I have a 5 acre property scattered with tree limbs, brush, and misc things headed to a burn pile. I have a Massey gc2400 with FEL and I would like to find the best, most affordable attachment to help me with Fall clean up.
Do I need dedicated "Debris forks" or can I use pallet forks? I have my eye on some light duty pallet forks for about 300, most debris forks seem to be twice that much.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
Gio, I have a GC2410 and I also have quite a bit of the same kind of work. As others have said, the ideal solution would be a grapple. However on a sub compact tractor I'm not sure how realistic it would be, given the pin on bucket, lack of third function valve and the limited lift capacity of the loader. I suspect to build a grapple big enough to be functional would not leave much lift capacity left in the loader. I think the sub compacts are just to small for a real grapple that is big enough to handle the tree branches .
You might be able to work something up with a bucket thumb like
this but I'm not sure how well it would work in a big brush pile. I'm also thinking it will end up over a $1k by the time you have the extra hydraulics installed.
I use a set of light duty clamp on forks. I end up manually stacking up a big pile of brush on the forks, wrapping a chain over the top of the pile (I have chain hooks on the bucket), and driving to the brush pile. It's still work, but a lot easier than dragging it by hand. I also have a fork stabilizer but I have not needed it yet. I clamp the forks on tight and they seem to stay in place ok. I would not spend the extra money on a stabilizer right away. Try the forks without the stabilizer and see. I should add the light duty forks I have are rated for 1200lbs. Relative to the GC, they are very rugged. They weigh about 35lbs each. I would not want a heavier fork on the GC. They would only be that much more awkward to handle and take away from lift capacity. The light duty forks are actually heavier than what a sub compact needs.
As to the Debris forks vs the pallet forks, the debris forks are quite a bit shorter. You won't be able to carry as much brush per trip. I also suspect you will have a difficult time seeing the tip of the debris forks because they are short. The close tine spacing is nice to keep the little stuff from falling through, but you could clamp a piece of 1/4 in plywood onto the pallet forks as well.
So I think the options are a set of light duty pallet forks which you will use for all sorts of things but still require some manual labor, get a 3ph
chipper and take care of the brush that way (big money however) or get a bigger tractor with a QA bucket and a real grapple bucket.