pclausen
Veteran Member
I spoke to Tom Addington about his 3pt grapple. He designed the grapple in-house (in addition of course to the boom). They are now using 2 cylinders, one for each jaw. There is a timing valve so that both close/open at the same rate. No rotator, but grapple mount has return to center springs (like the Wallenstein). A really cool feature is that it uses a hydraulic top link (which I already have on my tractor) so that you can bring the grapple in towards the tractor and extend it out as needed for the task at hand. The weight of the unit is over 1100 lbs and the grapple is attached to the boom with a 2.5" diameter pin.
He has yet to have a customer break one. Lead time about 4 weeks right now. Only bad news is the price, $6,295. Somewhat less since I already have the hydraulic top link, but probably still around the $6k mark. Once I see the pictures, I'll see if he would perhaps be interested in selling just the boom portion, and I could then add a Valby grapple. I'm interesting to find out how much of the cost if the grapple vs. the boom.
He said one of the main reason for not having a rotator is that most people don't have 3 rear remotes (top link, grapple, rotator). A lot of customers only have a single remote and he then sells them a diverter valve so they can switch between grapple and top link.
He has yet to have a customer break one. Lead time about 4 weeks right now. Only bad news is the price, $6,295. Somewhat less since I already have the hydraulic top link, but probably still around the $6k mark. Once I see the pictures, I'll see if he would perhaps be interested in selling just the boom portion, and I could then add a Valby grapple. I'm interesting to find out how much of the cost if the grapple vs. the boom.
He said one of the main reason for not having a rotator is that most people don't have 3 rear remotes (top link, grapple, rotator). A lot of customers only have a single remote and he then sells them a diverter valve so they can switch between grapple and top link.