Is a grapple worth it?

[k0ua]

Or - just give k0ua or me your shipping location and we'll have Travis at EA ship it COD. That way there'll be no turning back and you'll have someone else to blame!

With friends like us, he is all set, and good to go!

 

[totouchantler]

Upon delivery just tell her that the contents of the crate will help your husband increase his all round productivity.......... I'll handle the rest from there....

 

[lennyzx11]

That EA 50 inch graple looks like a good match for my L3901.... My bucket weighs 270 lbs aprox. It certainly could handle the rose spirea and bush honey suckle that I have already uprooted using my conventional bucket. Great.... Can you guys let my wife know!

You will find used for one that you haven't thought of!
Next to the cup holder, this is the most used part on my L3301. EA compact 50".


Lenny

 

[Mikeeemo]

It is worth every penny...

 

[oosik]

I've always wanted a grapple and with the new bigger tractor I was finally able to get one that could do some fairly heavy work/lifting. I went the whole nine yards -WR Long third function valve, upgraded joy stick and Land Pride SGC 1560 grapple.

Since I've had it - two years - I've never put the bucket back on the FEL. Its used for brush, trash, logs, big rocks and to back drag to smooth land thats been tilled. Its made a lazy man out of me but its also the most used implement I own.

 

[TripleR]

There's only one thing better than a grapple;

And that's two grapples;

Then you'll want a tree / post puller;

Yep, we did that too, handy, handy, handy.:thumbsup:

 

[mike69440]

After the front loader, the grapple is the best attachment out there!!!! Trees die, they lose branches, and sometimes you just need to remove some timber. Having grapple is the only way to do this in a productive manner. Being able to pick up the branches and stack them on a burn pile means cleaner burns,and less dirt to deal with when it's all burned up. Knowing what I know now, I would willingly pay twice what I did for my grapple. It's something I couldn't live without.

Before I got my excavator with hydraulic thumb, I used my HD grapple a lot. Look at it this way. A grapple is less money than an excavator. I still use my grapple occasionally, if I'm doing clean up work with both machines.

 

[rbargeron]

I didn't have a huge need for one but a 66" (edit) Bobcat 2-lid came up on Iron Planet, I put in a low-ball bid of 600 and was the only bidder. It weighs about 800 lb - the L48 & L5450 handle it well, too much freight for the smaller L's. I use it quite a bit. Great deal on a handy tool. There was a nifty big excavator on Iron Planet too - but it is in Dubai.

 

[ovrszd]

Did you mean 84"? Didn't know Bobcat had anything that narrow.

I like that style. It will also do bucket duty.

 

[dstig1]

They are pretty handy, I don't use mine every day either, but when you need one, everything else is a compromise. I stacked little bits of brush in my bucket for years, and later when I got forks, I used them, but a grapple beat the heck out of both for handling brush, and tree limbs and logs. I used the forks today to move several pallets of bricks after stacking them on the pallets.

Nothings beats forks for moving pallets. Nothing beats a grapple for moving brush and limbs. It is hard to say how much you would use it, as everyone's tractor usage is different, but I am glad I have mine.

Quoting for emphasis. 100% right.

The dealer I worked with when I got my first tractor said "forks are great for hauling brush". Well, I thought forks would be handy for pallets and stuff too, so I did that. He was wrong. Forks are better than a bucket for brush, but you HAVE TO manually load them or it all just falls off if you try to scoop up a random pile. That is very slow. Grapples allow you to scoop here, scoop there and make a big enough wad that it is worth driving over to the burn pile. Same with moving logs, especially long ones. On forks, they need to be perfectly balanced (good luck). The grapple gives you some wiggle room to be a little off center and still lift and haul it. Now mind you, you must be extra careful doing this as this puts new tipping forces on your rig which could send you rolling over in the wrong situation or bend your loader arms, so the key point is "a little" off center.

 

[rbargeron]

Did you mean 84"? Didn't know Bobcat had anything that narrow. I like that style. It will also do bucket duty.

Dooh! its not 54", it's a "66 INDL BKT GRPL" (edited above)

BTW Bobcat has them down to a single-lid 36"

 

[ovrszd]

Oh, stupid me, I was thinking of the bucket width.

 

[rbargeron]

The Bobcat 36IG might be an option for sw18x's B2650

Pics below show a 2014 model and there's a 2012 here. Not sure if the QA plate width would work on the B2650's QA.

 

[millsan1]

I have a Land Pride grapple on my BX. Most useful implement I have. LOVE it, but it also broke because of poor construction, which is being repaired now.

I would do it again, but will be much more mindful of how to use the grapple.

 

[v10]

I have a B2650 with an Everything Attachments grapple and have used it for 23 of the 24 hours on my new tractor. handiest implement i have ever used!

 

[ovrszd]

I have a B2650 with an Everything Attachments grapple and have used it for 23 of the 24 hours on my new tractor. handiest implement i have ever used!

Like to hear any comments concerning the B2650. Maybe start a thread in the Kubota section and we'll discuss it.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Like to hear any comments concerning the B2650. Maybe start a thread in the Kubota section and we'll discuss it.

Yep, and we'll help you spend more money perfecting it!

 

[ovrszd]

Yep, and we'll help you spend more money perfecting it!

Us????? Naaaaagggghhhhh........

 

[JWR]

First, make sure you get an SSQA skid-steer compatible interface loader. This day and age never buy one otherwise. Grapples, buckets, grapple buckets and a huge number of other things will fit. I recommend a grapple bucket (like the one on post#33 but lighter.) Neither a bucket alone nor a grapple alone. The bucket will be useful all the time and the grapple riding on it is a huge plus with limbs and posts and fallen trees, etc. whenever you may need it. Notice the activity in posts #8 and #25. To be honest, a B2650 is pretty light for large limbs, tree trunks and whole trees like that. For brush, debris and smaller limbs it should be great. It is easy to get into trouble lifting long heavy objects with a FEL. Being able to lift it in the first place may be the least of your troubles. Balance, tipping, tip over, etc. rapidly become issues. I use a tractor weighing around 9000 lbs with a 4-in-1 pinch bucket on the front that weighs 1000 lbs by itself all the time and, YES, it is all too easy pick up something that will tip you or make you wish you had not picked it up. I can't imagine doing a lot of that sort of work with a B2650 sized machine. Everything is relative though, just bite what you can chew.

 

[super55]

Is a grapple worth it? It all depends on how much you will use it and what you will use it for. Purchasing a grapple is kind of a big ticket item once you figure in shipping, hydraulics and the unit itself. Don't get me wrong I love my grapple but do I use it as much as I thought I would. Not by a long shot. It did get real heavy use about a year ago when a storm blew down about 10 trees on my property but the original reason I bought it was to uproot invasive brush on the property and have now since realized that a piranha tooth bar works 5x better for ripping our brush in my situation.

If you do a fair amount of logging or moving large rocks a grapple is a great investment. Having the ability to close the lid to keep things in place is a great thing to have. If you are doing things such as piling brush a manure fork bucket works almost as good for a fraction of the cost.