Brush Grapple, Clamshell type

Type

Attachment

Anyone seen a used skid-steer compatible brush grapple for sale within 150 mile radius of southern Maryland ?

Ideal would be clamshell type 66" wide or even 60" wide, with heavy tines, rear hyd cylinders, etc. Closest model to desired unit would be the 66" Extreme Duty Root Rake Clam Grapple made by SkidSteerAttachmentsDepot in Ala. or identical unit made by Mid-State Attachments in Denton, NC.

 

[oosik]

JWR - you could be in for a long wait. Most who have a grapple find them very useful. Here in North Eastern WA state - finding ANY used ag implement is like searching for water in the Atacama desert. Every implement I own now - exactly seven - had to be purchased new. This includes my Land Pride grapple. Best of luck.

 

[Rustyiron]

There are a few spring sales coming up around Frederick County that are pretty big consignment sales.
Cochran & Wolfe are 2 of them and they both have websites with their auction listings.
J.G.Cochran Auctioneers and Associates LTD Home Page

Wolfe Industrial Auctions, Inc.

unfortunately the smaller items like that will usually only have a mention and no individual picture.

 

[JWR]

Good leads Rustyiron. Aside from spectacular luck, the auctions are probably the best/most likely places to find what I'm after. To Oosik's point -- I may well end up having to "buy new." I'll scroung around all the equipment auctions I can, within reason, and then worst case go buy new.

Thanks guys.

 

[JWR]

Post-mortem/Follow-up:

After beating the web to death and asking many sources, I contacted an auction company near York, PA who had previously run auctions here locally in Southern MD. Turns out they stock quite a lot of grapple inventory not pictured on their website. Sent them the specs by email on what I wanted /considered ideal for my application. Had response & pictures early next morning, packed the truck & got on the road. Less than 24hrs from the initial thought to call them I bought it and was back on the road to the farm for hook-up and testing.

Got what I wanted -- 66" heavily built, 2 cyl activated single upper clamshell, long tines. Good visibility from my tractor seat. Pre-made hoses and connectors fit. Tested it the following day on various logs, limbs, debris. Very satisfied. Less cost than essentially identical units of 2 other brands I had spoken with at factory locations. Did have to buy new but at what I considered a very reasonable price. Happy ending.

I must say my adventures rarely go this well. I kept waiting for some calamity worthy of a cartoon that just never came.

 

[sd455dan]

Pictures ... We love pictures

Congrats on the new Grapple:thumbsup:

 

[JWR]

Pictures ... We love pictures

Congrats on the new Grapple:thumbsup:

That's a dangerous thing to say to me, considering how many pictures I take...

This is the grapple I bought:
The teeth are replaceable and the pivots are all fitted with lube zerks. My only (minor) complaint is that I wish the teeth pointed up
slightly rather than being "level" with the lower tines. The reason is that you have to keep the grapple almost 100% curled to avoid it gouging into the ground while scooping along gathering limbs and debris before clamping. Many mfrs make that distinction between root grapples and brush grapples.
(Not turned up versus turned up.) The terms are not standardized in the industry.



This is a sample of the ones in stock at McGrew Equip. in PA:

They said most of their grapples are from the Wildkat source, the same as "mid-State" which is from Denton NC.
There are several apparently incestuous mfrs in that part of NC. The model I bought is absolutely identical to those from
Skid Steer Attachment Depot in Brownsboro Alabama (also called Pro-works). There is also a model of the Titan brand that appears
identical and I think they come from Denton, NC too. Titan is carried by many dealers as well as Amazon dot com. The Titan units are a little
more expensive (plus I have an ethics problem dealing with Titan which would only be described off-line.)

 

[oosik]

Hey - JWR. Glad you found a great looking grapple. I like the looks of the tines - reinforced. Don't sweat the - turned up/not turned up feature. It won't take you long to get it down pat. It's all in practice.

Again - that is one fine looking grapple.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

So, why is this in the 'for sale' section? Are you selling the grapple?

 

[Grateful11]

That's a dangerous thing to say to me, considering how many pictures I take...

This is the grapple I bought: View attachment 604553 View attachment 604554
The teeth are replaceable and the pivots are all fitted with lube zerks. My only (minor) complaint is that I wish the teeth pointed up
slightly rather than being "level" with the lower tines. The reason is that you have to keep the grapple almost 100% curled to avoid it gouging into the ground while scooping along gathering limbs and debris before clamping. Many mfrs make that distinction between root grapples and brush grapples.
(Not turned up versus turned up.) The terms are not standardized in the industry.



This is a sample of the ones in stock at McGrew Equip. in PA: View attachment 604555 View attachment 604556

They said most of their grapples are from the Wildkat source, the same as "mid-State" which is from Denton NC.
There are several apparently incestuous mfrs in that part of NC. The model I bought is absolutely identical to those from
Skid Steer Attachment Depot in Brownsboro Alabama (also called Pro-works). There is also a model of the Titan brand that appears
identical and I think they come from Denton, NC too. Titan is carried by many dealers as well as Amazon dot com. The Titan units are a little
more expensive (plus I have an ethics problem dealing with Titan which would only be described off-line.)

I was going to say those look like WildKat grapples. We've drove by their factory, if you can call it that, several times. They have probably 200 grapples on their yard. Our son got his grapple from Southern Implement Depot just east of Denton. It was made by Loflin Manufacturing, supposedly. I've always been told they all worked together at one time and there was a falling out and they all went separate ways. There's CID, Loflin, Wildkat, Unlimited, Mid-State, and think there's a couple more.

Here's the 60" one he got for $800. works great.