Rock or Root Grapple?

[Legacy1]

I am currently shopping for the right bucket.

I will be doing general farm cleanup, which entails of picking up alot of trash left from storm damage. As well as picking up leftover scrap from someone who was scrapping appliances, tires lots of tires, along with moving brush and limbs.

Our soil type is sandy, so I was thinking I could get away with the smaller tine spacing of the rock grapple. The downside to the rock grapple is the end plates, which would maybe not allow large items to be carried in the jaws?

I am thinking of going with the wildkat grapples

72in

or

It looks like my best option is to also convert my John Deere quick attach to skid steer quick attach.


Which bucket would be best?

:confused2:

 

[Piston]

That first grapple weighs 750lbs. I know you have pretty good lift capacity on your 553 loader but that is probably much heavier than you need. Do you have a lot of small debris you will be picking up?

I can't tell what the second one is, but if it's their heavy duty root grapple, the 72" version weighs 920lbs.

I would suggest getting the lightest duty grapple you can find. Even your loader is no match for the light duty grapples. I wholeheartedly agree that implements should be the heaviest duty you can find, when putting them on the 3pt hitch, however, when it comes to FEL it's not the same.

Since you'll be picking up a lot of debris, I think your on the right track with the wider grapple, could you get a 66" instead of the 72"?

Check out the WR Long grapples as well, I have the 64" OBG-2 grapple and am very happy with it, it's rated for 2500lbs lift capacity and I think that is pretty conservative, it weighs just under 500lbs. The 72" weighs 520 lbs, I think that would be perfect for your needs.
OBG2
I can't tell you much about the Wildkat grapples but I am more than pleased with my WR Long, not only for the quality but also the customer service, Nelson is a great guy and will go out of his way to make sure you like the product. If I buy another grapple for whatever reason, it will be another WR Long.

You can also have extra tines welded in if you find you really need the smaller spacing.
Some pics of my setup here..
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/211635-grappling-fun-picture-thread.html

 

[Legacy1]

Thanks for the input! My current bucket is a 72in bucket which covers the width of my tires. The weight of my bucket now is ~400lbs I do see that wildkat has their normal grapple at

760lbs

Root grapple with replaceable teeth
740lbs

Econo grapple
650 lbs, and priced at $1150 (the lowest)

I drove by the property today and I was reminded that I will also be picking up quite a few bricks. Which I guess I could add metal into the root grapple to help pick that up.

The WR long grapples look great, its just that they put cost quite a bit more.

 

[Legacy1]

Has anyone had any custom options done by wildkat?

 

[couchsachraga]

I've had a WR Long grapple for several years now - worth every penny. Rocks, logs, brush, implements all pick up very easily. It is very well constructed and service from them is great - I didn't have a local dealer so he worked with my favorite local dealer to get one to me (and him a new dealership no doubt). For the work you are doing I'd really recommend the WR Long style vs. the rock grapple - if you are sorting things out of sand it is one thing, but for ALL your uses I think you'll be happier with one like the WR Long. FWIW if I had the $$ I would have gotten an Anbo instead... lighter and stronger. But WR Long is a great value.

I do not have any experience with the WildKats