How well does your stump grapple work?

[Missouri Pioneer]

I'm contemplating the purchase of a stump grapple for its intended use, plus general digging where things are too hard for my bucket with a tooth bar.

My tractor is 55 hp and the front end loader can lift 2900 lbs. I'm leaning towards a 3/16" one from Mid-State that weighs 560 lbs.; the heavier one weighs 700 lbs. The price difference is very little. (I bought my grapple from them and I've been very pleased with it.)

Does a stump bucket work anywhere near as well as a small excavator? I had some work done a year ago and have seen what it could do.

Thanks for the anticipated response.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I bought the standard one from Wildkat attachments not the heavy duty one. I have used it a little, but not enough to really form a strong opinion. Based on my limited use, here are my thoughts:

1. I'm somewhat concerned about abusing my FEL trying to do any heavy digging with it, so I certainly haven't pushed the limits with it. But it certainly seems capable of handling anything my tractor/FEL could dish out. I think I would tweak the FEL before hurting the grapple. For my tractor (50hp), the heavier duty one would have been a waste of money and FEL lifting capacity.

2. Mine has a solid mounting plate, which is good for strength but really blocks my visibility when trying to see what I'm doing. When I put the teeth of it into the ground, I'm really going by feel rather than sight. I may cut a couple of "windows" in the mounting plate and weld some steel mesh or grating over it to keep brush out of my tractor's grill.

3. I'm clearing out cedar trees, which are bulky but not heavy. It works fine for that. But the grapple is narrow enough that I think I would have to grasp a long heavy log with the grapple pretty close to the center of gravity (side-to-side), unlike a wider grapple.

Here are a few pics of mine.

 

[whis]

nothing like a small excavator

 

[Coyote machine]

An ex will out dig any bucket attachment on a tractor, especially when dealing with stumps. Next best thing on a tractor is a hoe attached ripper. I just dug up several tandem trucks worth of stumps with my backhoe ripper. I have a log grapple, see my avatar, but would not want to stress my FEL with trying to dig out stumps regardless of weight or design of a FEL grapple. YMMV.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

nothing like a small excavator

That's true. I seriously considered buying a used mini-excavator. But I don't know squat about them and, other than obvious stuff, wouldn't know what potential problem areas to look for. I found a gently used, very low hour Kubota BX23 and bought it with plans to sell it when I'm done with the backhoe.