Millonzi on Kubota finally!

[justcountry]

Well everybody here it is. I finally got my grapple project done and as propmised, here is the write up. I owe most of this input from a LOT OF GUYS ON HERE! LArry G and Island Tractor mostly. I started by ordering the vlave and block from surplus center. About 150$ from them.

 

[justcountry]

Then I ordered the 48 LD grapple from Jackie Luster at Millonzi- 845$ plus shipping. A little over 1000$ bucks to me.

 

[praha]

great, congratulations.
What 'bota model tractor do you have?

Joe

 

[praha]

3130 I see.

 

[justcountry]

Next I started getting all my fittings together. That's where all my time was absorbed. I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to my tractor. I wanted it to look good. I built a basic bracket to hold the quick connects when the grappl is not on. I also found a boat control trim and tilt to manage contoling the grapple open and closed. The cool thing about it was the switch is weatherproof and very sturdy. If someone was REALLY handy, you could probably find a really nice boat control.

 

[justcountry]

Well today I finished it up, I used it a little bit before today, but I just prettied it up today. for those of you wondering, my tractor is a 04 L3130. It's my second Kubota from Alan Page at Gatorland Kubota in Gainesville. He's a straight shooter. Anyways, here's some of the grapple on the tractor. If anybody has questions about anything I did, PLEASE feel free to ask, It was a project I'm really glad to have accomplished myself. All in all, I have about 1500$ total in it with all my own labor. take care Mike

 

[justcountry]

I also ordered a lot of fittings and the hose protection from discount hydraulics. Theres probably some info I'm forgetiing, but I'm sure someone will ask.

 

[RedRocker]

Looks like they've made a couple of changes since I bought mine.

 

[IslandTractor]

Looks like they've made a couple of changes since I bought mine.

I like the way they have used slats rather than a solid piece to form a shield for the hyraulic ram. I've never had any problem with my older version that has no protection but I'd always thought it was critical to have good vision right through the grapple which was impossible with the typical solid shield. Looks like you can still see exactly what is in front of the grapple so you'll be able to position it more precisely.

I can detect at least one other subtle change which is that they extended the lateral support pieces for the jaw tips. That will help protect the tips from bending with a lateral force. Don't ask how I know.

I've heard the side tines are now 1/2 inch steel. I haven't had any issue at all with the original 3/8 inch tines even using it aggressively to dig out rocks with the DK40se loader which has a breakout force of about 3700lbs. Still, I guess a bit more steel on the ends is OK as it doesn't raise the weight more than 25lbs or so.

Here is a photo of the older style for comparison.

 

[lincolnvt]

Great post - very nice job with the fittings and valves etc... Thanks for posting and have fun!

Brad

 

[digicamnut]

Mine shipped Friday! Can't wait

 

[justcountry]

That tractor looks great with the grapple on it, really mean. Yea Millonzi did add those flat bars to protect the cylinder. They also did beef up the outer tines to 1/2". I customized mine by redoing the lines on the grapple. I didn't like the 90 degree JIC fittings they had and I also wanted my hoses to be even when I hooked them up. It looks like they just make all the hoses on length, which makes sense, but seeing how one fitting is at the front of the cylinder and one at the rear, of course they end up being two different lengths when you hook them up. Like I said I'm kinda a perfectionist. I also took about a 3" U bolt I had laying around and bolted it to the center of the rear grapple to route the hoses and keep them in the center. I noticed they just kinda swung around as they pleased, and it looked like they might have got caught in the handles for the quick attach pins.