Buying Advice Grapples: LP SGC0660 vs EA Wicked 55

[oosik]

Five plus years ago I bought a grapple to fit my Kubota M6040. The PRIMARY reason I chose Land Pride - the one I have is an extreme HD grapple. It's the SGC1560 - 60" wide - 820 pounds. I have NOT been able to do any damage to this implement. I use it to pick and move 1800 - 2200 pound rocks and massive chunks of my ancient Ponderosa pine. I have no brush, so to speak, here on the 80 acres.

I had the dealer install it along with a WR Long third function valve. I have never had a reason to change back to the bucket. I can turn it completely face down - lower it to the ground - close the jaws - rip out a massive chunk of earth and move it to wherever. The upper jaw will function nicely to backdrag and smooth this soil at its new location and where it came from.

I use the upper jaw to scarify and repair potholes. The longer I've had this implement - the more tasks I find to use it for.

 

[DVR]

I have the LP grapple the OP asked about.
The center channel is not strong enough as has been mentioned.
I may buy the wicked one for my other tractor in 72"

 

[Xfaxman]

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Interesting comment about the flat bottom grapples vs the claw/clamshell style. I felt pretty confident that the claw/clamshell is what I'd want. Why would the flat bottoms work better for my purpose?

This is something you can't do with a "claw" style grapple. I picked up some long brush, then opened the lids and manually picked up the rest of the small, short pieces that were scattered along the route to the burn pile:

Loaded by hand, some of the pieces are a foot long or less:

One advantage I could see is maybe it would be easier to place logs where I want say in a truck bed or on a trailer. But on the other hand, it puts the weight farther from the loader reducing what it can pick up.

When you curl down if needed, the weight will be the same distance from the loader as the claw style.

And also just based on the pics I'm looking at, it seems like if you'd want to grab a log that's too small, you couldn't actually clamp down on it?

You can clamp down on it by curling down until almost vertical and closing the lids on the log or just under the log.

Did this with small stumps:

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Pick a home residential couch or other furniture or other "stuff" you don't want to crush with a claw grapple like I have. Afraid some of you guys are thinking in terms of what you use your grapple for and not other possible uses other people would use them for. I would use mine for picking up more different materials if I had the flat bottom one but the LP claw I have require closing to hold "stuff" in where a flat bottom one would hold material with top closed just enough to keep items from falling off but not clamped/closed. Practice can not change that. And again EAs has an insert that makes teeth closer when needed for smaller rocks that fall thru/out of my LP.

 

[RoyKing]

Good examples of the long tines model. However those long tines cause large reduction in force that can be applied. The top thumbs limit what can be done. I believe that the EA will pick up more weight, but dual thumbs can clamp uneven objects. If you had large pile of brush the EA pick up more at once.

 

[eubie5]

I went back and forth on either the LP or the EA grapple. Went with LP because i could immediately use it, and i rolled it into financing. The LP is a beast and is my favorite tool for my machine.
I do love the teeth and grease fittings the EA has

 

[AndyMA]

Good examples of the long tines model. However those long tines cause large reduction in force that can be applied. The top thumbs limit what can be done. I believe that the EA will pick up more weight, but dual thumbs can clamp uneven objects. If you had large pile of brush the EA pick up more at once.

I have the LandPride & don’t have much issues picking up large piles

 

[RoyKing]

I don't want start argument thread of mines better than yours. The long bottom tines are essential a bucket without sides and a top clamping thumb. Whereas wicked approaches the uses the top thumb to draw the object to the rake. So for clearing object near a building you can use much like a hand rake, stab and draw to you. However I believe learning curve is greater in that need to master three motions at one time rather than two. The long bottom tines limit the usefulness of the top thumb to clamping only. Think of your hand picking when picking up sticks, do you use your fingers to scoop under the sticks then close the thumb, or do you reach over the sticks with fingers and draw toward the thumb.

 

[Xfaxman]

I don't want start argument thread of mines better than yours. The long bottom tines are essential a bucket without sides and a top clamping thumb. Whereas wicked approaches the uses the top thumb to draw the object to the rake. So for clearing object near a building you can use much like a hand rake, stab and draw to you. However I believe learning curve is greater in that need to master three motions at one time rather than two. The long bottom tines limit the usefulness of the top thumb to clamping only. Think of your hand picking when picking up sticks, do you use your fingers to scoop under the sticks then close the thumb, or do you reach over the sticks with fingers and draw toward the thumb.

That is not true for my grapples, evidently you have never used a L style grapple.

And Wicked Grapples are available in both styles, L style and Clamshell style.

I have owned both styles and like the L style best for my uses.

 

[jjp8182]

Thanks guys. I'm definitely liking what I see and read about the EA grapples. One thing I liked about the EA over the LP before I even really looked into them was that the EA had serrations on the teeth.

Interesting comment about the flat bottom grapples vs the claw/clamshell style. I felt pretty confident that the claw/clamshell is what I'd want. Why would the flat bottoms work better for my purpose? One advantage I could see is maybe it would be easier to place logs where I want say in a truck bed or on a trailer. But on the other hand, it puts the weight farther from the loader reducing what it can pick up. And also just based on the pics I'm looking at, it seems like if you'd want to grab a log that's too small, you couldn't actually clamp down on it?

I wouldn't worry too much about being unable to clamp down on small objects as long as the grapple tines on the bottom match up with the tines on the lid.... The pictures below are from earlier this year where I was playing around picking up (really) small stuff after having done some spring cleanup with my EA 66" Single Lid Wicked Root Grapple.

Personally I've found being able to pick up small branches/twigs this way can be faster than stopping and getting off the tractor to manually pick up every little stick/branch that may have been dropped while moving large piles of brush (not to mention it can sharpen my machine operating skills).

As Xfaxman noted in his post the L-bottom grapples can also be used like a bucket for carrying items that cross multiple ribs of the grapple. For example over this last weekend I moved several bags of mulch that had been placed on the bottom of the open grapple. This isn't to take anything away from the claw/clamshell style as I'd very much consider getting one of those (in addition to keeping my current one) if I were doing more ground engagement with a grapple. Really the bottom line is there are lots of styles of grapples and each can be used for many things, but each was also optimized for certain types of tasks (e.g. a scrap grapples, manure/tine grapples, and fork/pipe grapples). It just depends on what sort of tasks you need to do and how you want to go about doing them.