Everyone needs a Blade Buddy!

by Nick Drew | Wed 23 Aug 2017

Everyone needs a Blade Buddy!

Blade mounted front buckets for carrying materials in are nothing new in Scandinavian markets and they are common place on wheeled excavators. However a Canadian company is now making an example for mounting on mini excavator blades.

These days you can never have too many attachments in your arsenal, helping to make one man and his machine more productive and ultimately more profitable. The trademarked Blade Buddy is yet another simple but effective attachment that will give you more options on how you do jobs, allowing you to load, carry and distribute materials and equipment without the need for additional equipment such as dumpers.

Described by the company as like “a skid steer bucket on steroids”, the attachment simply fits over most 5’ to 6.5’ excavator blades, is mechanical and requires no auxiliary hydraulics. I liken this idea to my own Diga-Bara concept only without the wheels and lot easier to drop off when not needed. One guy who has been involved in some initial field trials Brent Cadarette, who runs a landscaping business, was very impressed with it saying, “We did some of the initial field testing for the Blade Buddy and immediately saw all the benefits this unit had to offer. I was easily able to manage much more material in a single trip without the use of an additional machine. This unit allowed us to work faster, cleaner, and be more efficient on the job site. This will definitely be a great investment for my business.”

My only concern with this system would be when picking the bucket up to empty it there could be a risk of it falling off. In this example the machine is fitted with the American favourite thumb attachment which holds it in place, but its rare to see a thumb in the UK. It is understood the Blade Buddy is now available in Canada and the USA but we are not aware of availability in the UK, although I believe there are other similar makes in the market here.

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