Little Giant 6.5 Gallon Rubber All-Purpose Tub (HP650)

Details

This is the tub to reach for when the job involves cold. It is moulded from corded rubber rather than plastic, and Miller rates it crush-proof, crack-proof and freeze-proof for use indoors or out, all year. It holds 6.5 gallons, measures 18 inches across by 8 inches high, and has handles moulded into the sides. The difference shows up in February. Rigid pails go brittle below freezing and crack the first time they are dropped or kicked; rubber flexes and returns to shape, so a frozen tub can be turned over and stomped and the ice knocked out without destroying the tub. That one property is why a rubber feed tub outlives three or four plastic ones in a western Canadian yard. Rubber is also softer on stock. A horse that paws at a feed tub, or a cow that puts a knee through one, is far less likely to get cut than with split plastic. The moulded handles give a real grip through mitts, and the wide, shallow shape is stable enough that it stays put when a mare drops her head into it. Feed, water, soaking, washing or hauling, it does all of them.