Benefit of 72” (vs 60” or 66”) root/rake grapple?

[mikester]

Thanks everyone for the input. I greatly appreciate it. Rustyiron brings up a great point that I'm definitely keeping in mind. Tractors are not dozers and loaders are designed to lift, not push.

I do have some stumps, but my plans is to hire an excavator to pop them out, then I'll lift them with the grapple and put them where I want (I've spoken to two, but since it's been radio silence--I think anyone in that line of work, even at small-scale, is insanely busy these days with the real estate/housing and construction boom). Other uses are large-ish rocks (maybe up to 1,000lbs? I really have no idea how much a small boulder weighs), but not "digging" the rocks, only lifting them and placing them else where if they're in the way. I imagine using the grapple with rocks and stumps at most 5-10% of the time. Most of the work I envision will be lifting and moving logs (up to 16' saw logs, but most 8-10' firewood logs), and moving some brush piles around (but not pushing brush/roots around).

As far as the 72" vs 60" I guess what I like about the 60" is I can get a much heavier duty grapple but still keep it in the 800lb range. There's nothing special about 800lbs, but those heavier duty 72" grapples start running 1,000lbs+ which I fear starts limiting lift capacity and making the tractor front-heavy.

I don't really like the L-shaped/bucket grapples. They seem great at scooping large piles of brush and they're a bit lighter (due to lighter steel I imagine) but from my standpoint the clamshell-style looks to be a better fit.

Want to buy mine? I'll tell you which L-shaped one I want and we can do a swap!

 

[Bullwinkle123]

On my MX5400, I find my grapple + hydraulics doesn't have the oomph to lift some rocks nested in the soil that I'd expect. So a lighter/narrower grapple might be of use (greater lifting potential) if you expect to pry any rocks out with your grapple (which some people will say isn't the best way to pry out).

On the other hand, if downed trees with lots of branches and brush to pick up is your thing, a wider grapple with as narrow tines as possible will do a better job scooping, retaining, and traveling with a grapple full of debris without losing it between the source and target desitinations. I carry my brush to an out of the way brush pile, so everything I don't drop is a win.

I wouldn't think an extra heavy duty model buys you much, personally, unless you intend to really abuse the thing. Lose 400 lbs on the grapple, gain 400lbs of lifting power.

 

[Maplechuck]

I've talked to another dealer locally too (JD dealer) about the grapple specifically. Very fine people and helpful. But ultimately I think I'm going to buy the grapple online, save a $1,000 or so. They don't seem to have any better answers for me.

Now, if I was going to go the bucket-style ("L-shaped") grapple, how does this one look? One concern is the opening height on this style grapple is only 30" (compared to close to 50" on many of the clamshell, whether that be Landpride, EA or Titan). My other question is does this style grapple allow you to pick up and carry rocks? It seems with the two clamps, rather than upper tines, the grapple could struggle with large rocks.
Before you jump, I can assure I don't plan on "digging" rocks or using my loader like an excavator w/ hydraulic thumb. But I'd like to have the option of picking up and moving rocks and stumps that are already at the surface level.

72” Heavy-Duty Root Grapple Rake Attachment

The Titan 72" grapple bucket is ideal for picking up and moving, rocks, logs, brush, debris, and other odd shaped or hard to lift material.

www.palletforks.com

 

[dadster4]

I think the only advantage of a wider grapple is picking up a larger volume of lighter weight material. I have a EA Wicked 55" grapple I used for moving rocks about 3' round and 12" thick, which is the most I could lift. Moving large hickory logs 20-22" and 9' long is just a matter of finding the center of balance, not anything a wider grapple would help with.

 

[Rustyiron]

I believe that 2 "clamps" is more forgiving for odd shapes exactly like rocks and stumps. When the first clamp closes against the load, the 2nd will continue to clamp until it hits enough resistance to firmly clamp both sides equally.
With a rigid wide single clamp, the first resistance is going to be all the clamping you get and if that happens to be all the way to one side....
I can carry at least 2 stump firmly with dual clamps with one under each "clamp".
There's got to be YouTube stuff out there. As for the 30" opening, with brush and the proper grapple action, I can grab a 5' tall pile with a rolling motion ending up with a straight down pushing and clamping motion that compresses the brush pile. For all other applications 30" is way too big of a rock or stump anyway.

 

[jjp8182]

Don't think I have many pictures of it, but I have used my 66" version of : Single Lid Wicked Root Grapple Lightweight Strong Large opening

- to move a great deal of vegetation. Everything from cleaning up heavy windrows of overgrown (most above 6 foot tall) grass/weeds that were pulled out into windrows with a box blade to trees/branches that were measured to be 30-40ft long. Have also moved some stumps and from my experiences (which aren't infinite) it's far more likely the loader will be running out of lift or curl capacity, before things start to get beyond a 30"-40" opening capacity on a compact tractor. For example using the log weight calculator at: Timber and Lumber Calculators at WOODWEB a green 30" diameter 10 ft log of pin oak will weigh around 3100lbs.

As for 1 vs. 2 lids I'm of the opinion it's entirely personal preference as either variety can get at least three points of contact to hold the object securely in most (if not all) situations. ....and with either it's helpful to keep the load balanced & centered as it's not exactly fun to have the tractor start tipping to one side due to an unbalanced load. Given good technique usage (e.g. I always try to have the hinge point directly over the top of what I'm about to grab) it can be relatively easy to force as much material into the grapple as it can hold ....which can be quite a bit since the hydraulic pressure applied to the grapple lid can be sufficient to bend/snap/crush small brush (or at least with the one I use).

Just my $0.02 though

 

[AndyMA]

I have a LandPride 1572 on my MX5200 and it works fine both for grabbling brush, digging rocks & light stumping (up to about 6") the clam shell is stronger for digging as the lever arms are much shorter

Andy

 

[DieselBound]

I don't do much in the way of rocks. Lots of branches, AND, tree trunks (IMO, wide works better in such instances):

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As mentioned, don't use a grapple to push stuff (I was trying to be careful by I ended up over-rolling the grapple and busting a bucket cylynder rod):

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[goeduck]

As mentioned, don't use a grapple to push stuff (I was trying to be careful by I ended up over-rolling the grapple and busting a bucket cylynder rod):

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Ouch.

 

[Maplechuck]

I don't do much in the way of rocks. Lots of branches, AND, tree trunks (IMO, wide works better in such instances):

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  IMG_20170613_145127581.jpg

  7.4 MB · Views: 256

As mentioned, don't use a grapple to push stuff (I was trying to be careful by I ended up over-rolling the grapple and busting a bucket cylynder rod):

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Did KTAC cover the broken cylinder? Pretty amazing what it will cover.