Grapple Andy Tatro Grapple Installation

[firefighter9208]

I finally decided on the Andy Tatro grapple after looking at several. Islandtractor and Jinman, along with others, were extremely helpful in my choice.

I spoke with Andy on a Monday, October 1st and ordered 2 grapples and 2 extra mounts. One grapple and an extra mount for me and one with an extra mount for my neighbor and friend Jim. I received the grapples on Thursday the 10th.

Here is a picture of my tractor and loader.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0172.jpg

A picture of the grapple just out of the box. You can see Jim's grapple in the background.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0167.jpg

The grapple cylinder. Chief 2x6 from Surplus Center. Andy had them drop shipped and they arrived about 2 days before the grapple. Great service.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0165.jpg

Here is a picture of the mount. I bought two so I can build a root grapple later.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0166.jpg

When I bought the Bushhog Loader I ordered the 6' heavy duty bucket.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0173.jpg

I decided to reinforce the top of the bucket before welding the mount to it. I went to a local steel supply house and bought a piece of 1/2" x 4" flat steel 7' long.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0170.jpg

Here I am cutting the steel with my $40.00 flea market chop saw. Takes about 10 minutes per cut. Man I need a dewalt saw.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0174.jpg

Trial fit.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0175.jpg

Ready to weld.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0176.jpg

I have a Miller 175 amp Mig welder that I bought myself for Christmas a few years ago.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0177.jpg

Picture of my weld. Not the best, but not the worst either.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0178.jpg

Grapple base ready to weld on.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0182.jpg

Grapple based welded on.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0183.jpg

Andy Tatro grapple mounted on the base.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0186.jpg

Front view.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0185.jpg

Another front view.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0187.jpg

I did all this work last Friday night. I went to a local tractor dealer (Branson) that makes hoses and he made my hoses on Saturday. I am operating the grapple off a rear remote on my tractor. In all I have 38' of hoses. I will post pictures of the hose routing and mounting of my quick connects in the next couple days.

Andy was great to deal with and he told me to pass his contact info along. Here it is Andy Tatro 815-688-3112.

If you notice my loader bucket is larger than normal. Andy and I spoke on the phone and I gave him all my bucket diminsions and he made the grapple longer than normal so it would reach the front of my bucket. He planned for it to rest about 3/4" off the bucket floor. If you look at the following photo you will see that he got pretty darn close.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee103/firefighter9208/IMG_0184.jpg

I did use the grapple Saturday after noon to pull up a tree in my mothers yard. The tree was about 8" in diameter and 25' tall. I pushed it over with the tractor and the picked it up with the grapple and took it to the woods. Sorry, I forgot to take the camera with me.

Chris

 

[MrJimi]

Very nice, now you can cruch 55 gallon drums like on the ebay site, just kidding

 

[3RRL]

Hey, that looks just like mine!

 

[firefighter9208]

Very nice, now you can cruch 55 gallon drums like on the ebay site, just kidding

I have 20 acres of woods to clean up. I want to clear cut some and sow pasture. Then the goats will really be happy. Here's a link to my website Hill Farm Boer Goats We have had Boer Goats about 4 years and they are fun animals.

Chris

 

[firefighter9208]

Hey, that looks just like mine!

3RRL,

You were one of the reasons I bought the Tatro grapple. Andy does great work. Thanks for your help in choosing a grapple. Man TBN is costing me a lot of money .
I sure do like the Komatsu Dozier you helped put rollers on. I better shut up before my wife walks in. I already have my 4 year old daughter trained to tell her, "Mommy, daddy needs one of those" when we drive by an Excavator or Dozier.
Chris

 

[Glowplug]

Great looking grapple. Nice work on the extra effort photo documentation during the install.

 

[firefighter9208]

Great looking grapple. Nice work on the extra effort photo documentation during the install.

Thanks. I just bought the wife a Canon EOS Digital SLR and thought I would try it out. I also told Andy I would send him photos of the installation, so I thought I would just post them here.

I've been wanting to post a project for some time, but usually don't take the time to take pictures. With this project I took my time and tried to document the entire process.

Chris

 

[BimmerPower]

Thanks. I just bought the wife a Canon EOS Digital SLR and thought I would try it out. I also told Andy I would send him photos of the installation, so I thought I would just post them here.

I've been wanting to post a project for some time, but usually don't take the time to take pictures. With this project I took my time and tried to document the entire process.

Chris

Nice! What did everything run you? I am thinking of buying two setups with two pistons, connecting them with a 'T' fitting and then having a 6 foot bucket grapple. Thanks for the write up and SLR pictures!

 

[firefighter9208]

I think the whole set up was around $750.00 (don't tell my wife). The grapple was around $450.00 with an extra mount. I chose to use the rear remote on the tractor. I went to a local tractor dealer to get the hoses made. I kinda splurged with 5000 psi hoses and used 90 degree fittings on each end. The hoses were something like 25 feet long each after we routed them under the tractor. I put QD's at the front and rear.

When the guy added up all the fittings and hoses I kinda swallowed real hard and payed him. I know a couple of the sweeping 90 degree fittings that I used were over $20.00 each. The two hoses were over $250.00.

If I had to do it again (now that I know) I would go to surplus center https://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=hydraulic&keyword=HHCB or Northern Tool and get 3/8" 3500 psi hoses with NPT ends and then buy the adapters. A 3/8" x 25' hose from surplus center is $42.00. I think I paid $3.00 a foot (not counting fittings) for 5000 psi hose in 2007.

I mounted an extra mount on my pallet forks. I like that a lot better than the one on my bucket. I welded the forks to the mount, so they won't slide around. I made sure they would fit in a pallet and then laid a bead to them. I can gather limbs w/o getting 1/2 a bucket of dirt and I can pick up a lot more weight, because the forks weigh about 1/3 what the bucket does.


Chris

 

[AlbionWood]

WANT!!!

Tell us more about the pallet fork installation... I'm thinking the same as you, want to pick up limbs, brush, and logs withthe forks rather than the bucket. Grapple over forks, kind of a poor-man's brush grapple?

If I ever get my QA adapter back, that is...