I suck at using a grapple

[plowhog]

I have a Massey 1758 cab tractor, with HLA grapple.

My old demolished deck has been on a side hill for months, and I finally got a 30 yard dumpster so I could dispose of it. I foolishly thought I could approach the rotted lumber pile from the downslope side, coming up, and "Grab" a pile of demolished lumber to cart over to the dumpster. Epic fail.

Each grab, I would close the clamshell and things would push out. As I raised the grapple more would fall out. As I backed up more would fall out. If I tried to go forward for another bite, I risked running over a 2x6 with exposed nails and puncturing a tire. Once in a while it worked great, most times not.

I did find I could get near the pile, get out of the cab, manually throw all kinds of stuff onto the grapple, then get in, close the clamshell, and go dump. That worked really well.

Maybe I'm a novice (for sure) or maybe my root grapple is the wrong one. But I have a real hard time "grabbing" things on the ground such as in a disorganized lumber pile. And my HLA grapple seems really heavy on the end of my loader arms. Anything but gentle maneuvers rocks the tractor, which is probably not good.

I will say that some of the old deck pieces were intact with many nailed together boards and very heavy. I could grab those big pieces with no problem, and compared to handling them manually that was wonderful.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Pallet forks might work better. Are your rear tires filled?

I have found so far that jobs that I pictured in my mind as easy and simple, in fact, took quite a bit of practice.

 

[4570Man]

Grabbing a mangled pile lumber is nearly impossible. It either needs to be a pretty solid chunk or mostly facing the same direction.

 

[Wagtail]

Although I can't give advice regarding 'grappling skills', I can say that...

Sucking at something is the first step towards getting kinda good at something.

And so on. It's all tractor fun! :thumbsup:

 

[oosik]

Well - I HAVE more experience - Wahoo!!! I have found that grappling sections of a downed pine tree are very easy - same with large rocks. Angle the grapple almost straight down and come straight down onto the chunk of log or rock. Close and lift - nothing could be easier.

Then comes all the limbs that I chainsawed off the pine tree. Two rows - alongside each other - from each of the two sides of the tree.

I am most skilled at making a real true mess out of this situation - hey, like I said - I've got more experience. Limbs DO NOT gather well - I back drag with the top jaw to try to gather and I get a world of dirt. I use the lower jaw to go forward - push into a pile and grab - I get a world of dirt.

End up with two choices - #1) come down on the limbs and close the jaws - this means many, many trips because I have not done any gathering or #2) open jaws - go out - grab the limbs and throw them into the jaws - - this is what I normally will do.

Then again - I guess a rock & root grapple, such as I have, is not the best choice for gathering limbs, brush, scattered lumber and the like.

Fortunately - its fantastic for rocks, large sections of tree trunks and root wads. I have little to no brush and only have to deal with trimmed limbs off a fallen pine - once or twice every five years or so.

Plowhog - you have NO IDEA what - "a lot of nails in boards" means until you have cleaned up old homestead buildings. Dear old Mr Martin who homestead this property back in 1890 - never knew a spike that he did not LOVE. I finally quit with the tractor and grapple - most of the interior framework on the homestead buildings - being heavy rough sawed lumber - looked like a porcupine on each end. I don't think they ever used a spike less than 4" to 8" long.
The outside boards were all 1"x 12" or 1" x 14" - I sold all the cladding lumber to a local contractor - he used it in the rec room of one of his ultra expensive custom homes.

So - bottom line - after all my wanderings and BS - your root grapple, like mine is not the best choice for gathering. The "technique" would say - open jaws - lower until lower jaw is on the ground - move forward - do not allow lower jaw to dig into the dirt but allow it to gather limbs, lumber, brush etc. Once gathered - close jaws - lift to desired height and move to final destination.

This is all well and good but with 6" tine spacing - dirt does not fall thru the tines so very well.

 

[Citydude]

Well - I HAVE more experience - Wahoo!!! I have found that grappling sections of a downed pine tree are very easy - same with large rocks. Angle the grapple almost straight down and come straight down onto the chunk of log or rock. Close and lift - nothing could be easier.

