Hill Farmer
Silver Member
I have gotten an add on grapple to weld onto the bucket of my loader. This will be going on a 94 Belarus 825 with a Great Bend loader and 6" bucket. When trying to fit things the other day I decided it fit best setting up about 2 inches. In the pic I have it setting on a 2X2 tube scrap that was laying around, but will be using a 1 3/4 X 2 channel that will weld all the way across the top of the bucket. It may be overkill, but I don't want to warp the bucket and also wanted a solid place to weld on some chain hooks.
If I go this way, the grapple will like about 8 inches closing fully against the cutting edge of the bucket. My reasoning was that I would prefer it to open wide rather than close fully. Do the folks that have one and have some seat time with it see a problem with this? Does it really need to close all the way? I guess I just could not picture myself needing to clap down on anything smaller than the 8". Visabilty on this tractor/loader combo is terrible, not sure I could really operate it well enought to grab something smaller anyway. This project is a first for me, so I'm looking for opinions. Here are a few pics.
If I go this way, the grapple will like about 8 inches closing fully against the cutting edge of the bucket. My reasoning was that I would prefer it to open wide rather than close fully. Do the folks that have one and have some seat time with it see a problem with this? Does it really need to close all the way? I guess I just could not picture myself needing to clap down on anything smaller than the 8". Visabilty on this tractor/loader combo is terrible, not sure I could really operate it well enought to grab something smaller anyway. This project is a first for me, so I'm looking for opinions. Here are a few pics.