Well today I got to use the grapple quite a bit. The first surprise is that I didn't use it for what I was expecting, which was grabbing piles of brush, I used it it for root raking and for digging / grabbing rocks. The second surprise is that it is WAY stronger than I expected. I think I abused it today and nothing got bent and none of the welds broke. :cool2: I swore I was not going to use this for digging rocks but I was leveling a small area that I just cleared and I kept hitting friggin rocks (I forgot how bad it is here). I thought about getting the excavator but figured I'd give the grapple a go and it performed very well. I was surprised at the size of some the rocks I dug up with it. The first few times I hit the rocks I was using the grapple as a root rake and the tractor stopped dead in it's tracks, with a shudder. I thought for sure the grapple would be all bent out of shape but no. I switched to using a box blade to level and find the rocks, then dig with the grapple. I am very pleased with the way this turned out. Oh, the single lid is definitely better for grabbing large rocks.