Thank you for the kind comments gentlemen.
I need a grapple! Piston what grapple do you have and how do you like it?
How much counter weight are you using!?!?
Nice wood operation !
It's a WR Long OBG-2 (OBG stands for "open bottom grapple) I purchased it a few years ago and couldn't be more happy with it. I won't go into details so we don't get off topic on this thread, but if you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.
I can't stress enough how much more efficient, and capable, my tractor is with the grapple instead of the bucket. I very rarely ever have my bucket on anymore, over the last few years, it's only been a handful of times. Mind you, most of what I do is woods work, and wood/brush handling, rather than scooping dirt/crushed stone (about the only thing I find a bucket useful for anymore.)
In some of the pics, I'm not using any counterweight. When I first bought the tractor all I had was a 6' landscape rake, lightweight model. It wasn't enough and I regularly lifted my rears as we all know. I loaded the rear tires with 1,100lbs of Rimguard and that made all the difference in the world. For the most part, I do have something on the back, typically anyone of my implements but most all are over 1k lbs and also help with stability. With nothing on the back, I can still get one tire in the air, but not both anymore.
I also raised the pressure relief setting slightly on my FEL valve, which gives me a bit more lifting power but I couldn't tell you how much. I still max out my lifting power on a semi regular basis. The picture with the large white oak log in it (in my last post) was the second log up from that tree. The butt section which I cut at 14' long, was way too heavy for my tractor, it weighed close to 4k lbs alone, so I had to "drag" it up the street for "processing"
Everyone who cuts firewood, has to deal with the "B" word, it's an unfortunate byproduct of the fuel we are processing....B***H!
There is no better way to handle brush than with a grapple, hands down, NO better way (that works on our sized tractors anyways).
On occasion, I'll use the forks on the FEL or 3 pt hitch to move pallets of wood.
Of course, grapples are useful for many other things as well. If you haven't seen the thread about grapple pics, it's a good read.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/211635-grappling-fun-picture-thread.html Also, I encourage everyone to please post some of your own pics there.
Just a sample...trying not to get too far off subject.
