lostcreekranch
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2012
- Messages
- 7,948
- Location
- Austin County, Texas
- Tractor
- NH TL-100A with Bush Hog 5045 FEL, WR Long 3rd function, LS XR4155HC w/FEL, WR Long 3rd Function.
I've also picked up plenty of trees ripped out of the ground with rootball intact. Often several at a time. You scoop them up, clamp so they don't roll out while curling and compress to hold in place. The tine tips don't usually even contact the trunk and it is the forward side of the jaw that holds the load not the tips. The bottom tine tips certainly aren't gripping the tree if you've curled properly.
My dinky little grapple is on a loader rated for 2760lbs lift. Find me a CUT with higher lift. 95% of tractors discussed here are CUTs not utility tractors.
EA makes a big deal about their laser cut sharp tine tips. Fine. Marketing will always try to boost a product based on perceived differences and will try to emphasize such differences. IMO they exaggerate the importance just like other manufacturers exaggerate differences for marketing advantage. Has EA ever shown us evidence that their teeth make any real world difference. No they haven't. Just marketing gibberish like green paint. (No worse than many other companies I might add)
The tips of the bottom tines on my grapple also have teeth but are less severe. They work for ripping roots and grabbing brush which is what they are designed for. In all the time I've participated in grapple discussions on TBN (12 years) I don't ever recall anyone complaining that their tines didn't have sharp enough teeth. It's a bogus non issue.
Again, you really don't know much about handling very large trees.