ericm979
Super Member
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2016
- Messages
- 5,562
- Location
- Santa Cruz Mountains CA, Southern OR
- Tractor
- Branson 3725H Deere 5105
My EA grapple weighs 450 lbs. I've used it a lot with large logs and the lids still match perfectly. My 3725's loader is rated to 2100 lbs at full height but it's more down low. I have had logs so heavy that the loader could not curl them up and I had to carry them with the grapple pointed down.
Since skid steers usually have more lift capacity a heavy grapple is not so much of a concern. I think the question here is how much weight you will be lifting with the tractor vs the skid steer. If anything heavy gets done by the skid steer then a heavy grapple would be ok. But if you're moving logs of any decent size with the tractor then you want a grapple that's light enough to not use too much loader capacity.
The frostbite style grapples look really good for logs, no surprise as that's what they are designed for. I'm doing everything from logs from small to huge to brush. The EA wicked grapple seems like a good compromise for all of those uses.
Since skid steers usually have more lift capacity a heavy grapple is not so much of a concern. I think the question here is how much weight you will be lifting with the tractor vs the skid steer. If anything heavy gets done by the skid steer then a heavy grapple would be ok. But if you're moving logs of any decent size with the tractor then you want a grapple that's light enough to not use too much loader capacity.
The frostbite style grapples look really good for logs, no surprise as that's what they are designed for. I'm doing everything from logs from small to huge to brush. The EA wicked grapple seems like a good compromise for all of those uses.