Best grapple for an L48?

[pmmully]

If you plan to work your grapple hard, buy it from EA.
If you want a good grapple, buy an EA or Land Pride.
If you just want a grapple, buy a cheap one!

For your L48, you should not be digging rocks with a loader mounted grapple, that is more like CTL work.
You have a nice tough 11' BH for rocks, and you can pick rocks up with most any grapple!

I have a 500 lb. (long bottom teeth) $1,200 grapple, from MS Attachments, on my L48, because all I need to pick up is small logs, and brush.
I have EA 4,400 lb.cap. forks for any really heavy stuff, and my Q/A with hydraulic locking,(no dismount necessary) makes changing super easy.

Living proof of this claim. Not saying there are not other quality products out there, for sure there are... I found a couple.

But if you look at the construction in person, it becomes quickly evident. For the L48/47, this is like a performance-matched part for that machine given the weight. The claim to the steel quality/type has to be real or it would be broken already. At the end of the day, this grapple is about 350# lighter than anything of comparable strength class.

I have a bud that builds rockets for Lockheed Martin, literally, a rocket builder, told me the steel matters a whole lot and they specialize in keeping the strength up and weight down in every component. Same with the race car game. So this AR 450 steel and every point being welded is the key to the lighter weight. Other steel means more material which means more weight for the same strength. On larger machines, I would just go with the standard stuff with replaceable teeth cause the extra weight gets lost in the noise.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Living proof of this claim. Not saying there are not other quality products out there, for sure there are... I found a couple.

But if you look at the construction in person, it becomes quickly evident. For the L48/47, this is like a performance-matched part for that machine given the weight. The claim to the steel quality/type has to be real or it would be broken already. At the end of the day, this grapple is about 350# lighter than anything of comparable strength class.

I have a bud that builds rockets for Lockheed Martin, literally, a rocket builder, told me the steel matters a whole lot and they specialize in keeping the strength up and weight down in every component. Same with the race car game. So this AR 450 steel and every point being welded is the key to the lighter weight. Other steel means more material which means more weight for the same strength. On larger machines, I would just go with the standard stuff with replaceable teeth cause the extra weight gets lost in the noise.

This advice is SOLID. Just know, as a WICKED owner, you are EA Family, and will be treated as such!! I look forward to seeing and hearing about your Wicked adventures, sir!!!
Travis

Oh, you guys should check out my newest EA factory walk vid if you haven't.

 

[pmmully]

This advice is SOLID. Just know, as a WICKED owner, you are EA Family, and will be treated as such!! I look forward to seeing and hearing about your Wicked adventures, sir!!!
Travis

Oh, you guys should check out my newest EA factory walk vid if you haven't.

Be careful what you wish for , you heard it here first... I am now FAMILY.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

At 72 in wide and only 400 Pounds or just a little over, the land Pride grapple was much more suitable for my needs with my Kubota MX 5200. Not even including the price yeah, because that was much better than EA's grapple as well.

It has been a stellar for the past two years.

Ar400 steel construction, I use this grapples wide width for raking piles and grabbing huge piles of brush cleaning up land.

EA makes a great grapple, but the specs of the land pride suit my use better.

 

[pmmully]

Land Pride was on the list. The local dealers could only find me a 750# unit, supply I guess. That is the one they matched with the new L47s here in Mims FL. And that unit was $3300, $400 over the EA selection for me. I hated buying in this inflated time, should have gotten on 6 months earlier, would have saved about $400-500. I have my eyes open for a used long-tine model, nothing special, just a clean-up use case on job sites. I have time now, will wait until something pops up.

I am glass I only got the 66", even a 60 would work, fits in more places.

 

[pmmully]

Be careful what you wish for , you heard it here first... I am now FAMILY.

Hey EA Family Guy.... I have one improvement suggestion.... what would be very cool is a backplate on the lower half of the grapple. I have seen this on several other brands. I now see where that could be very handy in keeping out of trouble when pushing brush. It would obviously add weight and cost, but it would be most helpful, a feature I would pay for.

@EverythingAttachments

 

[fried1765]

Hey EA Family Guy.... I have one improvement suggestion.... what would be very cool is a backplate on the lower half of the grapple. I have seen this on several other brands. I now see where that could be very handy in keeping out of trouble when pushing brush. It would obviously add weight and cost, but it would be most helpful, a feature I would pay for.

@EverythingAttachments

My Mid-State Attachments grapple (not MTL) has a back plate (60" weighs 500#)
Prevents damage to nose of my L48.

 

[txhawg]

15 weeks and EA still can’t give me an estimated ship date for my grapple.

I don’t feel like “family”

@EverthingAttachments

 

[pmmully]

15 weeks and EA still can’t give me an estimated ship date for my grapple.

I don’t feel like “family”

@EverthingAttachments

Unfortunately, that is the way it is for just about every manufacturer. The only stuff I saw in stock anywhere was the Titan stuff. The rest was all 10+ weeks out. The Kubota dealer on 84 by Valdosta GA has another model I would not hesitate to buy but it was $3300 and about 850#. The auctions are flat-out sold out of anything but beat-down junk.

I got lucky and found this EA in Valdosta, the only one they had. Apparently, they buy them 5 at a time and mark them up a bit.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

15 weeks and EA still can’t give me an estimated ship date for my grapple.

I don’t feel like “family”

@EverthingAttachments

I will continue to keep you informed with the situation, and let you know where you are on the list. Unfortunately, the steel industry hasn't been very cooperative, and the shortages have delayed our estimates by several weeks.
We do not like it any better than you do, but I can assure you that we're doing all we can to get those out as soon as possible.

I talked about what's going on, early in this vid..

Sorry for the delay, fam.
Travis