FEL Grapple Build

[dkhntr04]

I thought I'd share the grapple I built for my FEL. I just finished it up this week and used it for the first time today. The task at hand was taking down 11 mature spruce trees that died this year. The grapple worked excellent and the trees were down, sectioned, and stacked in a pile in 5 hours. The grapple sure made quick work of the brush and logs versus using pallet forks, chains, and dragging brush by hand. For those who are curious, I don't have my grille guard on because the subframe for my 59" snowblower is still in place. I have the snowblower mounting system for the older generation tractors, and the blower would hit the guard at full lift if I left the guard on. I didn't feel like swapping them out for an afternoon of work especially with snow in the forecast for tomorrow.

The grapple is 46" wide. The reason for the odd width is so I could incorporate the last tine as the side of the SSQA mount. I didn't think I'd miss 2" compared to the standard 48" width. It weighs in right about 375-400# based on calculated weights of the materials. The cylinder is a 2.5"x8" I had laying around from a snowplow lift I made for a previous tractor. The tines are .5x3" A-36 and tube is 3"x.25". The grapple arm is 2.5"x.375" with an assortment of metal for the cross-tubes, teeth, and reinforcements. The pivots are 2" wide, greasable, and ride on custom turned 5/8" pins. Welds are all 6010 and/or 7018. The hydraulic hose setup is temporary for now, I will be adding permanent hoses and couplers on the FEL cross-tube later.

Here are the pics. Enjoy!

[murphy1244]

Really nice job on that.

[dkhntr04]

A couple more pics.

[Marveltone]

Nice build! Looks like you really did your homework on this. Love the action shots!

Joe

[dkhntr04]

Nice build! Looks like you really did your homework on this. Love the action shots!

Joe

Thanks. I did most of the design work on Autocad to make sure everything would fit properly. I had been thinking about how I wanted to build this for about a year before I started, so I had ample time to really think things through.

[swick1]

Looks good... and familiar ;-)

[dkhntr04]

Looks good... and familiar ;-)

Apparently we think alike! Yours looks nice from what I can see. The horizontal teeth on the grapple was actually a last-minute add on. It wasn't until I saw the whole thing together that I decided they were needed.

[bigblock]

That looks great, nice build! I have always wanted a grapple but just can't afford it right now.

Where are you getting the hydraulic power? Rear remote or third function mid?

[k0ua]

That looks great, I wish I had the fortitude to start that big of a project..

Oh, I have been told to not eat the pink snow

James K0UA

[BuzzardA91]

That looks awesome. I wish I had a 1/10th of those skills you needed to build that.