k0ua
Epic Contributor
I have been thinking (yes I know the dangers ) of adding a small bush and sapling attachment to my excellent EA Wicked grapple.
When the grapple closes, the upper lid and lower tines meet in 4 places but only on the ends and only a small area.
Sometimes if the sapling is big enough you can get at grip on them and pull them out of the ground, but more often than not they slip sideways between the upper and lower incisors, and they slip off. There are things like rose bushed, blackberry bushes and saplings under 1 inch in diameter that you just cant pull.
Sure you can dig these things up with a lot of ground disturbance or you can cut them off to grow back soon. I wanted to build something to actually pull them out without getting off of the tractor and without tearing up too much ground.
I started this afternoon on it. One goal was to make something easy to put on and off, be able to see its action between the FEL and the tractor body, to be inboard of the FEL loader arm, and hopefully to make no modifications to the grapple at all.
I have a good start on the lower clamp pad, I still need to weld in a stiffening spine on the back of the clamp pad, and perhaps some ugly rough 6011 beads for holding power on the pad face. The upper clamp pad will be more difficult and it not fully 100 percent solidified in my mind yet.
Today was a much cooler day, and this fat boy appreciated that.
Pictures follow:
View attachment brush 2.jpgView attachment brush 3.jpgView attachment brush 4.jpgATTACH=CONFIG]480470[/ATTACH]View attachment brush 6.jpg
Pay no attention to these lousy welding beads. :laughing: I haven't welded in a while and it shows. And my auto darkening helmet stopped working for some reason. I switched back to my old jackson. These weld beads wont matter anyway, they just keep the piece from falling off, the clamp pad will be in compression during use, and bear on the grapple tooth anyway.
When the grapple closes, the upper lid and lower tines meet in 4 places but only on the ends and only a small area.
Sometimes if the sapling is big enough you can get at grip on them and pull them out of the ground, but more often than not they slip sideways between the upper and lower incisors, and they slip off. There are things like rose bushed, blackberry bushes and saplings under 1 inch in diameter that you just cant pull.
Sure you can dig these things up with a lot of ground disturbance or you can cut them off to grow back soon. I wanted to build something to actually pull them out without getting off of the tractor and without tearing up too much ground.
I started this afternoon on it. One goal was to make something easy to put on and off, be able to see its action between the FEL and the tractor body, to be inboard of the FEL loader arm, and hopefully to make no modifications to the grapple at all.
I have a good start on the lower clamp pad, I still need to weld in a stiffening spine on the back of the clamp pad, and perhaps some ugly rough 6011 beads for holding power on the pad face. The upper clamp pad will be more difficult and it not fully 100 percent solidified in my mind yet.
Today was a much cooler day, and this fat boy appreciated that.
Pictures follow:
View attachment brush 2.jpgView attachment brush 3.jpgView attachment brush 4.jpgATTACH=CONFIG]480470[/ATTACH]View attachment brush 6.jpg
Pay no attention to these lousy welding beads. :laughing: I haven't welded in a while and it shows. And my auto darkening helmet stopped working for some reason. I switched back to my old jackson. These weld beads wont matter anyway, they just keep the piece from falling off, the clamp pad will be in compression during use, and bear on the grapple tooth anyway.
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