Question about a grapple

[PineRidge]

Spicker that is a bit too far for me to drive my TC on the open road and since I don't have a trailer I'll have to pass on the invitation.

I was out playing with the grapple a bit today since the weather here was in the 50s. Back in the woods I was picking up downed trees and stacking them in a neat pile for burning later this spring. We were very pleased with the results and amazed at just how easy it was to use the grapple.

We found it very easy once a tree was plucked from the ground to simply tilt the grapple backwards letting gravity roll the tree to the backside giving it a stable ride to the burn pile.

Wife saw me smiling from ear to ear when I came back into the house and figured that somebody was pleased with the added hydraulics. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[SPIKER]

Mike:

I'm glad to hear you are pleased! I would be too I'm sure /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif


I'm now thinking of getting a wood chipper thinking maybe a farm pro model was 1400 or so a while back for the 6" one... much faster when topping and clearing to simply chip it in place as it is chain sawed off the trunk...

anyhow I went into the woods last night, saw 50+ turkeys perched (dusk time) and several tops down in there /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif then the turkeys spooked and flew right overhead! I was calling for a medic nearly by the time I got out of the waay! lol. branches bird feathers and well um other items that I'm glad I couldn't see falling all around as the crashed through the woods! hahaha /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif them dang things can fly but not gracefully at all! hahaha /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mark M

 

[PineRidge]

Spiker I have never had the pleasure of seeing a turkey fly but I can just bet they must sound like a Huey Chopper getting all that weight off the ground at once.

 

[Buckee]

PineRidge did you get the ATI or one of the other grapples? You owe pictures I'm thinking ...?

 

[PineRidge]

Buckee we are thinking about the ATI grapple but haven't ruled out the idea of just making the dang thing ourselves. Right now we are collecting pictures of grapples to see which style of tine might best serve the grab for our NH bucket. I do like the idea of having a grapple that better fits the bucket than a universal model, we'll see how that goes.

Once we get underway we will start posting pictures.

 

[PineRidge]

Promised you guys some pictures as we started getting pieces and parts together. We are still waiting for our hydraulic cylinder and we need to make a run over to Summit to get more 2 x 2 x 1/4 square tube. You can see what we have together so far (check attachment) for our bucket grapple.

TC-40D SS web pictures click here

 

[rswyan]

Mike,

It's looking good so far. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

What thickness is the stock you used for the arms themselves ?

It appears that all the edges of the pieces are nicely radiused to avoid slicing the tenacles. You use a right angle grinder to do that ? Or a die grinder and a point ?

And what did you use to cut out the grapple arms ?

Very nice.

BTW, that shop looks waaay too clean /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Randall we were considering a purchase of a plasma cutter so we could cut this project ourselves but we finally wimped out. Actually we didn't cut these pieces ourselves they were fabbed for us by Andy Tatro, the fellow that sells finished grapples at the eBay site. We sent Andy a drawing of what we needed and he did the rest. It was pretty painless for us. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Looks to me like he used a plasma torch to cut the 3/8 inch steel. I'm very happy with his workmanship.

If anyone needs Andy's email address for a project of your own send me a PM and I'll shoot Andy's email address to you. He's a neat guy to work with and he'll fabricate up anything that you may need pronto!

We'll be cutting the rest of the square stock ourselves once we visit our local steel salvage supplier. The cylinder will be supplied from Northern, and we'll be ordering hoses from Discounthydraulichose.

We're on a roll now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

TC-40D SS web pictures click here

 

[PineRidge]

We are experimenting with the width of the lift arms on the NH bucket here. Think we have settled on a two foot spacing between lift arms which will give us twelve inches on each side of the grapple mounted on the 72 inch bucket.

Keep in mind that the grapple will not be directly welded to our bucket, we have it clamped only so that we can take some measurements. We have decided to use end plates and most likely a 2 X 2 X 1/4 inch square tube to span the end plates.

The pivots will be welded to that tube and the whole deal can then be removed by either pulling a few pins or removing the bolts on the ends of the bucket.

 

[PineRidge]

Another view.