HCJtractor
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2009
- Messages
- 1,544
- Location
- upstate South Carolina, Greenville
- Tractor
- Kubota M6800, Massey Ferguson 240
In my humble opinion, that bucket grapple would be worthless for what I use my grapple for. Buckets are for picking up material, such as mulch, sand, dirt, etc. (like a shovel) A root grapple is like a large pitchfork, as it can be stabbed into brushy debris and limbs and clamp them, but most important, it can be used like a spade, to plunge under a root ball of a tree to uplift and up root it, pick it up, shake off the dirt, and move it anywhere. The wide blade of a bucket isn't good at digging with the limited power of a compact tractor, just like I would not use a snow shovel to dig up a tree, but rather a spade, which is more like a narrow grapple. Putting a upper thumb on a bucket might have limited use to keep whatever you pick up from falling out, but seems compromised. My analogy is if you are trying to shovel up a big pile of limbs, how effective would a snow shovel be as compared to a large pitchfork? Try picking up limbs with a bucket. It just doesn't work well.
As far as limitations of a open grapple, the only one is that it allows dirt to fall through, but to me, that is an advantage, not a limitation. If I want to pick up dirt, I will put on a regular bucket. Why do you need a upper thumb to hold dirt in a bucket? Also a grapple would allow small rocks to fall through. My spacing is about 4", so not much escapes. I can still pick up globs of dirt, if it is not too loose. Trust me. Once you use a grapple, nothing is as effective for cleanup, uprooting trees up to 5 or 6 ", picking up logs, or large rocks. I used to dread cleaning up chain saw cuttings, but now it is fun. My hands never have to touch the stuff.
As far as limitations of a open grapple, the only one is that it allows dirt to fall through, but to me, that is an advantage, not a limitation. If I want to pick up dirt, I will put on a regular bucket. Why do you need a upper thumb to hold dirt in a bucket? Also a grapple would allow small rocks to fall through. My spacing is about 4", so not much escapes. I can still pick up globs of dirt, if it is not too loose. Trust me. Once you use a grapple, nothing is as effective for cleanup, uprooting trees up to 5 or 6 ", picking up logs, or large rocks. I used to dread cleaning up chain saw cuttings, but now it is fun. My hands never have to touch the stuff.
