Showerthought: is a $12 laser level on a loader bucket cheating or just smart?

Elizabeth Mason · 2026-10-17T04:35:04.199927+00:00

So here is the deal. I was leveling a pad for a new grain bin outside Ames last month, and my old transit finally bit the dust. I had a laser level sitting in the shop from a bathroom tile job, the little $12 kind that sticks to a wall, so I strapped it to the bucket with a bungee and ran a string line off it. Cut my grading time from a full day to about 4 hours and the pad came out dead flat within a quarter inch. Now my neighbor swears a bucket-mounted laser is a joke and you need a real rotary unit or you're asking for trouble down the road. My cousin on the other side says half the old timers around here leveled whole barns with a water hose and a string, so why not a cheap laser. I keep going back and forth on whether I got lucky or whether we all just overpay for the fancy stuff. Curious what you all think, has anyone run a cheap laser setup like this on real dirt work and had it hold up?

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Showerthought: is a $12 laser level on a loader bucket cheating or just smart? | Agricultural Equipment - Thought Shares