The BEAST has arrived!

[DT86]

After almost a month of waiting... It is here!! Time to do WORK!! Well actually the 9540 is in the shop getting the 3rd function installed at the moment. Maybe if I slip the shop guys beer money I can have her back by 5. Drum roll please....





This thing is 84 inches HUGE.

Completely inclosed cylinders.

Hoses are inside the frame.

That gray appears to match the Kubota grey!

Hope this isn't more than the little M9540 wants, now that I see it I wonder. I do have loaded rear tires, cast wheel centers and two sets of rear wheel weights.
I plan on tearing out old fence rows, rooting smaller trees and bushes, holding logs up to be sawed for fire wood, feeding round bales and moving cars parked in the fire lane.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

You'll be happy with it, I know that I am with mine. :thumbsup: Their paint sure looks a LOT better than mine did back when I got mine 6 years ago. CID makes some good stuff and looks like they have been improving on the finish some.

 

[creekbend]

Congratulations. You appear to be on :cloud9::thumbsup:

 

[DT86]

They finished the 3rd function about 3pm today. I love this thing, already pushed up two brush piles and set them on fire. I was afraid it was too big but so far so good. Pics of it on the 9540, and the fire to follow. I was so busy smiling that I didn't get any pics today!

 

[clee4020]

You'll love the grapple. My Kubota dealer told me that if I bought a grapple it would stay on my M9540 90% of the time...he was right. Unless I need the load/unload something the pallet forks, move hay with the stinger, or do dirt work with the bucket, my grapple is on the tractor. Not just for brush. I move implements around and move/pick up other stuff too. I went the cheaper route and run mine off rear remotes since I have 2 sets.

You will probably want to modify your brush gaurd on the front of your tractor because I had a limb put a dent in the mesh under the headlights. You can see what I have done. I added mesh to the upper part, made a chain box with receiver tube, but I still need to finish the middle.

 

[bigbull338]

enjoy your new grapple.

 

[DT86]

Thanks to all, and you guys are right, I love this monster! I spent most of the day cleaning up small under growth around larger trees. So much faster and cleaner than using a dirt bucket.

clee4020, I too have two sets of remotes but seemed like having the "rocket launcher" buttons on the joy stick would be faster/smoother operation, so I had the dealer include 3rd function in the price of the tractor.

My dealer came over after work last night to check out how it was working and also warned about breaking the latch and pushing the brush guard backwards into the hood and lights with larger limbs and recommended sticking a bolt into the hole the opposite of the latch (passenger side of brush guard)

I was thinking about adding heavy punch plate to my brush guard but I almost hate to weld and need to repaint it.


Here are some poor quality pics (cell phone/sunset) I took with it all mounted up.

 

[DT86]

Forgot about this one.

 

[clee4020]

Yea, it doesn't seem right welding on something new, but it may keep you from buying a new radiator. Luckily I bought mine used and it already had a few scratches and paint faded on some areas of the brush guard. I think it looks better now than when I bought it.

 

[DT86]

Well I'm for sure going to have to do something, today I dented the screen below the lights!! But luckily not too bad, I just opened the hood and pushed it out by hand !!

 

[NativeSon]

Yea, it doesn't seem right welding on something new, but it may keep you from buying a new radiator. Luckily I bought mine used and it already had a few scratches and paint faded on some areas of the brush guard. I think it looks better now than when I bought it.

I like your brush guard, but the place for the chain is awesome. I'm going to have to get one of those fabbed up. There's no good place on my 7040 to stow the chain.

Now, that Grapple is really the deal.


Charlie

 

[DT86]

Well I found out something else today I'm going to have to figure out a solution to. I was raking through the ashes of a brush pile to sort out a few larger pieces that hadn't burnt all the way through to move them to another pile. I was backing up and heard this gawd awful racket coming from the engine. Shut it down and jumped off to find a stick the front tires had kicked up rubbing into the fan!!! I got it loose, no damage to the fan, but when I fired 'er up the battery light came on. OH NO! It got the fan belt too!! ... Kubota price $40 (not in stock), auto parts store $15 (come get it)...

The bottom of the fan is wide open to the ground, I will admit on our old Deere under the fan was inclosed but it gathered lots of crap that came in from the sides and leaking hydro fluid. I'm thinking that I'll have to fab up some expanded metal or punch plate to prevent this from occurring again.

 

[Mace Canute]

The BEAST has arrived!

I thought you were going to say your mother-in-law just showed up...

 

[Glen Watkins]

:laughing:

 

[AGGIE00]

I love my grapple and have used it quite a bit considering all the dead trees from the drought. The only damage I have done while using it was not to the front of the tractor, but from a log that popped up at the rear tire and wedged against the hydraulic line bracket and tore up the bracket, broke one line and bent two others. Would love a solid belly pan to prevent this from happening again.

 

[AGGIE00]

At almost 1000# my grapple does limit what I can pick up, but I do love having all the iron up there.

 

[DT86]

@Bubbles, I mean Mace.... MIL hahaha!!! That Sir would imply I'm married. Something I have no intentions of doing soon.

@ AGGIE00 One thousand pounds you say? I knew mine was heavy but I'm not sure mine is that heavy. What brand/size do you have??

 

[bake321]

I also have a M9540 with a 84" grapple. A lot of fun and quite useful. I've done a barn tear down with mine and am currently clearing 15 acres of bottom land. The tractor will pick up more than it should and as you stated you have to be very careful of what pokes up.

Cary

 

[DT86]

Yeah I have had both of the hydro lines (one on each side) that run the lift cylinder spring a leak at the fittings from lifting way too much.

 

[AGGIE00]

@Bubbles, I mean Mace.... MIL hahaha!!! That Sir would imply I'm married. Something I have no intentions of doing soon.

@ AGGIE00 One thousand pounds you say? I knew mine was heavy but I'm not sure mine is that heavy. What brand/size do you have??

Frontier AV20G I say...operating weight 972lbs, shipped weight 1012lbs.