HomeBrew2 said:
Indeed, it's an excellent setup. In fact, all the guys that have to spend too much good money on a grapple could do exactly the same jobs with brush forks. The only exception is using the grapple pinch to yank stuff out of the ground ... that, and only that, you can't do with forks.
I beg to differ -- have you ever used a grapple?
1. With proper technique, you can crush the brush into the grapple and pick up about twice the amount of brush as with simple forks...
2. Things don't tend to fall off and scatter all over the place like they do with forks...
3. You can carry an unbalanced load, which you can't do with forks...
4. You can precisely place a log or something EXACTLY where you want it, which isn't easily done with forks...
5. You can pinch logs or other things by the end and pull them out to where you can get to them, then pick them up...
I could go on and on... even more than I have. How much difference did the thumb make to your backhoe, and the kinds of things you can now do with it? The grapple functions the same way on the front of the tractor...
I understand you like your forks -- but the cat's meow for cut brush would be grapple forks, not empy forks... The rock/root grapple is a more versatile grapple overall, and the grapple bucket has it's plusses also, since you can scoop up things that would fall through the forks...