Re: Need help with Grapple 101...
I had a small 2WD Kubota B7200 in the past and found it to be very limited in what it could do. When considering the purchase a couple of years ago for a tractor for the (new) farm, a friend recommended that I not buy anything less than 50 hp. I followed his advice and am very glad I did.
Leave the cab tractor outdoors until you can afford a barn. We do. Don't make an expensive mistake. My .02.
Re: Need help with Grapple 101...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
IslandTractor
Decent set of QA pallet forks costs $500-600 and is marginal for brush. Decent lightweight 48" grapple costs $900 and is the ideal tool for brush removal. Pallets are great for what they are designed for which ain't brush. Sure they can lift brush and if you balance everything just right and curl it will stay in place unless you hit bumps but pallet forks clearly cannot handle large brush piles which need to be clamped in position to travel. Pallet forks might well be fine for moving logs in a yard but again, if you drive over uneven or bumpy ground you are going to want to secure those logs with the upper grapple arm. I've seen pallet forks married to a grapple arm and that would work much better but then you have about the same cost as a regular grapple. Using the human hand as an analogous device, imagine piling objects onto your fingers and palm and carrying those around like a waiter carries plates. It works if you maintain perfect balance. Now imagine the same load in your hand but hold it in place with your thumb. Much better (which is one reason we have thumbs). You can also reverse your hand and pickup objects with your palm down so long as you use your thumb. That is what a grapple can do, either scoop (palm up) and clamp or "finger/thumb" pinch grasp objects. Forks are limited to straight open palm type lifting. Great for plates (and pallets), not so good for irregular or loose objects.
He is right of course.. BUT I have moved a lot of brush with my QA Pallet forks. Just enough brush to ALMOST make me spring for a Grapple, and I probably will at some time. But my point is you can get by with a set of pallet forks, and yes they are about half the price of a grapple, and not near as good for moving brush, but they excel at moving pallets:) And I have moved some brush piles so big I could not see around them. Yes on most of them I had to get off and stack the brush all one way. Sometimes you can get under a pile and just pick it up with the forks without getting off and stacking. So bottom line.. yes the grapple is best, but you can still do a lot with forks. It is like a lot of things, you can "make do" and "get by" with a lot of things that are not ideal but will work.
James K0UA
Re: Need help with Grapple 101...
The other cost for a grapple that has not been brought up dollar wise is the additional cost of the remote to operate the grapple. Don't get me wrong, a grapple IS THE WAY TO GO, but it is going to cost a lot more money. :(
Re: Need help with Grapple 101...
I used forks at first to move brush. They work, but the best way to do it is to manually pile brush on them, or it all falls off if you try to scoop it. Logs can be done too, but you need to get them perfectly balanced if they are long, and if you hit a bump or tilt the tractor slightly, they fall off and you have to start again. When I got the grapple, my clearing efficiency went up by 10x. Plus you can also move firewood and firewood rounds with the grapple, and you can't with forks (not without adding something on). You stay in the seat a lot more with the grapple than the forks, so you get a lot more done in the same time. My grapple has almost been the only attachment I have used in the past 2 years since I got it. The only exceptions are the bucket for dirt/gravel and the forks for an occasional pallet or other lifting task and moving rocks for my retaining wall.
Cost is an issue, as noted. A grapple will set you back closer to $2k by the time you do the 3rd function plumbing and buy the grapple itself. It can come in cheaper, depending on how your tractor is set up, but there are significant additional costs there beyond just buying the grapple. Forks run about $600-700 around here for something decent. In either case, you really want your tractor to have the SSQA on the FEL (Skid Steer Quick Attach on the Front End Loader). Which brings up another point - you MUST get a loader for the things you are discussing. You can get by without a grapple, for sure, but it is such a huge efficiency boost, you won't know how you managed without it.
For that size acreage, as everyone has noted the BX is way too small. In a Kubota, a B may work but could still be on the small side. I have the smallest Grand L (3130) and wish I had one with a bigger engine for my 10 acres of woods. I would say you are in L/Grand L or even the larger MX or M series range for your size land. Those are only Kubotas as I don't really know the other brands, but that is the size range I would look at, no matter the brand, IMHO.
