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

[vtsnowedin]

Oh I wouldn't expect to actually break it. Just test it's limits and report on my results. I have hundreds of rocks to pry out of the ground and acres of grown over apple brush to root out and stack and cords of logs to hold for the saw.

 

[xtn]

Woooohooooo! Mine showed up!

Will have to change out the couplers on my tractor first, but hope to have my first usage photo next week.

 

[xtn]

Woooohooooo! Mine showed up!

Will have to change out the couplers on my tractor first, but hope to have my first usage photo next week.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Woooohooooo! Mine showed up!

Will have to change out the couplers on my tractor first, but hope to have my first usage photo next week.

Great! I never get tired of Wicked Grapple photos. That's something we need more of around here!
Travis

 

[xtn]

With a little bit of careful manouvering, it even works pretty dang well as a T-post puller. I'm pretty sure my Boomer's loader arms would rip apart before this grapple would.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Lookin good. Thanks for sharing!
Travis

 

[xtn]

Yesterday I put about six hours on the tractor using the new grapple. The wife and two sons were pruning around the property, trimming trees up. Minimum branch height is 1' higher than my tractor's canopy, at least on the trees tall enough for that to be acceptable. Anyway, they would prune/trim and make a pile near the tree, and I would hustle back and forth from our "dry-out and burn later" piles a couple hundred yards away. By the time I would get a grapple full dumped over there and turn around, they would have another pile waiting for me to grab.

My brilliant wife asked me why the grapple doesn't have a big heavy-duty pruning shear on one side so that I can just reach up, grab a branch, and cut it off in one motion. I'm thinking that sounds like a good idea! Anyway, she put up a fuss about the grapple purchase originally, but about halfway through yesterday's efforts she changed her mind and said it was the most useful thing I've ever bought ever in the history of ever.

 

[IslandTractor]

The challenge in designing/building a shearing device for your grapple is that it would clearly need to completely close when you close the grapple and that would mean that nothing else could stick out on that side of the grapple. When I carry brush or tree limbs I load symmetrically so there is a lot of "stuff" hanging out over both sides. A shear would make that impossible. Also, when a grapple closes it doesn't close to the point that a 3" branch in the belly of the grapple is actually held in place by the grapple lid. If a 10 ft branch was in the grapple and the shear cut it, four feet would drop inside the grapple, unsecured, and 6ft would be outside the grapple sticking out the non shear side. That weight would immediately tip the branch and likely make it fall out of the grapple when you move. I suppose you could rig a clamp on the opposite side from the shear but that would limit grapple use essentially to branch shearing duties. Would make sense if you trim branches many days per year I suppose but I doubt it would generally be as efficient as just having one person with a pole saw trimming while the tractor/grapple followed picking up the spoils.

Smart move in getting your family to help prune and collect debris. My wife always complains about my tractor until I ask her to help me do a job manually.

 

[xtn]

Oh yeah, I've got no delusions about the ease of designing a practical pruning shear mod to a grapple without usability consequences. Just thought it's a good idea... as long as it's in IDEA land... know what I mean?

My wife whines about the expense of my little compact tractor, but then she wants to know why I can't do jobs that would typically require quarter-million dollar, large, heavy-duty forestry equipment or land-moving machinery. Can't I just dredge the 5-acre pond of 6' deep silt? Sure, with my 30" tall R4 tires and a 5' wide box-blade Honey! Can't I just lift up that 10,000-lb tree trunk and lay it in the bed of my pick-up truck for hauling away? Oh sure Darling, it will just take me a minute!

Can't I just easily scoop up all the big mess of branches we're dropping and move them quickly and effortlessly across the property to the burn pile?. YES! THAT ONE I CAN DO! The grapple saved us untold hours of dragging/loading/unloading by hand that we have done in past years. I finally impressed her.

 

[Xfaxman]

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My brilliant wife asked me why the grapple doesn't have a big heavy-duty pruning shear on one side so that I can just reach up, grab a branch, and cut it off in one motion. I'm thinking that sounds like a good idea! Anyway, she put up a fuss about the grapple purchase originally, but about halfway through yesterday's efforts she changed her mind and said it was the most useful thing I've ever bought ever in the history of ever.

That reminded me that I have used my Gorilla Grapple to shear a dead tree trunk: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/334974-when-grapple-tree-shear.html?highlight=