My Grapple Project (part 1)

[kubotabilly]

WhiteRock,
Yes, that was my original plan. I must have looked at that photo a million times and just could not get the design to work. Here's my theory, there are alot of factors that come into play here. 1) The depth & height of your bucket. 2) the design of your arms in relationship to your bucket size. 3) The degree of rollback that Kubota's larger loaders have is either 40 or 45 degrees, that's alot of rollback. I feel the downfall of my "L" shaped arms was the fact that they extended too far out in front of my bucket therefore I had to mount the cylinder farther back to accommodate my opening that I wanted to achieve. It didn't work out or else I gave up to quickly /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

Bill <font color="black"> </font>

 

[notamustang]

<font color="orange">I was so frustrated over the “L” shaped arm dilemma that I vented my frustrations by buying a Millermatic 251 mig welder . I feel a lot better now . Big Blue does a mighty fine job!!! (pic16)
</font>

I am glad you feel better I feel a little worse /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Looks great Bill, I do have a legit question though. PineRidge moved his center tooth on his bucket over to allow for tighter closing of his grapple, do you see this as a problem or are the new arms close to the plane of the bucket edge and not foreseen as a problem? Thanks Steven

 

[kubotabilly]

Steven,
I adjusted the grapple via the clevis on the front of the cylinder. The adjustment allows me to keep my center arm
off the center tooth and saves me revamping the toothbar /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

Bill

 

[PineRidge]

Bill looks to me like you are back on track again.

<font color="blue"> I adjusted the grapple via the clevis on the front of the cylinder. The adjustment allows me to keep my center arm
off the center tooth and saves me revamping the tooth-bar .
</font>

I thought about doing the same and I also thought about moving the lift arm off-center an inch or two but when I set in the saddle seeing the center lift arm off center would drive me batty. I opted for repositioning the center tooth on my tooth-bar as it only took about 45 minutes of additional time and all 3 lift arms close tight against the buckets edge.

Keep posting those pictures your project looks great!

I also have some left over New Holland blue paint I can send you for when the grapple is finished, you are getting close. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[kubotabilly]

Part 4 - Moving right along

Good evening everyone. After attaching a few gussets to the bottom tube, it’s ready to be remounted. (pic 17)

Bill

 

[kubotabilly]

This is the mount I made for my front hydraulic outlets. I ran the hoses to my rear outlets for now and will no doubt buy a solenoid in the future and mount a button on my joystick like Pineridge & others have done. (Hydro pic )

 

[kubotabilly]

Time to finalize the cylinder mounts. Once in place, they were tacked, I mounted the 2 x 8 cylinder from TSC. (pic 18)

 

[kubotabilly]

All remaining hydraulic plumbing was completed and a restrictor was added to slow down the cycle time. The restrictor has a 1/32” hole and was purchased at TSC. Just in case the hydraulic police are watching, these fittings are all high pressure compliant and are not the garden variety black pipe fittings. (pic restrictor)

 

[kubotabilly]

Part 4 - The moment of truth /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

First test, grapple open, PASSED. It gave me an opening of 33” from the floor to the tip of the arm, more that enough to grab a log or pile of brush. If I can grab a log with that diameter, I probably won’t be able to lift it anyway. (pic grapple open)

 

[kubotabilly]

OK, it works. So I’ll check everything to make sure it’s welded, do alittle grinding and then it’s off to my paint room for a coat or two of NH blue. Yea right, it would make the ‘bota look like a high school mascot /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif, blue & orange, no way /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.
I'll be posting the final photos on Saturday night. I must warn you, sunglasses will be needed to view them /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

Bill