Used my grapple to move a pile and twisted heap of old metal-- parts of a frame, an axle, and assorted hardware from an antique wagon.
Picked up the metal pile with the grapple. After lifting, a few metal strips were dangling (too) close to the ground. I was worried one of those strips might snag on the ground, or the tractor, when I started moving. I decided to set the pile back down and re-grip it with a new "bite."
About half way down, to my great surprise, the grapple fell off the front of the tractor. ???? First, the left side came loose, then the grapple rotated close to 180 degrees while still attached on the right side. The right side then let loose and the grapple landed upside down in the dirt. Hydraulic hoses still attached.
Apparently, one of the metal pieces wedged between the ground and the left side SSQA lever. It pushed the lever up to the "release" position as I lowered the loader arms. Then, it pushed the left side of the grapple off the left side top mount. At that point it was free and detached on the left side. Surprisingly, no damage. Not even the hydraulic hoses.
This was a weird one. In the future I will be more careful if I again have to set a load back down. For logs, I usually rotate the grapple jaws to vertically "drop" what I am hauling. But since I wanted to "re-grip" the pile, this time I didn't want to rotate it like that.
