Grapple design help

[Stomper]

Has any one made a grapple out of tubing or pipe. I know I have seen a few grapples builds made from 2" square tube but can't remember where. I have an abundance of 1.75" OD x .120" wall ROP tubing that is left over from a few side x side cage builds that I have done. Its very stiff and tough stuff and I wonder how it would hold up for a light weight grapple for cleaning up brush and moving logs around for fire wood. The logs I would be moving would be mostly 8" ish to maybe 12" and smaller. They would be cut into 8" lengths. I would like to use some of this stuff up and this would be a great project for it. I have lots of it. I have all the tube fabrication tools, hydraulic tube bender, tube roller, tube notcher, plasma cutter, welder, mag drill and the Bend Tech Pro tubing software to create anything I can dream up. The cage and bumper that I built for my RZR is extremely strong and solid and this has me thinking. These are the only pictures I have of the cages I built

 

[Stomper]

Heres a shot of my tube bender I built and a few of the cargo rack I built for my sled

 

[Stomper]

The more I think about this, the more I think it will not be strong enough. It would probably be strong enough for the intended use mentioned above but knowing myself I would probably use it to lift something really heavy and wreck it. Bad idea

 

[Langanobob]

As far as being strong enough, I think that will depend on how you design it. From the looks of your work it would be fine. One of the reasons grapples aren’t normally built from tubing might be the expense compared to steel plate, but if you already have tubing on hand that’s no issue.

Is that a GotTrikes bender? I have the plans but haven’t got started on it. How do you like it?

 

[Stomper]

Yes it is a got trikes but its slightly modified. I gave it a bit of a lift kit and added a longer stroke cylinder so I can bend a 100 degree bend in one stroke with out having to repin the die. It works great

 

[Deerherd]

My grapple has a lot of round tubing, quite a bit heavier but maybe gives you some ideas.

 

[Stomper]

Thats a nice grapple. Thanks for the picture. I was thinking more of the tines being tubing. I could use my tube bender or tube roller to bend the desired curvature. I was thinking the more tines I put in the stronger it would be. I remember seeing a build thread somewhere where a guy built one out of 2x2x1/8 square tubing

 

[/pine]

Just remember the power you are dealing with when you put a hydraulic cylinder on a moving part...
I first made a thumb grapple using 3/16" wall square tubing...bent it all to heck and ended up redoing it with heavier material...design efficiency plays a big part in it...

 

[Stomper]

Thats why I started second guessing my original post