Then comes all the limbs that I chainsawed off the pine tree. Two rows - alongside each other - from each of the two sides of the tree.

I am most skilled at making a real true mess out of this situation - hey, like I said - I've got more experience. Limbs DO NOT gather well - I back drag with the top jaw to try to gather and I get a world of dirt. I use the lower jaw to go forward - push into a pile and grab - I get a world of dirt.

End up with two choices - #1) come down on the limbs and close the jaws - this means many, many trips because I have not done any gathering or #2) open jaws - go out - grab the limbs and throw them into the jaws - - this is what I normally will do.

Then again - I guess a rock & root grapple, such as I have, is not the best choice for gathering limbs, brush, scattered lumber and the like.

Fortunately - its fantastic for rocks, large sections of tree trunks and root wads. I have little to no brush and only have to deal with trimmed limbs off a fallen pine - once or twice every five years or so.

Plowhog - you have NO IDEA what - "a lot of nails in boards" means until you have cleaned up old homestead buildings. Dear old Mr Martin who homestead this property back in 1890 - never knew a spike that he did not LOVE. I finally quit with the tractor and grapple - most of the interior framework on the homestead buildings - being heavy rough sawed lumber - looked like a porcupine on each end. I don't think they ever used a spike less than 4" to 8" long.
The outside boards were all 1"x 12" or 1" x 14" - I sold all the cladding lumber to a local contractor - he used it in the rec room of one of his ultra expensive custom homes.

So - bottom line - after all my wanderings and BS - your root grapple, like mine is not the best choice for gathering. The "technique" would say - open jaws - lower until lower jaw is on the ground - move forward - do not allow lower jaw to dig into the dirt but allow it to gather limbs, lumber, brush etc. Once gathered - close jaws - lift to desired height and move to final destination.

This is all well and good but with 6" tine spacing - dirt does not fall thru the tines so very well.

I struggled with all the branches as well after limbing a tree until I figured out to start at one end of the tree, right beside it, then start pushing to the other end. It makes for nice tight piles for the burn pile.

Now, try picking up rounds out of a pile. That's an exercise in futility.

 

[newbury]

Pallet forks might work better. Are your rear tires filled?

I have found so far that jobs that I pictured in my mind as easy and simple, in fact, took quite a bit of practice.

Pallet forks, bucket hooks, chain, magnets.

A pair (or two) of clamp on bucket forks and a chain hooked to the bucket excel at your job. Or a set of SSQA pallet forks.

Figure out the potential cost in $$ and time to repair a tire.

I'd put a pair or two of clamp-on pallet forks on my bucket, load all the torn down lumber manually, loop the chain over and haul it out.

Then use some kind of magnet bar to sweep an area before I drove on it.

 

[ericm979]

I have found that it is difficult to grab firewood rounds from a random pile with my grapple. It's an EA wicked 60". It works well for grabbing brush or tree limbs that have been piled parallel, or large tree trunks.

A counterweight on the back would reduce rocking as you move the grapple. You can also run the engine at lower rpms so the loader's motion is not as fast.

 

[plowhog]

The rear tires are loaded and I have a box blade on the back for rear weight.

Sounds like my experience is not so unusual. And yes, I thought about the amount of effort involved to repair a punctured (filled) tire. That's why I got out of the cab and started loading the material into the grapple manually. Fortunately once the grapple was loaded I didn't have to make any further effort to dump it. Unlike the small pieces-- I loaded those onto a small trailer, then drove to the dumpster, and had to handle them again to unload.

I still believe there is a learning curve and I have more experience and skill to build. For some things, the grapple excels. I moved two trunk sections of cedar trees last week-- about 36" diameter and maybe 6-8 ft long. Drove up, grabbed the trunk piece, and drove away with it to reposition it somewhere else. Compared to the lumber pile, that was easy.

 

[TractorGuy]

I've gone back and forth on what type grapple would work best for my task. I have piles of stumps and tree debris with way too much dirt mixed in. I figure a rock grapple may work better than a root grapple. In the end I might try adding dual thumbs to my bucket and use some expanded metal to sift out dirt. I am thinking I could grab a load and invert the bucket and shake the dirt out. Probably won't work though.