Ellicott buckets outlasted my IMS on the same job site

Ran a project last fall on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge where we swapped from IMS series buckets to Ellicott heavy duty on the same ladder dredge. Two months in, the IMS buckets had already lost 15% of their cutting edge mass. The Ellicotts barely showed wear after five months. Cost difference was about $90 per bucket, but the downtime from swapping IMS buckets three times ate any savings. Has anyone else run a direct comparison on wear rates between brands on sandy clay?

2 comments

2 Comments

barbarahill24d ago

Man that's rough about the IMS buckets. Ran into a similar situation a couple years back with sandy clay down near Vicksburg and the wear difference was night and day. Had a set of Ellicotts that went a full season before needing a hardface touch up, while the other brand we tested was basically done after one summer. Seems like the extra cost upfront is worth it when you figure in the labor and lost production from swapping buckets all the time. Been there with the downtime, it's maddening.

rose_young24d ago

But doesn't the extra cost per bucket eat up any savings on labor if you're swapping them less often?