Building a grapple for my forks

[OHVarmntr]

I'm going to be building a single grapple finger for my FEL forks. I'll be basing it off of Cotech's design. I have a 2"x8" hydraulic cylinder. I've got a set of JD forks that the actual forks attach by having a round bar running through the top of each fork. The fork frame has 2 horizontal cross members that are 3" square tubing I will be making a quick attach setup for.

Pallet Fork Grapple - YouTube

Stay tuned!

 

[OHVarmntr]

Okay, so I made some progress this evening. It's been raining all day so it's nice and cool in the garage.

Starting out with this.


The grapple frame is made of 2"x1/4" wall and 3"x1/4" wall square tubing.


The Hobart 240v machine does a much better job than I'm capable of doing.


From the back of the fork frame.


The 3" tubing will have another piece of tubing or perhaps a 1/2" plate welded to it that will extend down behind the fork frames 3" tubing. This will hold the grapple frame onto the fork frame.


The cylinder will be mounted in some fashion like this, and the pedestal for the grapple finger will extend up in front of the cylinder.


Hopefully I'll be able to get the grapple pedestal built tomorrow evening, then make some mounting tabs for the grapple finger and the hydraulic cylinder. The grapple finger will be made out of a piece of the 2"x1/4" wall square tubing.

 

[Xfaxman]

:thumbsup:

 

[OHVarmntr]

12 hours of progress today. She's all painted and drying as I type. Going to assemble it tomorrow and get hoses made up for it Monday.

Mocked up. 1" pins, 5" pin centers.

Here's the frame all welded up ready for paint.

Painted.

Grapple finger all welded ready for paint.

Painted.

 

[OHVarmntr]

 

[BethelHntr]

Congrats that will work for sure. The pallet fork is my favorite implement so far and adding a grapple to it would very useful.

 

[James Eric]

Great work and design...I am bookmarking this one.

 

[OHVarmntr]

Thank you, if you want measurements, etc... let me know.

 

[EMB5530]

Man I bet that will be a great addition to anyone's arsenal of tractor implements.

Good build!!!

 

[OHVarmntr]

Thanks guys, I ran the hoses tonight and fired it up. Works great! As someone mentioned on another site, I will probably end up adding teeth to the arm to help grab the log and hold it.

 

[Xfaxman]

Looks good and will pick up a lot of brush also.

 

[carhart75]

Awesome! Looks great. It looks like it will be a handy add-on. Nice work.:thumbsup:

 

[Sodo]

I like it! I've been planning something similar for use with brush forks.

 

[beenthere]

Would like to see the pics, but unfortunately, they are missing.. thanks (NOT) to photobucket.

Would you care to post them again, for posterity? tks.

 

[prichard]

He hasn't posted anything in 2-1/2 years, so don't hold your breath.

Such a shame, is like to see it all as well.

 

[davedj1]

Would like to see the pics, but unfortunately, they are missing.. thanks (NOT) to photobucket.

Would you care to post them again, for posterity? tks.

get the google chrome work around for photbucket, it works for me.

 

[oldbones]

Don't know if the pics of mine will help you or not, but here's what I did for a grapple on my 2 fork attachments. I built one fork attachment, didn't like the grapple setup on it after a year or so. Then bought another used fork attachment and modified it to fit my tractor, then put the grapple on it. I like the second unit better (the last picture).
Now I have a dedicated fork attachment, and a dedicated grapple attachment.