I recently added "The Thumb" grapple to my Deere 870 with a Bush Hog 2245QT FEL. It works just fine, but the installation did not go as smoothly as I had hoped.
The top edge of my cheesy Bush Hog bucket was already reinforced so I could have a chain hook up there, so I thought I could just weld the Thumb onto that. No such luck and both the bucket and the Thumb itself needed modifications and reinforcements before the grapple was fully functional. Here's a shot of the thing installed:
Let me go through the process so that others considering the Thumb can see what I did.
The Thumb itself is quite sturdy and other than having a twist in it so the mounts for the hinges and cylinder didn't quite line up, but close enough, no big deal. Also there are no grease nipples so you have to remove the hinge pins to lubricate everything. The biggest problem I had with the design is that it will go over center, meaning that when it is fully open and you press the grapple against the ground it will click further open and now won't close until you press the grapple up against something (like a standing tree) to have it click back. It's sort of like a dislocated shoulder or finger that has to be put back before it will work. To overcome this I had to weld stops to the hinges. I'll show that later.
I decided to go with electric over hydraulic as the Deere doesn't have a normal power beyond port and besides I didn't want to have to take my hand off of the joystick controller. I got the valve from Bailey Net, part number 220-934. I mounted the valve on the torsion bar, close to the bucket and tapped into the dump/curl lines that were already there. The valve itself works fine, but does not come with ANY instructions or even a picture explaining what is what. The main ports themselves are pretty straightforward with the flow going straight trough the body of the valve in the un-powered state and the flow changing to the ports at 90* with the power on, just as you'd expect. But there is another small port covered by a temporary plastic plug. This is just to drain the valve, but does need to have a steel plug installed. The biggest mystery was the wiring. There are three posts, one labeled as a ground and the other "1" and "2". So, I hooked it up so the ground was grounded and then tried every combination of power I could think of to the other two posts, but nothing, not a click or anything. Turns out that you have to ground the ground AND one of the other posts. Oh. The rest of the wiring is quite simple: a fused (5 amp) wire that goes to a SPST rocker switch and then on to the remaining post on the valve.
The switch itself was a bit of a problem because it had to be small enough to fit into my handle. I used this one from Amazon: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Panel-Mount-Lamp-Button-Switch/dp/B0076UHRPS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332104068&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: 2 Pcs 2 Pin Panel Mount Red Cap Lamp Push Button Switch: Automotive[/ame]
The handle itself really is from a joystick....computer joystick that is! Logitech. $1 at the thrift store. I just cut a bigger hole in the top for the new switch and then glued the other controls in place. Best part is that I can now shoot down aliens with my phasers.....:laughing:
The biggest problem I had was reinforcing the bucket as the grapple exerts a LOT force and wants to try and tear itself off. I added welding beads to the existing angle iron, installed bolts through the bucket from the top and had to add steel bracing that went to the bottom of the bucket. The Bush Hog bucket is built from light gauge steel so your bucket may not need this much work to get things solid. Here's a photo of the back of the bucket showing the reinforcements as well as the hinge stops. Yes, I'm a novice welder and obviously still learning, but nothing has fallen off....yet.
Here's another shot showing how the reinforcements go up the back of the brackets that hold the grapple cylinder:
Overall I'm glad I installed a grapple. It's easy to use and works great clearing brush, especially coupled with the Ratchet Rake. Not being able to see what the grapple is doing since it is hidden by the bucket is a problem, but I've learned to fully "dump" (invert) the bucket with the grapple fully open, then throw the rocker switch and let the grapple close as fully as it can, then throw the switch off and curl and raise the load. Works on boulders, stumps, brush, logs, etc. I'm clearing out the ladder fuels from 35 acres of timber that was logged about 60 years ago and then abandoned so there's lots of work to be done.
