Grapple up, now or later?

[jcliburn]

Make sure those hoses are well secured underneath. Rolling over slash is guaranteed to result in limbs getting kicked up into the underside of your tractor. Most of the time it doesn't harm a thing, but every now and then it does. I broke off a radiator hose port and bent my step rung badly while working slash.

[Todd NE WY]

If your going to be working around downed limbs and trees you may want to re think the lines from the rear of the tractor. That much hydraulic hose with limbs and branches is an accident looking for a location. I am surprised the dealer didn't support the 3rd function now. Might want to look into an electric over hydraulic diverter. The dealer may be thinking something more involved, like a true 3rd circuit in the hydraulics. WR long makes kits and I am pretty sure Fasse does as well. Fasse is what my dealer installed for me and after reading the instructions it was basically plug and play it came with the correct bracket to mount it on my JD 4320 and they simply disconnected the lines for the curl circuit of the bucket and plugged them in the back of the diverter block and then plugged the curl function lines and the 3rd function lines in the front. They ran a power wire from the fuse box to the joystick for the switch. The only remotely complex part was the hard lines up the boom to their termination and they look like a kit from JD. Also with using the rear outlets you have to use 2 separate levers to operate your loader and your grapple. With the electric over hydraulic you push a button and switch between curl circuit and grapple. Keeping you hand in one spot can be very handy.

just my $.02

[Davinator]

Blitz,

I found myself in a very similar situation to yours several years back (over 150 acres of raw, recently timbered land with lots of tops) and opted to have the third function valve installed by the dealer and delivered with the new tractor. I have not regretted it for a moment! The grapple is the MOST used implement, second only to the box blade.

Good luck, be safe, and enjoy yourself!

[schmism]

if budget is tight.

consider a set of pallet forks with an aftermarket thumb attached. this one is popular Shop Online

this keeps your overall weight down on the front, and allows you to pull double duty with one of your front implements.

the second upside to something like this is you can get a second base plate for it and weld it to your standard bucket thus putting a "grapple" on 2 items for half the cost. (you can only use one at a time anyway)

[Code54]

I ran my hydraulic lines from the rear and have been quite satisfied.

Yep same here

[murphy1244]

Michigan Iron has a kit for tractors that run hoses from the rear ports.Michigan Iron and Equipment, Kioti Tractors, Kioti Implements, Kodiak Attachments, Befco, Hound Dog Attachments, Dk Series Tractors, Central Michigan

[Rockgod]

Do it right the first time. Get the grapple and hard lines ran right from the start then don't look back. With 20 acres you'll use these more than you know.

[mmurphydds]

I'm wrestling with that same dilemma. Hard plumbing to the front, or hoses to the rear remotes? Separate circuit, or diverter? Which grapple to get, bucket and thumb, grapple bucket, or grapple rake? After all the research I've done, and from reading the comments here, I'm leaning toward Grapple rake (tighter closing/pinching on long unwieldy pieces), hard plumbing (to prevent damage to the hydraulic lines from slash) and diverter to toggle between rear and front remotes (I already have electric over hydraulic on the joystick). But it seems to be the most capable, safest, smoothest and fastest for swapping to other implement/functions. Feedback??

[jcliburn]

If you already have electric over hydraulic on the joystick, why not just use that to operate your grapple and leave the rear remotes available for other duty?

[MtnViewRanch]

I'm wrestling with that same dilemma. Hard plumbing to the front, or hoses to the rear remotes? Separate circuit, or diverter? Which grapple to get, bucket and thumb, grapple bucket, or grapple rake? After all the research I've done, and from reading the comments here, I'm leaning toward Grapple rake (tighter closing/pinching on long unwieldy pieces), hard plumbing (to prevent damage to the hydraulic lines from slash) and diverter to toggle between rear and front remotes (I already have electric over hydraulic on the joystick). But it seems to be the most capable, safest, smoothest and fastest for swapping to other implement/functions. Feedback??

If you already have electric over hydraulic on the joystick, are those your controls for your rear remotes? It sounds like you want to run a diverter off of one of your rear remotes. Why?