Root Grapple?

[tpulley]

Someone on here saw the $900 price at wildcat's and mentioned this site and they sold it to them at the $550 price.

I too have a wildcat 48" grapple. LOVE it. I have only found one reason thus far (2 months or so) to have gotten a 60" instead. I am putting in raised beds for growing veggies. I use the grapple as a way to skim under the grass and roll it out of the way. Works pretty good for this. When I come behind it with my bucket which is 60" its too wide and I can't cleanly surface it like I hoped.

 

[BigP9540]

I have two skid steer soulutions grapple root rake 1 on the 5030 and one on the 9540 never had a single problem with either

 

[JPCjr]

I agree regarding the digging under trees/roots. It is not only the angle of the lower tines but also the short length that makes it inefficient with a claw grapple. .
...

What is your basis for the above statement? I've never owned or operated either style grapple and I'm curious why you think the rake/claw grapple style is so inefficient. For a given loader, the breakout force increases as the distance to the pivot point decreases. Why is having the work closer to the pivot piont a bad thing?

 

[IslandTractor]

What is your basis for the above statement? I've never owned or operated either style grapple and I'm curious why you think the rake/claw grapple style is so inefficient. For a given loader, the breakout force increases as the distance to the pivot point decreases. Why is having the work closer to the pivot piont a bad thing?

Your point about being close to the pivot pin is correct, however, a grapple can work both with the loader force and also by inserting it under something and then driving forward using the tractor momentum/drive to exert force. A standard root grapple with long bottom tines does this second type of work easily: insert the tip under the object and drive forward. That pushes the grapple under the object and the object up or over. It means you can get the grapple underneath the root ball of a bush or small tree which loosens things up. A standard technique with these long bottom tine grapples is therefore to insert the grapple underneath the object, drive forward until the object is pushed against the back of the grapple, and then to curl/lift to uproot. The initial driving forward does a lot of the work of unrooting both by displacing the stump/rootball upwards and also by slicing through some of the supporting roots.

The claw style grapple bottom tines are just too short (less than a foot projection) to do this especially as the upper jaw protrudes about a foot from the pivot pins too so for practical purposes you cannot get the bottom tines under something effectively.

 

[bigballer]

can someone kindly post a link to this wildcat 48" grapple, i have drooled over islandtractors grapple since i first saw it a few years back and am finally ready to purchase one. anbo is a local company but too heavy for my tractor and cost is way too high but maybe now they have a model built more for my size tractor..

 

[HCJtractor]

HCJ You mentioned NOT to go wider than 48", can you elaborate?

Sorry for the delay, and I see that IslandTractor has already answered. I use my grapple mostly for clearing areas of saplings and small trees. I also use it to collect chain saw clippings from trimming roadsides and plot sides. As an analogy, I compare it to a shovel. When I dig under a rootball, it helps to have a narrower "bite" to really focus the pressure. You would not use a snow shovel to dig up a tree, but rather a spade, because it can be driven into the soil better. You may think the narrower width would limit the collection of debris, but it doesn't. What I do when I clear roads (all the stuff that grows in every year) is to walk aound with my Sthil Kombi polesaw. I drop all growth in the road, preferably perpendicular to the road. I never touch it with my hands, just let it fall. I may do a mile or so, on both sides. I then (with a box blade with scarifiers on the rear) lower the grapple with the tines skimming the surface angled slightly down and the box resting just lightly on the surface. I simply drive forward and each piece of debris is collected. It doesn't matter that the grapple is narrow, as the debris snags more debris way beyond the grapple width. Eventually a pile will collect that is too big to even see over. Any that may be missed is usually collected in another pile by the box blade. I then either push it off the road into a pile or pick it up and carry it to another pile. I raise my box, back up over the stuff it collected, and lower the grapple to push that debris into the pile also. Rarely do I have to make a second pass, and the road is clean.

I also will uproot the trees and bushes on the edges to widen the roads so that I don't have to cut the same trees every year. Better to uproot them than to cut them.

So a narrow grapple has the advantage of being a better digger, but does not in any way compromise its ability to collect debris. I simply could not dig with a wide one as effectively. Does that make sense??

 

[buck12]

can someone kindly post a link to this wildcat 48" grapple, i have drooled over islandtractors grapple since i first saw it a few years back and am finally ready to purchase one. anbo is a local company but too heavy for my tractor and cost is way too high but maybe now they have a model built more for my size tractor..

Just goggle Wild Kat grapple and call the number listed. They are very helpful folks.

 

[HCJtractor]

By the way, my grapple is a Markham and was a custom build. It is 48" wide but built with 1/2" tines rather that 3/8". I also had them add some extra "ribs" between my tines to make the spaces narrower so it holds things like rocks better. But for general use grabbing tree limbs, it probably doesn't matter. I wanted a little heavier duty one as my tractor is a 70 horse and I use it like a dozer.

 

[JPCjr]

Your point about being close to the pivot pin is correct, however, a grapple can work both with the loader force and also by inserting it under something and then driving forward using the tractor momentum/drive to exert force. A standard root grapple with long bottom tines does this second type of work easily: insert the tip under the object and drive forward. That pushes the grapple under the object and the object up or over. It means you can get the grapple underneath the root ball of a bush or small tree which loosens things up. A standard technique with these long bottom tine grapples is therefore to insert the grapple underneath the object, drive forward until the object is pushed against the back of the grapple, and then to curl/lift to uproot. The initial driving forward does a lot of the work of unrooting both by displacing the stump/rootball upwards and also by slicing through some of the supporting roots.

The claw style grapple bottom tines are just too short (less than a foot projection) to do this especially as the upper jaw protrudes about a foot from the pivot pins too so for practical purposes you cannot get the bottom tines under something effectively.

Do you really need the tines completely under something? If you're trying to move a pile of logs or construction debris I can see where that would be the case. But if you're trying to remove something that's growing from the ground, I'm still not convinced that a root grapple is better than a rake/claw grapple.

I've seen a lot of brush clearing videos where root grapples were used and the bottom tines were perpendicular to the ground during most of the work. Here's one video that shows this:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n89WIks1k6g&feature=related]Bobcat 864G with Root Grapple (Part 3), 864, 863, track loader - YouTube[/ame]

I can't see why it wouldn't be better to have a rake/claw grapple in this case.

 

[GregbkH]

Here is my land clearing machine. I listened to everyones advice on here and bought the 48" Wildkat econo grapple. I've cleared briers, brush and small sapplings with it as well as up rooting small trees. On larger trees, I pop the roots with the backhoe then push it over with the grapple. I then pick up the whole tree and move it to where I can limb it and cut it into logs. Stack the logs and clean up the brush. It has made life so much easier. Thanks guys!

BTW, I paid $550 at the end of Dec for it.