Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Equipment => Topic started by: agriffinjd on February 21, 2016, 03:21:28 PM
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I'm trying to decide what kind of grapple to buy for my skidsteer. Is a grapple bucket better than a set of forks with a grapple on it? Or is a simple grapple (like a Frostbite brand grapple) the best way to go? I want to be able to fall a tree and haul it out of the woods then buck it with the chainsaw near the stove. Seems like forks with a grapple would work well, but I don't know how tightly it can hold some 8' logs and think maybe a Frostbite type grapple would be best.
Thoughts?
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I have one similar to what you are looking at, the frostbite, they work great, but there are times when I wished I had the bucket with grapple.
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I got a bucket with brush grabber. I welded a piece of pipe in each corner of the bucket. I put 1 inch diameter solid stock that sticks out about 8 inches held with a nut and bolt welded onto the pipe goes into a hole in solid shaft to hold it in place. It allows me to use the bucket to grab really big logs. I can grab really big logs with that setup 36 inches with no problems. Without it around 20 inches. Saved me a bunch of cash and works just fine. When I do not have any giant logs the solid stock slides back into the pipe same bolt holds them in place. I welded a small tab on each end to keep it from falling out and to keep the hole aligned and allow me to hit it with a hammer to bring it out.
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Mines actually a root rake with grapple on it, works great for cleaning up after topping a tree out.
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Mines actually a root rake with grapple on it, works great for cleaning up after topping a tree out.
X2 :thumbup:
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Has anyone used both the type with solid bottom (like the Bobcat brand) and the slotted type? I am thinking the solid bottom could be used as a bucket for dirt and gravel too and save swapping to the bucket as often.
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Has anyone used both the type with solid bottom (like the Bobcat brand) and the slotted type? I am thinking the solid bottom could be used as a bucket for dirt and gravel too and save swapping to the bucket as often.
Depends on hows it built as to whether or not it was intended to apply a break out force to it.
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This is what the Bobcat ones look like.
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Depends on how and what you are loading. My woodpile is full of dirt from loading my dumptruck with my buddies solid bottom grapple. Slotted will let some dirt fall out. Slotted bottom with tines curved upward would grab logs better I would think.
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This is similar to what I use, handle logs, entire trees, limbs after topping a tree, large rocks, round bales, etc. Works great for cleaning up behind he LimbHog as well, I’ve even used it to clean limbs and leaves out of a shallow ditch that runs thru one of our woods.
(http://www.everythingattachments.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/skidrootgrapple.jpg)
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That Bradco grapple looks really nice but way more expensive than I want.
These don't look as good but are much cheaper. Do you think they would work ok?
http://www.palletforks.com/skid-steer-attachments/grapples/grapple-rakes.html
Is there any reason to get a wider model? I would mostly use it on the Toolcat so I would go with a 60" unless there is a reason to go wider than the Bobcat.
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I went wider than the skid steer so the tracks wouldn’t be running over anything and mashing it into our softer clay soils.
Mines not a Bradco but similar, I wanted the root rake style so I could get all the topping and limbs when following up after the Limbhog, I can have the teeth just barely digging in, get all the branches and barely disturb the soil. Mine is also in halves on the top assembly so it can grip really odd shapes fairly well.
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I haven't seen any grapple rakes with the 2 piece top.
Do you think those titans that I posted the link to are any good?
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I haven't seen any grapple rakes with the 2 piece top.
Do you think those titans that I posted the link to are any good?
Search for em and see what other people are saying about them is my only suggestion.
I can’t remember what brand mine is, bought it online and one of Dads drivers was coming thru Indianapolis and picked it up for me.
Think I paid a touch over 2K for it but won’t swear to that.
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I just picked up a t m splitter for my skid steer ! Well worth its weight in gold!
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It looks like the Titan stuff comes from China so I will probably go with something else.
This is one I am looking at now. http://www.wildkatattachments.com/e-series-root-rake.html
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Wise move, chinese is crap waiting to break.
I’ll take a look at mine tomorrow and see if I can find a name on it, I really like the feature of having the top half in two pieces so it grips odd stuff better.
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I've got the 72" Titan Root Grapple. I love the double thumb on it for grabbing odd pieces which mlappin speaks of.
