PT425 Grapple Build Project

[MossRoad]

Thanks, J_J. Those help quite a bit.

I think I have my front mount too low. I will re-do it when time permits.

I took it out today and used it... until it broke.

One of the problems that I am having is the the jaws are too low of a curve. Looking at the pictures, most grapples seem to have a straight arm, then steeply curved jaws. Mine are at too little of an angle to the teeth, so they act more like tweezers than pinchers. Things tend to slip out of them. I think I can solve that with the addition of some teeth.

Even with the crummy design it was four times faster than dragging logs with a chain . I cleared about fifty 6" or less diameter trees that I had dropped a few weeks ago. I can't wait to get it working even better.

 

[J_J]

David, This is a drawing of the grapple finger that I designed for my LMB, when and if I ever get around to it. I needed some tabs cut out of 1/2 in steel, and gave the local steel company a floppy disc with the drawing on it and told them to cut about 20 tabs, and one of the graple fingers as a sample. I could cut it out myself, but I wanted to see a sample of their work. Not to bad. I used those tabs to hold my cylinders for my projects.

 

[3238dpw]

David, It sounds like you finished your grapple, but it needs some work. Did you complete the work? And where are the pics with the cylinder on it?

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah. I finished it. And I destroyed it. The metal on the small bucket is just too weak to support the forces that the grapple and cylinder can put on it without reinforcement and I started ripping brackets off left and right. It is currently burried at the rear of my garage for the winter months and the hoses are back on the snow plow. I'll pull it out again in the spring.