Grapple rake for the 422/425?

[Rip]

I don't have any pics of the rake on my machine, but the www.anbomanufacturing.com site has a number of pictures that are very representitive. There are several others that are practically identical to the AnBo units, and other styles would undoubtedly work well also. The PT grapple bucket I am sure works well for many applications also.

If you are mainly interested in brush and slash, you want the biggest "bite" you can get as weight is not the problem. If you also need to handle logs, large rocks or concrete chunks, then bite is less important than strength with minimal weight so as to not allocate too much of your available lift capacity to the device itself.

On the one hand, strength and weight often go together, but the PTs also tend to be able to lift more than their rating, but watch out for the infamous PT Pucker factor.

Since I have been able to lift and transport Anything I have grabbed, I now realize I could have gone with a slightly larger grapple rake in order to grab more of the light stuff per trip. I am still very pleaed with it however, and it is unlikely to ever break or bend in my lifetime.

As you can see from the various models out there, there is more than one way to grab and carry something. To a certain extent they all work, but some will be better for certain tasks than others. The $$ also has to be taken into consideration as well as how much you intend to use it. In my case it was over 90% of my use for over 8 months.

As an aside, I am converting my trailer mounted, Honda powered BearCat chipper to hydraulic power so I can take it to the slash rather than haul the slash to the chipper. It will be a smaller version of the skid-steer chippers that otherwise are just a bit too heavy or require more hydraulic flow than my 1845 can handle. The grapple rake will then be mostly for logs.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Rip:

I talked to Terry at Anbo and exchanged e-mails with W.R. Long. The light 60" Anbo-5GRL- weighs about 400# and opens to 36" (That may be a newer model than yours.) The 5GR weighs about 650 and opens to 51"

The Long 5' unit has teeth 10" apart rather than 6", weighs 567# and opens to 70" It is less expensive, but still more than the PT grapple bucket. wrlonginc.com

Given your experience with the Anbo, what would you think the pros and cons of the three for tearing out old fence, moving logs and brush off steep hillsides, etc. ?

 

[Rip]

Charlie,

The larger opening dimention of the regular (non-lightweight) AnBo should let you grab more brush and such per load. My 1845 has never run out of omph no matter how big a log I have tried to move, so I would probably not consider the extra 250 lbs too much of a penalty for the bigger bite.

The closer spaced rake teeth of the AnBo have been nice to keep from losing too much during transport. You still have to tighten up a few times as your are going along, but I think it is more that the load is compressing than the hyd circuit is leaking down since it seldom happens when transporting a solid log (or two or three).

The closer spacing should also help if you are trying to grab vertical fence posts and pull them out of the ground. If some of them are stuck hard, either rock back and forth or hook a chain to the grapple and lift away.

With my rake I sometimes approach the pile and clamp the grapple closed but other times I open wide and come down from above and then close up. Being able to see through the rake is nice compared to opperating partially blind with a grapple bucket.

I have heard good things about W R Long however, so I am sure it would not be a bad choice either. I do not think the PT grapple bucket is as tough as either of these rakes will be, although for brush and fence posts it should work ok.

If you send an adaptor plate to whomever you chose, have them tilt it as far forward as they can when welding it.

As I remember, you have the electric diverter valve with button on the joy stick. That should work out well for this application.

I mounted a new lever on top of the dash to control the third aux valve which is a lot better than under the dash. Next I am going to add a manual diverter or perhaps another valve so the top lever always controls attachment hydraulics and the quick attach latch cylinder stays hooked up all the time. Just less to plug/unplug each time.

This winter I have had a chance to use some of the other attachments as the grapple was my main tool for the first 6 to 8 months or so. Built a boom pole that I can use with or without the hydraulic winch and can handle logs lengthwise rather than crosswise as with the grapple (good for loading a PU). Plus the chipper I am converting to hyd power.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Thanks - a lot of food for thought.
<font color="red">
If you send an adaptor plate to whomever you chose, have them tilt it as far forward as they can when welding it. </font>
Sorry - It's a little hard for me to visualize, since I've never seen a grapple in person, so I don't know the configuration where the plate will attach.
Do you mean tilt the rake as far forward as possible, so that when wide open the line from the front teeth to the back is about horizontal at full forward roll?
The adapter is welded to the PT bucket and to the Long 4 n 1 at an angle of 60 degrees to the bucket bottom. (30 degrees forward of vertical.) I assume this wouldn't roll the grapple nearly far enough forward to come down on a pile..
Right?

 

[Rip]

Charlie,

My AnBo rake is mounted nearly vertical to the PT plate about like they would mount a skid steer QA mount. While this works ok, it would have been "better" had the plate been tilted as far forward at the top as practical.

The geometry of the PT plate and lift arms is such that you can not get any tilt-back when low to the ground. Most PT attachments are set up with the female plate tilted forward as you described for this reason.

I learned this the hard way with a set of Worksaver forks that I had welded the plate vertical before I had studied the actual arm motion and then had to cut apart and reweld. Now I have "Alligator" welds - ugly, but strong.

With the plate mounted near vertical, you have more forward roll than you really ever need but no roll back when near the ground. With a nominal 15 to 20 degree forward tilt you will still have plenty of motion to come down on top of a pile with the open grapple rake when you want to.

It is not really a big deal, as mine works fine like it is, but if I was to do it again, I would put some forward tilt to the mounting plate.

You will like most any grapple rake you may get especially for a lot of brush, slash, and log handling. Good luck!

 

[J_J]

You can also change the length of the tilt arm to get more tilt.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Got it.
All I have to do now is rationalize the expense -- and come up with the money. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

J J:
Have you altered the geometry, or seen one where it's been done? Seems it can be done, within limits, but you'll always be limiting something if you're gaining some range of function.
I'll stare at that a bit, as well.

 

[Rip]

I looked long and hard at altering the tilt arm geometry before redoing my fork lift set-up which was the only real serious problem attachment I had and could not figure how to achieve a net improvement without a serious loss or interference somewhere else in the motion range. I would have settled for a 7 to 10 degree improvement at that point.

Does not mean it can not be done, and perhaps someone with a CAD system can come up with a good solution. I ended up cutting the plate loose from the fork lift frame and rewelding it at about a 30 degree forward tilt. This is more than I needed, but it does not hurt anywhere else in the needed motion range.

As far as a grapple rake is concerned. it is not critical at all. It is just that if one can just as easily mount the plate with some forward tilt you may as well do it. Unlike the fork situation, it will still work fine vertical.

 

[J_J]

It is just good reasoning, that if you add length, you will get more tilt on the down side, and lose some tilt on the up side.A tilt arm with multiple holes would be ideal. My tilt arm came with three holes, and I think that some implements need one particular setting, and some need other settings.