Kena 3pt log grapple

[PapaPerk]

Yeah, been thinking about the 12" minimum opening and how that might not be all that great. The 50-100hp Ryan unit is $5,500 list. Very very nice looking unit for sure!

Ouch. Big money! But **** u already have plenty invested. What's another 5 thou! Lol

Just remember... No one is better at spending your money than others. So don't let us make u make a big decision!

[PapaPerk]

another vote for a skidding winch, You can move more wood per turn with a winch, you aren't limited to just one large stem per trip, you can stay on your wood roads and not track up the forest, you can skid up or down things that you wouldn't be able to drive to with the winch. I am constantly amazed at how much I can pull with my skidding winch. Plus I can focus on keeping the woods roads clear and don't have to worry so much about using my tractor in the woods or impaling something important.

Imagine how much he can skid per turn with that green beast!!! I vote for the winch too! Or the high dollar claw!

[bubbacuse77]

What a novel, simple design. This company is right up the road from me. Wish I had a need for one

[crazyal]

I think it's just suspended by a chain. It self centers by gravity.

I wonder if you used a trailer axle spindle, something heavy duty with tapered bearings between the boom and the grapple (maybe chains on both sides).

[Piston]

I'm surprised I missed this thread a while back as 3pt logging grapples are crazy interesting to me

I did take a look at Addington Equipment. Their website doesn't really have a lot of information. I understand it is more or less a one man operation and there is wait time of a couple of months. Not that would necessarily be an issue. I'll call him up and find out what he would have that would be a good fit for my tractor.

The thing with the addington grapples (at least from when I talked with him over a year ago) are that they are meant for pretty serious work, and the price shows. He gave me a price of right around 7k dollars for a grapple for my tractor. Also, those are made of AR400 steel which although your probably not going to break, if you did, it's harder to weld back together.

The LX5100 is definitely too small for your tractor.

So looking at the grapple/rotator specs, would this be a better match?

Valby GR50, 50" BYPASS LOG GRAPPLE & R45 360ｰ HYDRAULIC ROTATOR | eBay

Maximum Gripping width is 50-3/4"
Minimum Opening is 3-1/2"
Max Lift Capacity is 3080lbs
Height in the open position is 26-3/8"
Height in the Closed Position is 19-1/2"
Width of the widest Claw is 11"
Working Pressure Rating is 2900psi
Jaw Steel thickness is .403"
Jaw Material is Raex 640
Grapple weight is 210lbs

My 3pt hitch lift capacity is 5700 lbs @ 24" back from the lower arms, btw.

I spoke with Valby as I almost bought the GR36 model grapple when I was going to build my own. They advised me that although these grapples are used for heavy lifting, they are not designed for the pulling stress that a 3pt grapple would be putting on them. I'm not sure if they would or would not hold up (I imagine they would) but the nice lady at Northeast Implements kindly talked me out of what I wanted to do, and instead recommended they're cheaper skidding grapples that are designed for that work, although, I don't like their design either.

The Ryan grapple seems very well built and a good value. Also, have you checked out the Iron and Oak Grapple? I was told that Ragan Equipment has them for sale for $1900 and that is a very well built grapple. You may want to look into their model.

Check out a thread I had going on another forum for some really good 3pt grapple information.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/i...?topic=55898.0

Also, there has been some recent discussion on this thread about the Iron and Oak as well as the Ryan Equipment. Ryan did not have their grapple when I was looking, so I didn't include it in my searches a while back.
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/i...c,48936.0.html

[Piston]

I would stay away from the Kena unit, based solely on the fact that it is not a true bypass grapple, and you will most certainly find times where you wished it closed tighter than 12"!

Regarding the winch, it sounds like you can get access to most logs you will skid. I say forget the winch and stick with your thoughts on the grapple. I have wished many many times that I didn't have to get off my tractor to hook something up. I don't have a winch, but I imagine the convenience of the log grapple is well worth it.
My problem is very similar to yours (seems like we do a lot of similar work, you just have much nicer stuff ) I have issues with using my FEL grapple for getting logs out of the woods, because my woods are too tight to carry an entire log out in my grapple. I need something like the 3pt grapple to fit between trees. I've thought a lot about a winch, but ultimately for me, I'm not skidding crazy long distances, I'm not in production so it's okay if I only skid one tree at a time, and I don't want to get off the tractor, call me lazy???
Imagine how much fun you'll be having when your logging on a cool misty day, you back up to the log, clamp down on it, and go. None of this getting out of your nice warm cab, grabbing chokers with wet gloves, hooking up, winching in, back in the cab, get your greasy wet gloved hands all over your nice clean interior of your beautiful tractor, and do it again all day.

One thought would be to get something like the Addington, take good care of it (all my implements are in a machine shed and well maintained), and then sell it once I'm done. I would imagine a good quality one would hold its value well if taken care off. I'm sure I would come out well ahead of hiring someone to all this tree clearing. Besides I love working in the woods.

The issue with a grapple of this cost, is not that it wouldn't hold it's resale value, it's finding someone who is willing to pay a high price for a skidding grapple. Even a good discount off new for the addington would be 4 grand or so, most people won't spend that. If you could buy the Addington for 6500, use it, and sell it for 5k or so, great, but I don't think you would find a buyer very easily.

I recommend the Iron and Oak not from my own experience, but from another's experience who I have talked a very lot with regarding his grapple. He logs for a living, day in and day out. Granted, he doesn't have as big of a tractor as you, but he has used it for years and years without any problems. He welded a hydraulic winch to the main portion of the grapple frame and uses it when he needs winching. He also has a metavic forwarding trailer he uses almost all the time now, but still has use for the grapple. He is a true logger, not like you and I who do it more for the fun of it.
(Bill, are you a member on here???)
I may be borrowing his grapple next month to work on my land some more, if so, and if you haven't bought one by then, I will let you know how I like it from personal experience.

Although the Iron and Oak, as well as smaller Ryan's, aren't rated for your 85hp tractor, I do think that if you took it easy and didn't skid Redwoods out of the woods, you'd have a hard time breaking one of these. One issue with your impressive rear lift capacity, is that you do have the ability to tear up anything that is not super heavy duty, however, although you have over 5k lb lift capacity, I doubt you'll find a tree that weighs nearly that much on your land. (really, it would have to weigh double that since your only lifting half.)

Sorry for the long winded and rambling reply, I just get excited about these types of things.