Not another grapple thread!?!?

[Xfaxman]

i have had a grapple about a year, here are my observations.

I have the open bottom, Blue diamond with an L shaped. I think mine is a 60" which is smaller than my bucket on the 55 hp tractor. Mine does not have a completely flat bottom, but you can get under logs. I like that it is rounded inside because it rolls up brush and you seem to be able bale it up and pack more in there before driving it somewhere. I love my grapple for hauling already rooted material or brush. But in my experience the non-rake "L shaped" grapples are deceptively bad at rooting. In retrospect I think the "rake type" give you a lot more leverage for pulling roots of small trees because its on the strong part of the stroke of your bucket rams. What I do now is I use my standard tractor bucket to push the top of the tree over slightly. This pops up one side of the root ball, which I then push the exposed root with the blade. After I have a big pile of rooted trees/ bushes etc I swap to the grapple and haul a bunch to the pile. I use the grapple most commonly rotated further down than you would with a standard bucket. Kind of like a clamshell but not that extreme until it gets dumped somewhere. In my experience you could operate it like a clamshell and you really wouldn't lose anything. It all stays put really well. Sometimes too well. Mine has serated teeth on the tips for derooting and it catches lots of brush as I'm dumping it on a fire, which can make some tense moments. I would prefer to not have the serates.

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I have the same problem with brush catching on the teeth. After moving cedar trees with it last time I decided to grind them down some to get rid of the sharp point. It is on my RoundToIt list.

 

[IslandTractor]

I have the same serrated teeth on the bottom tines of my grapple. Maybe the teeth aren't as sharp as some of yours. I haven't noticed that it makes unloading the grapple difficult though I don't unload directly into a burning pile. I find that wiry brush does stick in the grapple sometimes but just shaking the grapple with the controller jiggles stuff out almost immediately. Only time I need to do that really is when unloading at less than vertical position as when adding to the top of a big pile.

 

[TomSeller]

Mine has serated teeth ...... and it catches lots of brush as I'm dumping it on a fire, which can make some tense moments.
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You might consider dropping the brush beside the fire, backing up, closing the lid and pushing it into the fire. Temperatures above very hot fires are in the thousands of degrees F. Not good if you stall the engine. I would not push logs or stumps with a closed lid, but brush is okay.

 

[UTCenturion]

You might consider dropping the brush beside the fire, backing up, closing the lid and pushing it into the fire. Temperatures above very hot fires are in the thousands of degrees F. Not good if you stall the engine. I would not push logs or stumps with a closed lid, but brush is okay.

i usually drop it kind of on the edge and push it lid closed like you say, but occasionally have material catch on the serates when doing this. Its not a big problem, just something to slow you down based on design. Generally I switch to my smooth bucket to really tend the bondfire after I'm not moving large amounts of material to and from anymore. Especially when trying to get the fire to compact and burn down smaller and smaller toward the end. I've been clearing old fence row overgrown by about 20 years recently lots of barbed wire and scrubs which also make everything a little bit harder than normal.

 

[UTCenturion]

i have had a grapple about a year, here are my observations.

I have the open bottom, Blue diamond with an L shaped. I think mine is a 60" which is smaller than my bucket on the 55 hp tractor. Mine does not have a completely flat bottom, but you can get under logs. I like that it is rounded inside because it rolls up brush and you seem to be able bale it up and pack more in there before driving it somewhere. I love my grapple for hauling already rooted material or brush. But in my experience the non-rake "L shaped" grapples are deceptively bad at rooting. In retrospect I think the "rake type" give you a lot more leverage for pulling roots of small trees because its on the strong part of the stroke of your bucket rams. What I do now is I use my standard tractor bucket to push the top of the tree over slightly. This pops up one side of the root ball, which I then push the exposed root with the blade. After I have a big pile of rooted trees/ bushes etc I swap to the grapple and haul a bunch to the pile. I use the grapple most commonly rotated further down than you would with a standard bucket. Kind of like a clamshell but not that extreme until it gets dumped somewhere. In my experience you could operate it like a clamshell and you really wouldn't lose anything. It all stays put really well. Sometimes too well. Mine has serated teeth on the tips for derooting and it catches lots of brush as I'm dumping it on a fire, which can make some tense moments. I would prefer to not have the serates.

All in all it does a wonderful job and I love it. I would swap for a root rake grapple if I could get an even trade, but I think the difference is not a big enough deal for me to spend any money to change.

OH afterthought, mine was designed for a skidsteer and when I first got it, it wanted to crunch my loader zerks until I cut a little groove for them.

and today I was bondfireing about 10 pine and cedar trees worth of limbs and bothered to take a picture of the grapple mentioned above.

 

[Raincoast]

Thanks UT, for adding the pic... And thanks to all who contributed to this thread.
We spent the day cleaning up the mess left by a big stump removal & doing it all while trying to stay out of the soupy mud. It looks a lot better, but we won't be able to get it smooth & seeded until late spring.
The clay here is so heavy & sticky, we had to tow the stump out of the hole & remove about a ton of clay from the root ball, before we could pick it up & haul it to the fire pile. Even then, it was all the tractor would pick up. The back tires were bouncing off the ground a bit, even with 1,200 lbs of hoe on the back. Good thing we're retired & time is not a big issue! Still havin' fun!
Cheers. Dan

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

. . . The clay here is so heavy & sticky, we had to tow the stump out of the hole & remove about a ton of clay from the root ball, before we could pick it up & haul it to the fire pile. Even then, it was all the tractor would pick up. . . .

I have the same type of clay here. I usually uproot the trees and let them lay there a few weeks for the rootball to dry out. Then I can pick them up with the grapple and shake most of the soil free. Sometimes, I'll pick them up and drop them a few times to remove some stubborn soil.

 

[k0ua]

I have the same type of clay here. I usually uproot the trees and let them lay there a few weeks for the rootball to dry out. Then I can pick them up with the grapple and shake most of the soil free. Sometimes, I'll pick them up and drop them a few times to remove some stubborn soil.

Another thing I have done is use my bucket shovel to scrape the dirt and rocks off of the rootball. I don't have a backhoe, but the bucket chain on "shovel" I made works pretty well to get a lot of this stuff off. It sure beats using a digging bar and a ordinary shovel to do it.

 

[Raincoast]

Hey Pappy. If I waited 'till July the clay MIGHT dry out by then... It rains a bit here. Once we got the stump laying on its side, out of the hole, the hoe made quick work of the mud ball. Must have been half a ton stuck on there.
When we dug our new well, the excavator left huge "loaves" of clay in a heap. Six rainy months later, the clay still held the perfect shape of the bucket. Pretty sticky stuff! Makes a fine road bed though, once it dries out.
I like your home made shovel James. It seems that once you buy a tractor... Your next purchase should be a decent welder. I'm looking for a used one now.

 

[woodchipper]

Thank you for the great pictures Dan and sharing your post with us. Glad to see you are giving your root grapple a good workout. You will find the lower bar very handy at back racking.
This grapple is excellent at uprooting trees, and transporting logs. It is not performing as well as an "L" shaped open bottom for brush pile grabbing and moving.
Also, you will just about never have any sticks beeing stuck in it while dumping.
If your hydraulic hoses do rub on something, I may suggest to wrap that portion with plastic coiled hose wrapper.
Enjoy your retirement, and happy Tractoring!:tractor: