The WICKED Root & Debris GRAPPLE!!!!!!!

[Bigfish50]

Travis Rocks. Gorgeous truck an all :thumbsup: Thanks for the update Travis.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Travis Rocks. Gorgeous truck an all :thumbsup: Thanks for the update Travis.

Anytime, man! FWIW, our larger manufacturing facility is currently being worked on.

Ted says, after moving over there, that our manufacturing should quickly be able to produce more than I(we) can sell.

I told him "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!" :laughing:
Travis

 

[Piston]

I understand we are not talking about excavators. We are talking tractors with FELs and how to use them in demo. The reason I discussed the excavator was two fold. One to show the disadvantage of a wide grapple and secondly to show that a narrow grapple is all you need. There are parallels that are useful to consider. If a professional demo company primarily uses 3-4ft grapples on machines that can lift 30,000lbs, that should tell you something. They could easily run a ten foot grapple if they wanted but they don't. Why you might ask? Most likely for both safety and efficiency. Think about it.

As far as tractors are concerned there seems to be a lack of appreciation that the tractor FEL is a lifting device and not the best choice generally for demo work or bulldozing. Recall that we had tractors for about a hundred years before someone thought of putting a loader on them. Tractors are pulling devices primarily. Loaders are engineering after thoughts and are clearly designed simply for lifting. Long skinny loader arms are not for pushing or ramming. Do so at your own risk. Skidsteers are purpose built around the loader and have evolved as construction tools so have very different strengths and weaknesses compared to CUTs. They are much more powerful generally and arguably designed for the abuse meted out at construction sites. Their loaders are considerably stronger than what we have on our CUTs and the loader arms are not as long. They also tip over regularly.

Do excavators have anything in common with CUT FELs by design? Not much other than a very long loader arm and the fact that they are primarily used for lifting not ramming. But in this instance, demolition, they are in fact used similarly to how a CUT with FEL would be used. Not bulldozing but pushing weak spots on a building to make it collapse and then move the debris into piles or to lift into a dump truck/trash container. A 4 or 5 foot grapple would be more than adequate for such a task. If you were going to do that daily then a CUT is the wrong tool but for occasional demo work a CUT is fine. Been there done that. A four foot grapple works fine. If you are doing it every day, you don't need a CUT you need an excavator.

TLDR....but, I'm sure you made some excellent points like you always do :laughing:
BTW, nice pics you posted :thumbsup: looks like you mostly use your grapple for brush and not real heavy materials? More often than not I'm using mine for pretty heavy stuff, but inevitably large logs come with a LOT of brush!

More like fooling with my beautiful lawn(I give much credit to the EA Alternating Depth Aerator)! The truck has been a little neglected as of late!
Travis

View attachment 510561

Good lord Travis! If I could get my lawn to look half as nice as that I'd be happy! I just finished a couple jobs stumpgrinding and power raking some customers yards for a new lawn installation. I always tell them right off the bat that I am NOT a professional lawn guy and My services stop after the power raking. If I could give them a lawn like that I'd make a lot more money :laughing:
Nice job :thumbsup:

 

[IslandTractor]

TLDR....but, I'm sure you made some excellent points like you always do :laughing:
BTW, nice pics you posted :thumbsup: looks like you mostly use your grapple for brush and not real heavy materials? More often than not I'm using mine for pretty heavy stuff, but inevitably large logs come with a LOT of brush!

Wouldn't want to disappoint you. I had posted brush because Eric had referred to brush as I recall in arguing for a wider grapple. But, you want big things, so, here are some slightly bigger things I lift with my puny little light duty $500 grapple.


TLDR....I guess you're trying to keep up with POTUS.

 

[Xfaxman]

I use my 44" wide (smaller than IslandTractor's grapple), for long heavy stuff:

For reference, the V417 is 6' wide.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Wouldn't want to disappoint you. I had posted brush because Eric had referred to brush as I recall in arguing for a wider grapple. But, you want big things, so, here are some slightly bigger things I lift with my puny little light duty $500 grapple.


TLDR....I guess you're trying to keep up with POTUS.

It is more than that: I literally cannot see the center of my grapple and so a wider grapple gives me visibility.

A skid steer, track steer tele handler, or wheel loader the operator can see the center of the grapple when it is on the ground, but i cannot. I can only see the edges of the grapple. This matters when I'm grabbling stumps and need a reference point so I know/guess/pretty much know what my unseen middle part of grapple is up to.

 

[IslandTractor]

It is more than that: I literally cannot see the center of my grapple and so a wider grapple gives me visibility.

A skid steer, track steer tele handler, or wheel loader the operator can see the center of the grapple when it is on the ground, but i cannot. I can only see the edges of the grapple. This matters when I'm grabbling stumps and need a reference point so I know/guess/pretty much know what my unseen middle part of grapple is up to.

I'll have a look this weekend. I do lots of stump grappling and have never had an issue seeing where the tip of the grapple is. I can certainly see the tip when in "neutral" position on the ground. Maybe we have different techniques. I don't "dump" the grapple before clamping on to a stump. I line up the grapple flat on the ground with the stump ahead, then tip the grapple down (I can easily see this) and then drive forward to ram the grapple under the stump and wedge it up. I probably cannot see the tips when fully "dumped" but I'm not sure. I'm curious now so I'll see if I can get some photos this weekend.

One other thought: Do you have a full SSQA plate on your grapple? If you look at the photo in my avatar you'll see that I have two partial plates. That allows me to see right through the center of the SSQA plate area to visualize where the grapple tips are. Never occurred to me that some grapples might have that critical view blocked.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Wicked Grapples are pretty transparent!
Travis

 

[IslandTractor]

Wicked Grapples are pretty transparent!
Travis

That's what I'm talking about! Now, why can't Eric see his tine tips???

 

[EverythingAttachments]

66" Dual Lid Wicked Grapple on a Kubota L3800