Scott65
Silver Member
You are not going to break your bottom tines believe me. The only way to break or damage a grapple with a CUT is to twist it. If you center loads before you lift then you cannot twist or hurt the grapple. Your FEL simply isn't strong enough even if you can lift both rear wheels off the ground. If you don't ram into things off center you won't damage either the grapple or the FEL either.
This sounds like a challenge... I think I'm gonna go run the tractor around for a bit.
I agree though. I'm no engineer so I can't vouch for every design or thickness/type of metal used. I didn't use anything special on mine. And no mathematical calculations, cad drawings, etc. I used my favorite method, eyeballin' it. I made a straight edge across the bottom to pinch stuff against the bucket, to pull branches out of trees and whatnot. After being very rough with it, abusive really, I bet that edge would nearly hold water still. As stated, the tractors lack of power and weight to gain traction probably keep it from exerting enough force to cause any real problems. And the hydraulic system is weak enough to keep you out of too much trouble as well. I've clamped on things with just the corner tine, full pressure, and still closes tight.
The weight savings is an interesting idea though. I had never thought about it but that is quite a limiting factor with a cud. I wonder how well something like this would hold up made of, let's say, aluminum? That would be pretty sweet.
Edit: Those references to metal types are Greek to me too. Somebody point out if that is a type of aluminum...