jbrumberg said:
N80 and bjcsc:
I did not accept the website's Sales & Marketing hype about adding 2500 pounds of lift capacity to my FEL. If anything adding more weight out in front of the bucket would reduce actual lift capacity and unbalance the tractor as well. It is my impression that in some sort of convoluted sales logic they were somehow equating volumetrics (i.e. light weight debris) with bucket size and the size bucket that could handle the volume of the debris. What I really need/want is a grapple, but this acquisition would be difficult to win the approval from the COMPTROLLER a.k.a. "She Who Must Be Obeyed
" no matter how much how whining, grovelling, and kowtowing behaviors I presented Jay
Yeah, I'm pretty sure no one buys their logic...well maybe someone.
My grapple is my favorite implement of all. It's also from WR Long. What a rooter! The roots it will pull up impress me every time I use it. As an unmarried fellow (so far), I did not have the justification problems, BUT I have an idea for you, but it will only work if your significant other sometimes acts as your helper:
Wait for a hot or cold day (whichever she dislikes the most)
Take down a problem tree, or tackle a heavy brush problem, something to create many piles of stuff and cut it smaller than you normally would.
Park the trailer/dumptruck (whatever you use) a tad far away but not obviously far away
Try to "pick up a pile" with your regular bucket, but make sure not to actually pick anything up. Instead, "accidentally" spread it back out.
Verbally express your frustration with yourself, apologize for your limitations as the tractor operator and ask her to rake the pile back up while you try the next one.
Do the same thing to the next one.
Keep repeating this until she decides it's ridiculous and it would be easier to do it by hand.
Stop the tractor, get off and (together) start walking handfuls to the trailer.
After a couple of trips, suggest it would be easier if she would fill the bucket while you move it around.
Now, you're sitting on the tractor and she's loading the debris. She should be obviously annoyed at this point. If not, let her overfill the bucket a few times so it spills back out when you move.
Make it take all day.
Then, evaluate your chances of getting approval for a grapple. If you think they're pretty good, go to the next step. If not, go back to step 1 and find a new tree/brush problem for the next weekend.
Find a you tube video of a grapple moving brush. Tell her you found it by "researching" an easier way to deal with brush. Tell her the problem wasn't your ability as an operator, but that you were using the wrong tool! Let her watch it with you. Then tell her you could have done what you did in an hour if you had one. Suggest that you maybe should look into pricing one.
The rest is up to you!
