My Wicked 55 finally escaped the pallet it came on - I've been ill for several months, finally felt well enough to get some work done. My factory joystick was damaged, so when I decided to get a grapple I went ahead and upgraded the joystick to add a third function. Bought the valve from Surplus Center, and purchased all the hoses and fittings locally. This was my first venture in hydraulics, and it took me several attempts to get all the seeping stopped. I bought this grapple to help me handle brush, trees, and rocks, and went with the Wicked 55 primarily based on owner feedback on this forum. Weight was a concern, given how often I have a half-ton chunk of granite to move and the capacity of my FEL, so the Wicked 55 seemed ideal.
I started work by moving about 1.5 yards of gravel, so I got to try the new joystick on familiar terms. The new valve has about double the GPM of the original, so sensitivity was a concern. CincyFlyer posted about the same valve (
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/384911-swapped-out-fel-valve-got.html), and had good success with a similarly sized tractor, so I went for it. I found it to be a massive piece - massive size, massive weight, massive improvement. It made the original feel cheap, even though I did the whole changeover for about the price of replacing the original valve alone. Very easy to control the bucket regardless of load, and it seems faster and stronger. Makes the old joystick seem like a toy.
After I got SWMBO's gravel moved, I dropped the bucket and hooked up the grapple. This gave me the opportunity to test and correct all the connections for the third function. Travis at EA handled my order, and shipped the grapple with hoses but no connectors (at my request) which allowed me to purchase sets of quick connectors locally. Everything on the grapple was perfect, so I only had to fix my own errors.
As soon as I got that done, I gave it a light test run. I had several sections of oak tree that I'd chained up to my bucket so that I could put them where they would be in the way. Heaviest was 4-500 lbs, all were out of position. I got some immediate practice using the grapple, but forgot to take any pictures. It worked great, even when I didn't.
That led me to take on three good-sized rocks that were unearthed in the dirt work to build my shop. Those had been moved with a Bobcat skid steer, and left on my neighbor's property. No problem for the Wicked 55. I suspect that the factory 60" bucket weighs more than the Wicked 55, so I think I got a little more lift out of the FEL. The grapple also seems to keep the load closer to the pins, giving even better performance.
What an excellent addition to my tractor! Very well-matched to both my tractor and my needs. YMMV, but I'm a happy customer!
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