Modifying the Grapple

[Mr. 5000]

Recently I purchased the Markham / Gator 48 light duty grapple rake for my MX5100 Kubota. After spending all day yesterday clearing fence rows and moving 2 downed trees, I could not bend it. At one point I had so much torque on the loader, the front end was flexing. I own a tree service and do most of my work in residential yards. The grapple is great for limbs and logs but drops the ball on sticks, leaves, and dirt. It has problems with scraping the ground for small stuff and then picking it up. I have also found that when pushing into piles, stray sticks sometimes come through the back and attack hydraulic lines.

I had the idea to put corrugated metal on the back and 1/8 inch steel on the bottom. I also want to put some sort of an edge on the front for scraping and scooping. I know someone will say why didn稚 you buy a bucket? Answer they are too heavy . If any of you have done something similar, please let me know.

 

[ihuntbear]

i'm almost finished building mine.If you put corrugated metal wouldn't sticks get stuck in it ? then you will be getting off the tractor every 10 minutes taking them out. just my 2 cents

 

[Mr. 5000]

I currently have a ground guy but I am finding now that I have the tractor the ground guy stands around watching my tractor do his work. If I could rake with the grapple it would allow me to do most of the work from the tractor.

 

[magicheater]

I currently have a ground guy but I am finding now that I have the tractor the ground guy stands around watching my tractor do his work. If I could rake with the grapple it would allow me to do most of the work from the tractor.

What did he do when you had the skid steer? Had you thought of a 3PH landscape rake? If you are throwing all this on a trailer you would still need some sort of bucket to load that with unless the ground guy will do it by hand.
Are you trying to eliminate the ground guy? Since the tractor set-up is new for him also, maybe it will just take some time for the two of you to synch a little better.

 

[ihuntbear]

maybe give him a list of work he must do like pickup the little stuff instead of standing around.maybe he needs to be told if he is just going to stand around he may as well stand around at home.That's the problem these days with the new generation,they need to be told what to do instead of finding something to do.Those d*** nintendo games.sorry just venting. back to the grapple.I've been putting more thought into this .I remember seeing something on the net about this.somebody did put some screening on their grapple to do some yard work.They used stretch steel and worked really good for what they were doing.

 

[Mr. 5000]

Before I bought the tractor I rented a skid steer on larger jobs. Most of the time we loaded everything by hand. If I can maximize my effectiveness with the tractor I can eliminate the need for a ground guy. On the larger jobs I can contract out my coworkers from the fire department.

 

[tommcintire]

Interesting problem statement. I ran into something similar this weekend with my medium duty grapple. I want to stress it isn't a design flaw on the part of Markham. I love the thing, it does its job well. But, I was grabbing brush and burning it, and a piece came through the back and unlocked one of my skid steer attachement levers. Next thing I knew, while feeding the fire (once it finally lit), the grapple was hanging by one side only.

Now the bad news... . When I went to reattach, it seems to have twisted the quick attach system. Talking to my dealer, this is not that uncommon an issue (I gather) as he started describing how to repair it with ease...

For me, my approach is going to be a bit different. When I have them repair it (I am not a good welder, don't claim to be either), I am going to have them add rings that I can use to put on lock chains to make sure it doesn't disengage. I may also have them add a second bar tying the two sides together, which would strengthen it immeasureably...

I did check already, and thankfully my loader arms did not bend. 5 minutes with a level told me that, working my way down the arms, and finding they were all level side to side...

My approach won't address the small junk, but my approach to that is the york rake once I have completed the big stuff with the grapple. My take is that if I try to dig up the small stuff with the grapple, I will also pull up a lot of dirt...

-Tom