Low Buck grapple build

[Ryan03]

For the past two days after work, I have been working on building a low buck grapple for the fel bucket of my farmtrac 270. The main components of it are two large scarifier teeth bought at an auction for $10.00, 1 peice of 1/2x30x3x4 angle iron, 1 peice of 1/2x32x3x4 angle iron, 1 peice of 3/8x36x2x2 angle iron, and one 15 inch peice of 1x2 inch hot finish flat stock cut into 2 4 inch peices and two 3 inch peices, total for steel including cutting to sizes listed above $57.00 10 pounds of 6013 welding rod, $8.00, one 2 inch bore 6 inch stroke hyd cyl pn.992001 northern tool, $87.00 w/shipping{do not have yet, just ordered tonight]. and a 3 way hyd control valve from the hyd deck lift of a 782 cub cadet, free, 2 1 inchx5 inch grd. 5 bolts used for pivot pins, free [had in bolt drawer in garage], total so far $162.00 ., I will need an additional 10 dollars worth of steel to mount cylinder when it comes, and I have a freind who will supply me hoses for free. Here are some pics from my phone, digital camera died tonight, so this is all I have to take pics with

 

[weldingisfun]

Lookin' good!
Keep the commentary and pics coming.

 

[scott_vt]

Mornin Ryan,
That looks like a pretty beefy grapple to me ! Lookin foward to the finished product !

BTW, your deck shoes like a bit like mine !

 

[IslandTractor]

Very nice. I think you have the proportions just right. Many bucket grapples have unnecessarily narrow grapples with means brush especially will spill out and not be held as securely. Your grapple is a bit more than 50% of the width of the bucket which to me looks perfect.

 

[Ryan03]

Yeah, I wanted a wide grapple to aid in picking up large brush piles and fallen trees around my property, I can hardly wait for the cylinder to arrive next week so that I can try it out, I am also thinking about adding some serated teeth to the front edge of bucket sides to help hang onto logs and brush, but do not know for sure if it will be needed yet, I will probably wait and see how it works first

 

[IslandTractor]

I am also thinking about adding some serated teeth to the front edge of bucket sides to help hang onto logs and brush, but do not know for sure if it will be needed yet, I will probably wait and see how it works first

I think you will find that simply trapping the log(s) in a triangle between the grapple arm and the two bucket sides will hold things steady. Serrated teeth do nothing for brush.

 

[jmc]

... I can hardly wait for the cylinder to arrive next week so that I can try it out,...

Ryan,

Assuming you can cancel your Northern order in time, You might try looking for a cylinder at a farm store like TSC. I just bought a 3" x 10" at Rural King for $75 plus tax but no freight, of course. Nothing like immediate gratification.

John

 

[Ryan03]

Thanks for the tip jmc, I did look at my local tractor supply store, but was unable to find a 2 inch cylinder with a closed pin center distance of 16 inches, all were at least 20 inches long, the only two places that I could find a cylinder with the dimensions I needed were Northern Tool and a company in near by Mentor Ohio called Granger, however the granger price was close to $200 dollars, probably a much higher quality industrial type cylinder, but none the less way out of my price range.

 

[dtd24]

Try Surplus Center - Hydraulic Equipment Electric Motors as well.

 

[MadReferee]

the only two places that I could find a cylinder with the dimensions I needed were Northern Tool and a company in near by Mentor Ohio called Granger, however the granger price was close to $200 dollars, probably a much higher quality industrial type cylinder

You are joking right, about the higher quality? Grainger is probably the highest price supplier I have come across and they sell exactly what everyone else is selling. Same exact item from Bailey or Surplus Center will be significantly less.

 

[Ryan03]

Thanks for the tips dtd24, and mad referee, I clicked on the surplus center link and was truly amazed at the selection, and the prices seemed reasonable as well. As far as Granger goes, I was just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, the price seemed realy high to me, but I did not have all the info to compare the two [made in USA or China,], warranty, etc. I will say that most times I do not buy from them because I can normaly beat their price

 

[Nuru]

Gee that looks good.

 

[joes_427_vette]

Ryan; Looks like your off to a great start. I was talking to a neighbor about grapples and how expensive they were to buy today. We were trying to figure an angle to get a shop to cut a couple. I may have to take a tour of the salvage yards again to see if I can come up with something curved and at least 1/2 " steel. By the way... nice looking GM iron in the drive.

 

[joe48]

why not use the subsoiler shanks from TSC ,they have a big selection usually. same thing that ?? used for his backhoe thumb.

 

[dtd24]

Hey Joe thats a pretty good idea. Ryan have you thought about the plumbing at all yet?

 

[Ryan03]

I given some thought to plumbing it in, Farmtrac 270s do not come with aux. remotes, however there is a dist. block bolted to rh. side of trans case just in front of rh. side axle segment, this is where my fel. valve ties in, it appears to have a spare port in it which is where I hope to get the supply for my valve, as for the return line, I was just going to plumb it from the valve back into the trans case. I thought about stacking a aux. valve on my loader valve and using the power beyond port to supply aux valve, but was concerned that this would place the new aux valve too far off the side of tractor and make it prone to being damaged, and also add 4 additional hoses to an area already "overcrowded" with hoses. I will plumb the entire thing with weatherhead hose for now, and be using 1/2 inch hyd. quick connects near the grapple to allow for relatively easy removal and installatiion of grapple, when grapple is off of machine, I will simply hook the quick connects on fel together to keep them free of contaminents, and do the same on grapple to allow for easy positioning of cylinder for installing pins. Here are some pics of dist. block under tractor and of loader valve. I have not started any plumbing yet, all pic are of tractor as it was plumbed from dealer.

 

[Ryan03]

I just finished preparing to mount cylinder today, UPS. dropped it off right after I finished my earlier post, I will attach pictures of how I made the cardboard templates for my hydraulic cylinder mounts, tomorrow, I will trace the templates onto 1 inch steel plate and cut them out with a plasma cutter. It took some trial and error to get the length of the brackets correct so that the grapple would have the range of motion that I was looking for, but I think I have it just about right

 

[joes_427_vette]

Ryan; The front chains seem to disappear into the R-4s adjacent to the lugs. Do they do any good in this position ?

 

[3RRL]

Ryan,
You are doing a great job of building that grapple from scratch. I love seeing that. Looks like the front cylinder mount has a built in gusset for strength. Is it possible to do the same for the rear, or do you think you need it there? How wide is the grapple jaw? It looks like a nice width, wider than normal but too wide.
Rob-

 

[IslandTractor]

It looks like a nice width, wider than normal but too wide.
Rob-

I think 3RRL meant to say "but not too wide". I agree and I don't know why other bucket grapples are not this wide. For some reason the more common width is about a quarter or a third of the bucket width. I think half the bucket width makes more sense and I don't see any downside. With the wider grapple you can trap more stuff, especially brush, that would otherwise work its way loose and fall out while driving with a load.