Grapple Bucket LS 4041H

[Sherminator]

Learned a good lesson the other day. Chain the drive shaft protector or it will beat the paint off of everything. My bad but its painted back now.

Now to the heart of the matter. I am wanting to use a grapple bucket with my tractor. Is a 60" too big and should I stick to the smaller 48"? I am clearing property and do ALL of the work myself. The grapple will help greatly, but I don't want to "over load" the front loader. Found a 60" new, duel cylinder with 5' hose and quick attach couplers for $1095.00. The 48" , single cylinder, is $965.00. Just asking.

Not making much headway, but having a BLAST doing it.

The "Sherminator"

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

Now to the heart of the matter. I am wanting to use a grapple bucket with my tractor. Is a 60" too big and should I stick to the smaller 48"? I am clearing property and do ALL of the work myself. The grapple will help greatly, but I don't want to "over load" the front loader. Found a 60" new, duel cylinder with 5' hose and quick attach couplers for $1095.00. The 48" , single cylinder, is $965.00. Just asking.

I had a 66" single cylinder grapple and it was a bit heavy for my little S3010. Sold it and got a 48" -- MUCH better and I could lift more due to getting rid of the excess steel. There's a guy (IslandTractor) on TBN that makes a good argument that 48" is big enough for any tractor. Here's mine:

 

[BigBoyinMS]

I'll agree that, in this case, smaller is better. I have a Montana 4540 which is similar in size to your LS 4041H. I have a 66" that weighs 500lbs+. It does a good job but I know I would be happier with something a bit lighter.

 

[Sherminator]

Ok Lil' Blue, its the 4 footer. Next question, how did you run the hoses for the grapple? I have laid mine out with a water hose, but it just doesn't look right. I tried to keep it as high as possible, under the tractor, then followed the FEL hoses. Another question, is it okay to tie wrap the add on hoses to the existing hoses and metal lines? This is all new to me and its best to get advise from the more experienced.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

Ok Lil' Blue, its the 4 footer. Next question, how did you run the hoses for the grapple? I have laid mine out with a water hose, but it just doesn't look right. I tried to keep it as high as possible, under the tractor, then followed the FEL hoses. Another question, is it okay to tie wrap the add on hoses to the existing hoses and metal lines? This is all new to me and its best to get advise from the more experienced.

Actually, I took a different (and much more convoluted) route by installing an electric diverter on the FEL. You can read all about it here:

ls3010-hyd-4-one-bucket thread

As you can tell from that thread, it wasn't the easiest or the cheapest solution. BUT, it is really nice to have the fine control at your fingertips on the FEL control knob.

Check out the posts by Missouri Pioneer about choosing to go with hoses from the rear remote. Here's his first one, but there are more and I know he was real happy with his decision:

third function vs. rear remote

One thing to consider if you go with the rear remotes is whether or not you'll need to pull the loader off. If so, you might want to go with hoses with in-line QD couplers so you don't have to undo all your tie downs to remove the FEL. I don't know much about the various options on tying the hoses. I just used tie wraps to tie my new lines to whatever was close, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. You might want to use the TBN search function to get more info on that.

Good luck in any case.