Mine is from Deere (aka Frontier - their implement division). I forget the model number, but it's right outside the door. Well, no model number on it. But it measures 61" from left to right. It comes on and off the FEL in about 3 minutes. Amazingly easy.. Just don't forget to undo the extra hydro lines for the top jaw.
Last weekend, I cleared a bunc of logs, stumps and branches, piled them into a huge brush pile and burned them all. What would have taken me all weekend on 8N and a whole bunch of hand work took 3 hrs with the grapple and I got of the tractor only two times to pull stuff away from a fence corner where I could get at it better. If I had any skills with this tractor and implement, it might have taken only half that long. There is no doubt in my mind that the grapple will be the most-used implement on my tractor and I can't figure out how I survived without it. One neat trick I did twice was to reach over a low fence and simply pluck 12" ash stumps that were on the other side. The roots were rotted, so they weren't that hard to pull out, but to simply reach out, grab, and lift over the fence was super easy and relative to the alternative (taking down the fence and dragging them out), a real life and time saver.
If I have two criticisms of it, they would be 1. The lower tines are not really long. I see some units that are more "L" shaped, as if the lower tines were like a forklift almost. Well, these are shorter. It doesn't take as big of a bite of a stack of small limbs as it would if the lower tines were longer. But then, I don't know how much I need this and it still grabs plenty.
2. The upper lid doesn't open as far as I wish it would. But then I didn't really find that limited me. I just thought it should open further.
Right now, I'm chilling, drinking a beer, and recovering from mixing 800+# of concrete for my soon-to-be ballast box that will allow me to grab even larger logs than I have so far. I'm really looking forward to using the heck out of this tool. I think it will be just about perfect for my purposes (logging hardwoods and clearing trees).
