Purchasing a Grapple...Which one??

jwbrown · Dec 21, 2008

I have a 66" WR Long for my 4740. The tractor handles it fine. As with any other peice of equipment, there are limitations to what it can do and you need to keep a close eye on what you picking up related to the terrain you are on and the counter weight on the back of your tractor.

One word of caution to any one using a grapple. ROOTS!!!! I was using mine one day pushing some brush. The sun was too my back, shining on the instrument panel of my tractor. I noticed that the hydraulic lines that control the grapple were hanging out to the side. I knew they would be torn off, so I stopped, left the tractor idling, and got off to secure them. I immedianly saw fluid all over the ground. However, it was not hydraulic fluid, it was engine oil

. A root had come through the grapple, bent the side engine cover, and pushed against the oil filter enough to break the seal. The oil pump blew the oil out between the filter and the engine block. Since the sun was shining on the dash, I could not see the dummy light come on. Luckily, I was not running the engine hard, and I killed the engine immedianlly. After I changed the filter, and added back oil, the best I could figure was that the engine had about a quart of oil in it when I killed it. That was over 100 hours ago, and the tractor runs fine, so I figure no damage was done. However, just be careful. Brush grapples are a handy thing and save your back, but sticks and roots can come through them easily and really damage your tractor. I am actually going to make some kind of deflection for the front end of my tractor. I have a brush guard on it, but it is not 4" trees (as it is designed) that do the damage. It is the little ones.

IslandTractor · Dec 22, 2008

jwbrown said:
One word of caution to any one using a grapple. ROOTS!!!! .

I had a similar experience grappling in brush. A branch or piece of brush caught the armored hydraulic lines that control the power steering and pulled it down against the dipstick tube on my DK40se. The dipstick tube was bent down so that oil was leaking out. I did not lose much oil before I noticed the leak but just as in your case it was an incidental hop off the tractor that allowed me to see it.

Toe to toe combat with Mother Nature is risky as she has many ways of getting even.

GinNB · Dec 22, 2008

I had a 2" diameter alder trunk piece wedge up under the tractor between my plastic fuel tank and 4wd actuating lever while on my first grapple job. Net result was 30 mins of downtime while I drove out to the road, crawled underneath, and cut it out with my pocketknife. Apart from the noise underneath followed by the rear wheels spinning, it didn't seem like a major event. Could've been a lot lot worse if it'd poked a hole in the SECOND fuel tank this fall. Grrr... Don't have a skidplate mounted on my 105 yet. YET... Both 9000s have good armour underneath. I should get and post some photos because I'm sure lots of others would like to see what helps keep tractors running in the woods and on rough ground.

3RRL · Dec 22, 2008

Me too, similar experience except luckily no torn off lines or oil leaks.
My grapples are bucket grapples so the bucket sort of acts like a shield when driving into a large pile.
Still, some how a branch slipped past the bucket and into the front grill. (Branches will do that)
It poked a 4" hole in the grill and knocked the left headlight out of it's socket.
Now my Kama looks like it went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Cuts bruises and a black eye.

thunderworks · Dec 22, 2008

I was burning my brush pile last week - BoDozer grapple on the front, blade on the back - and a stick somehow got to the fuel filter bowl and poked a nice hole in it. I frequently drive pretty close to the fire to drop loads onto the fire. Wonder how close I got to a really big fire with a steady drip of diesel feeding the fire . . .? I discovered my leak when I got off the tractor to cut a few trees up with the chainsaw and saw the greenish/yellow stain on the snow from the diesel.

GinNB · Dec 22, 2008

You burn out any air filters yet? Air filters (both engine and cab) are prone to catching fire around fires. We burn them out occasionally, and I know of two ruined motors caused by burnt out air filters. One was caused by pushing stuff up onto a burnpile (not our tractor), and one of ours died while burning blueberries. Not all burnt filters end up in ruined motors (we've burnt up a fair number), but some do. We check ours regularly. Putting some steel wool in the air intake and changing it regularly helps. Filters out the sparks.