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Alex...I have a MF35/Perkins diesel and used a borrowed scoop when I first got the tractor, then bought a used one for $50 last spring. I don't have a front loader, which would be better for lots of things, but much more expensive, and I'm not sure I'd want the hassle of mounting and unmounting, and don't think I'd care for the weight balance and visual obstruction of having one there full-time. When I bought the tractor, I was sure I wanted a front loader, but now I think I'd pass unless it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up. :) The scoop works great on loose dirt, but you can't really do any serious digging with it, especially if the ground is flat to start with. I have a 3 ft. drop at the edge of my yard that we extended with spare dirt when we excavated for our new barn. It's well packed, but I can easily dig at the edge from below. I had also tried digging a shallow trench with the borrowed one by dragging with the cutting edge angled down as much as my adjustable top link would allow. It worked OK until the scoop caught and rolled forward enough to flip the scoop over forward striking and destroying the top link. $25 for a new link was a cheap lesson learned. I find it extremely useful for gravel, loose dirt, digging into slopes, and I understand it's pretty good for cleaning out ditches, though I've never used it for that. I also use it to pick up and tote things around the place - just like lots of folks do with a front loader. On flat ground, I use a disk, spring tooth, or subsoiler to loosen up the dirt, then the scoop to remove it. It's a good low cost and uncomplicated alternative to a front loader. You should be able to find an old used one. Not too much can go wrong with them since they are so simple in operation, but you might want to make sure the pivots are free and not tight. Mine are a little tight and with a light load, it doesn't dump well. Also, I've found that the load needs to be balanced right to dump. We used it to move dirt that was in a place we couldn't scoop so had to load by shovel. Of course, we filled the back first and most. When it came time to dump, I could barely roll it over and dump it by hand. If you are interested in buying a new one, I know King Kutter has them - I think in two sizes. You can do a search on King Kutter and see them on their web page.
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