New kubota tractor advice

[dodge man]

I keep feel like I’m missing something here. Why would you not just dig around a rock with the FEL, expose most of it, and pop it out of the ground. I keep seeing all this stuff about a grapple. A grapple isn’t going to pluck it out of the ground if most of its buried, maybe you can slide under and pluck it out. I’m not knocking a grapple, they are just pricey and I think for getting rocks out the FEL will work fine.

 

[RSR]

It really depends on the ground. Mine is such hard clay, and with so many rocks, you can't dig with the bucket to get one rock out, without a different part of the bucket hitting a rock someplace else, and hanging up.

If you just have an occasional rock here are there, that should work. But it doesn't take too many rocks in hard ground to where digging with the bucket quickly becomes a futile exercise.

 

[thunder86]

The frostbite style grapples have an easily removed plate that spans the two lower tines (see picture). That allows you to pinch, and pick up rocks the size of softballs (depending on operator skill ). In the picture, the top clamshell is contacting the lower plate in it's current orientation. A camera mounted to the grapple makes it much easier to see what you are doing.

Or it can be removed to make the tines dig in easier. I leave my plate on pretty much all of the time as I've had no problem getting under rocks and popping them out with it on, and it makes it easy to get the smaller ones out.

I have a similar sized tractor (LS XR4145) with a loader with max lift capacity of 2,700 lbs at full height. With the grapple I've never been worried about twisting the loader. The tines are spaced close enough it's almost a non-issue (I imagine if you tried to pick up a massive rock so it's cantilevered out on one end, you could run into problems).

View attachment 689996

I like that plate between the bottom teeth but I cannot find one like that. Where did you buy yours?

 

[RSR]

I like that plate between the bottom teeth but I cannot find one like that. Where did you buy yours?

My dealer ordered the Sundown GR-20 grapple for me when I bought my tractor. It came with it.

I think if you inquire directly to the manufacturer or a distributor, you will find that, while not shown, a cross plate like that is available for either the Sundown, Igland, or Frostbite grapples.

 

[the old grind]

The plate seems to be an option with makes that offer it. I'd add it for rocks, might remove for grubbing olive & honeysuckle depending on the bite I could get.

 

[Grandad4]

It really depends on the ground. Mine is such hard clay, and with so many rocks, you can't dig with the bucket to get one rock out, without a different part of the bucket hitting a rock someplace else, and hanging up.

If you just have an occasional rock here are there, that should work. But it doesn't take too many rocks in hard ground to where digging with the bucket quickly becomes a futile exercise.

That was my experience also. Digging things out of the ground with the FEL "looks" like it should be easy until you actually try it. Like digging with a snow shovel. And if you try using just one side to dig, you risk racking the FEL arms on anything that puts up a fight.

 

[Cranblue]

What size do recommend? The L series is 1,000 pounds heavy than what I'm used to.

I went with L4701 with BH 92 hoe very pleased with its capabilities ran JD 410 BH,Ford 555 and Case 530CK this Kubota pound for pound is my Orange Little Beast !!! I’ve removed 100s of trees with 4701 and dug the stumps out obviously chainsawed bigger trees first.Personally I think you’ll get better leverage with hoe vs grapple I just use pallet forks to move trees and debris my tree work is winding down grapple great for picking up loose debris just didn’t appeal to me as much as BH.

 

[sea2summit]

I keep feel like I’m missing something here. Why would you not just dig around a rock with the FEL, expose most of it, and pop it out of the ground. I keep seeing all this stuff about a grapple. A grapple isn’t going to pluck it out of the ground if most of its buried, maybe you can slide under and pluck it out. I’m not knocking a grapple, they are just pricey and I think for getting rocks out the FEL will work fine.

FELs are designed to do exactly zero digging. The are designed to scoop material.

 

[SylvainG]

And a backhoe is designed for digging.

 

[dodge man]

I guess I’m misusing mine then.