Get a Grip

[jinman]

Recently I purchased a rock bucket for my tractor. I have lots of rocks on my property and using a normal bucket, even with a toothbar, was less than ideal. The rock bucket I bought is a Houle 5-foot bucket with 1-1/4" tines.

It didn't take me long to see three things:

1. I'm gonna love using this rock bucket because I can see exactly what I'm doing with it at all times. There are no blind spots. I can pick up rocks with it like stooping over and picking them up with my hand. The ridge in the tines holds the rocks in the "basket" while I lean the tines down to dislodge additional rocks.

2. I need more rear ballast.

3. This would be a ideal for handling brush and deadfall if I had a grapple to grip with.

 

[jinman]

So this is where I saw ol' PineRidge getting help with his grapple from Andy Tatro and I decided to get the Iron Horse Grapple kit to mount onto my rock bucket.

My plans include:

1. Make the grapple removable by using U-bolts

2. Do as little welding as possible because I weld like old people tap dance.

3. Use small 1/4 in. hoses and fittings with a small orifice to give me good control. I'll use the third remote valve on my tractor to control the grapple.

Here is the Iron Horse Grapple as I received it from by UPS. The hydraulic cylinder was sent by a separate shipment.

 

[jinman]

To mount the grapple to my rock bucket, I needed a flat beam inside the tines on which to set the grapple base. I chose 4"x 2", 1/4" wall tubing for the beam. Because I wanted to use off-the-shelf u-bolts, the maximum length was around 7", so I had to be careful how I constructed the beam. Here are the pieces being cut and end caps being welded on. This will follow the style of my rock bucket.

 

[jinman]

If I had made the beam 4" x 4" for all it's length, my u-bolts would need to have been 8" long. to mount it to the bucket. By leaving only the single 2"x 4" tubing on the ends, I was able to use the u-bolts I had.

When I got read to install the beam, I had another surprise. I couldn't get the u-bolts in position without removing the rock bucket from the quick-attach plate. In these pictures you can see how I made backing plates for the u-bolts out of 1-1/2" x 1/2" channel. All these pieces are cut 6" long, drilled, deburred, and painted black.

The beam installation went just as expected.

 

[jinman]

My first real snag came when I realized the u-bolts I was planning on using to mount the grapple base to the beam were too darn short. I had absent-mindedly ordered 5" bolts when I needed more 6" ones. Well, after a trip to the store, I continued on (One nice advantage of using readily available parts). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jinman]

With everything mounted and torqued down tight, it's now time to take the angle grinder and cut off the excess bolt ends. I'd already managed to snag myself twice on those long and sharp bolt ends. Notice also in this picture that there is a 1" pipe behind the grapple base. That was needed for fill since the grapple base is only 3" wide.

 

[jinman]

I don't see any need to bore you with the details of how I ran my hoses. I just put quick connects on the loader so I could remove the rock bucket, and I put a quick connect right where the loader quick connects are so I could remove the whole loader. The last quick connect was the rear remote adapter. I just routed hoses like the loader hoses/tubing is routed and attached the hoses temporarily with cable ties until I can find a better solution.

Well, here is my grapple in all it's glory. Open wide... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[jinman]

Does anyone hear Jaws music playing in the background? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[jinman]

Slight underbite. I may have a solution for this. It will depend on Andy Tatro making me a couple of extra pieces to extend the bite.

 

[jinman]

There's only one way to fill a mouth like this.

 

[jinman]

Give the "boy" something to sink his teeth into. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jinman]

Don't talk with your mouth full. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[jinman]

Celebrate with a high-five. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[slydog]

Great Job Jinman! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Sure wish I had a FEL.

 

[daedong]

Jim,

One mean looking bucket and claw, It would be great for handling citrus branches. Can you send one downunder, this is how to get it here.
Head down the east coast of OZ then go between the main land and Tasmania, head due west to you get to Kangaroo Island then turn back North and head up the Murray River about 200 miles /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MarkV]

Jim, great project, well documented and isn’t it fun to have a new tool to play with. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Do you know the combined weight of your rock bucket and grapple setup?

MarkV

 

[jinman]

<font color="blue"> Slydog: </font> I had a tractor with no FEL for 8 years before getting my New Holland. The immediate jump in productivity was amazing. Now, I got the quick attach plate for my FEL and I instantly have another jump in productivity because I can so easily change out implements. I think tractor dealers should give away the quick-attach adapters because after getting one, you are gonna spend a lot on attachments. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

<font color="blue"> Daedong: </font>Let's see, the only boat I own is shown in the attachment. How long do you think it will take me to get to the Murray River? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

<font color="blue"> MarkV: </font> The bucket weighs a little over 500 lb, the attach plate about 150 lb, and the grapple and beam about 100 lb. I'd guess I'm pushing 750, but that might be a little high. My loader doesn't have any trouble handling the load, but I can pop my rear tires off the ground in a heartbeat. That rock bucket adds at least another foot to the length out front. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[PineRidge]

A couple of words from ol' PineRidge /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Jim for your application I don't think there's a better bucket/grapple combination out there. Ill bet before long you're going to have one heck of a pile of rocks stacked up in an out of the way corner on your property. And you'll get your work done in a lot less time than if you were using your stock bucket. I can see the real advantage if being able to see the rocks that you're trying to scoop up. That open tine design is really nice.

Let's see a quick attach, a rock bucket, and a hydraulic grapple why I'm thinking it must feel like Christmas around there in the middle of February. Jim enjoy your new toys, er tools! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[dullpain]

Jim - I suspect you severly underate your welding talents. Where in the world did you find that rock bucket, never seen anything like it. Really great job on a neat, worksaving device. Just wish you were closer so I could borrow or steal it. Oh well off to the web to search for a rock bucket, need another project to build.

 

[RedRocker]

That'll work Jim, good job.