. ....
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