Grapple --- 1 Lid or 2

[Hilbilly]

I woke up this morning, all excited to start building the grapple and then I looked outside. It snowed again.....arrrrrrggggg!! I just spent 4 hrs plowing and moving snow and came on for lunch. I should go and do a little more plowing but I'm not going to.

So read the new replies and note the comments about the lid being too wide and maybe getting torqued. Isn't that the exact reason for 2 lids being better than one wide one. I also like the comment about visibility. Excellent point and I will take that into account when I get back to the grapple. Now I might reconsider dual lids. I received information about the WR Long OBG-2 grapple and found out the bottom tines are only 27" long. I've mocked mine at 32" but think a shorter one would be stronger and I will revisit that.

I like TXdon's grapple and think it would be great for rooting but I don't have any intentions or doing that with mine. The soil around here is like concrete in the summer and can even be hard to dig with my 16,000lb excavator using the dig bucket with teeth. There are also numerous boulders and stumps everywhere making it it very bad idea to try digging with a grapple. We got so many boulders from our house and shop excavations that I built a rock wall about 6'-7' high and about 80' long with them. I also had to use the excavator to put in fence poles for our veg garden.

I'm heading back out to the shop to revisit my mock up.

 

[txdon]

Isn't that the exact reason for 2 lids being better than one wide one. I also like the comment about visibility. Excellent point and I will take that into account when I get back to the grapple. Now I might reconsider dual lids.

You do need to protect the hydraulic cylinder(s) and the front of your tractor. My two solid lids protect the cylinders. The extra metal on the back side of the grapple protects the front grill of the tractor. I do look in-between the lids. I also use the space in-between the lids to push trees at a higher point without putting pressure on the lids. . . and just for you I will go outside in this 39˚ weather and push a tree. Picture in about an hour.

 

[Xfaxman]

In case you haven't seen it in other grapple forums, here are the dimensions of my two lid Monster Grapple that is made for high capacity machines.

And their smaller Root Grapple.

Loflin Fabrication

The 72" Monster on my V417.

 

[txdon]

Medium size cedar tree removal with grapple:

First I loosen the rootball,
then I push the tree down,
then I pop out the tree,
then take it to the brush pile,
then run the box blade along the trail.

 

[txdon]

One more shows visibility with the lid open.

 

[HCJtractor]

My opinion is xfaxman has perfect dimensions. I like the longer bottom tines vs. txdon's ( no offense) And when pushing a big tree down, I do the same thing but with my bottoms tines and the FEL elevated. Why use the more fragile upper assembly, that's attached to cylinders? The bottom tines are bombproof.
The longer tines give more capacity for brush. And I still believe one upper thumb is plenty, and two just adds weight, complexity, and is un-necessary on a narrower grapple. The human hand has one thumb and it works great. why two ?

 

[txdon]

My opinion is xfaxman has perfect dimensions. I like the longer bottom tines vs. txdon's ( no offense) And when pushing a big tree down, I do the same thing but with my bottoms tines and the FEL elevated. Why use the more fragile upper assembly, that's attached to cylinders? The bottom tines are bombproof.
The longer tines give more capacity for brush. And I still believe one upper thumb is plenty, and two just adds weight, complexity, and is un-necessary on a narrower grapple. The human hand has one thumb and it works great. why two ?

No offense taken at all, each grapple has it's strong points. However just think of the grip with two thumbs and you could you could give a "two thumbs up" with just one hand.:thumbsup:

Oh, I do use the top and bottom of the grapple to push.

 

[HCJtractor]

And txdon, I'm not cutting down yours. It's really a nice grapple! And I guess the teeth on the upper you push with May not be part of the cylinder assembly. I can't tell. My point is most any grapple is awesome to have. And mine will do everything yours did in the pictures. But if I were building one, and cutting all steel with a torch, simpler seems better. I will admit the visibility between the thumbs is better than mine, but frankly, when I'm wading into a pile of brush, I can't really see anything regardless of the thumb. And when traveling, I keep the grapple low and the thumb closed so visibility isn't a problem.

 

[IslandTractor]

My opinion is xfaxman has perfect dimensions. I like the longer bottom tines vs. txdon's ( no offense) And when pushing a big tree down, I do the same thing but with my bottoms tines and the FEL elevated. Why use the more fragile upper assembly, that's attached to cylinders? The bottom tines are bombproof.
The longer tines give more capacity for brush. And I still believe one upper thumb is plenty, and two just adds weight, complexity, and is un-necessary on a narrower grapple. The human hand has one thumb and it works great. why two ?

Remember though xfaxman's grapple is a very heavy grapple meant for a Bobcat. I don't know exactly what it weighs but I'm guessing something between 600-800lbs or more than twice the weight of a light duty 48" grapple. There is a penalty to pay in net lift capacity for having such a heavy duty grapple. Not an issue if your Bobcat loader is rated for 4000lbs or whatever but for a typical CUT that would hurt net lift.

I was a bit surprised to hear that the bottom tines were as short as 24" on some of these grapples as they just "seem" longer than that. Perhaps my mental image of the grapple includes the backing/frame.

 

[HCJtractor]

And txdon, isn't it fun to knock stuff down!! My buddy who uses mine just drives around looking for trees to push down. If he keeps using it, my hunting property is gonna look like a parking lot.
Oh, I like your expanded metal mesh over your grill guard. That's a must have.