I've had it for about 5 years and beat the crap out of it. It's a little bent up but all I've had to do to it in 5 years is replace a hyd hose and the grease fitting nipples. Back then I paid just under $900 shipped.
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Just ordered the Titan 60" dual thumb yesterday. $1250 delivered. We shall see...
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I just went ahead and ordered the WildKat E series Root rake. I called them and they gave me a deal on it for $1200 including shipping.
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Titan 60" grapple arrived yesterday. Looks to be well made and heavy for the $1250. In 10 min had a few logs out of the woods and piled up that would have taken much longer if i had to drag them. Also moved a couple rocks that I had just pushed out of the way earlier.
I see this saving my old battered body. Less on and off the loader, hooking and unhooking, etc. Who know how many uses I will find for this!
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I want to get one of those Titan 60" grapples at some point. I have the 4500# 48" pallet forks they sell, and they've been great.
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I got the WildKat grapple rake today. They obviously do most of the work by hand. It was a little tight and I had a hard time getting it latched. I think they have the plate with the holes in it crooked on one side. Other than that is should do for what I needed.
I played around with it a little and found a tree that had just fallen from the storm the other night.
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I haven't seen any grapple rakes with the 2 piece top.
Do you think those titans that I posted the link to are any good?
Search for em and see what other people are saying about them is my only suggestion.
I can’t remember what brand mine is, bought it online and one of Dads drivers was coming thru Indianapolis and picked it up for me.
Think I paid a touch over 2K for it but won’t swear to that.
Can you post a picture of yours? I am thinking about trying to split the top part into two parts on the one I got but haven't seen any of this type that are split. Picking up cut up wood doesn't work that great with a single top.
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I added the upright galvanized pipe to add a bungee cord to so the hoses don’t get pinched when its rolled back. One of these days I’m going to use a longer larger pipe and place a sash weight in it with a pulley and use a regular cord instead of a bungee.
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/IMG_1620_zpsw9pyc2nz.jpg)
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That is an interesting design. I haven't seen any others like it. How wide does it open? All of them I found are like mine with the cylinders in the back. I don't think it would be that easy to modify mine to work like that. leaving the cylinder on the side would cause it to twist too much. I guess I will just leave it alone.
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It opens up a long ways, next time I have it hooked up I’ll snap another picture.
Technically its a root rake with grapple.
And like most of my experience with powder coat, its crap. I’ll repaint it one of these days and use trusty ole Rustoleum when I do.
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Was getting late so pictures are a little dark. Nice thing about this grapple is if the grounds dry you can roll it back, lower the loader all the way and it just skims the ground so you don’t leave any behind nor gouge the ground. Pretty much bought it for cleaning up after the Limbhog.
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_1622_zps4f6bbfi7.jpg)
(http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t167/Marty_Lappin/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_1623_zpsv9yknjf7.jpg)
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It is hard to tell from the pics but it looks as I suspected that you do lose some on the open end with the top mounted cylinders.
(https://goo.gl/photos/WEF42eWUsQ84AeuP6)
(https://goo.gl/photos/a2jmX8DmD9Dm2aBW6)
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Why didn't the pictures show?
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It is hard to tell from the pics but it looks as I suspected that you do lose some on the open end with the top mounted cylinders.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GjONslEj_Z8RFlWEJypEZH3f7Da5xp1vz0STG53zS8hZiB2EObfdzedb5kM1peaip_luxtVdEGTi=w1131-h637-no)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Yat73pbF734Bw5V8d9NYEJc_R5qzdYzauI1BSCMdEAg9_weOxqEefF4gxK1m6oeWPX5db4sbnjV9=w1131-h637-no)
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Since I started this thread, I figured I should update it. I went with a stump bucket with a grapple on it. So far so good. It's a wildkat brand.
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Had to work on mine recently, the nut on one of the cylinders that holds the piston back off a little then it pulled the nut right off the shaft. M22 nut of course, had to drive to the big city to get that, took a thread file to the shaft, turned a recess into the piston so the new nut could get more good threads.
Thing opened and closed to fast, even had the pins in the cylinder ends a little bowed. Took the fittings out of the cylinder, tapped the ID, ran a bolt with red locktite in till they bottomed out, then drilled a 3/32 hole thru the bolt.