The WICKED Root & Debris GRAPPLE!!!!!!!

[Imaybail]

Backdragging does work well for smoothing out and it actually makes a pretty good seed bed for broadcasting seed in a old plot if you drag with the tines slightly engaged.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Think about the extremely powerful excavators used in construction demolition. You'll never see even a 4 foot wide grapple on them. Most are 3ft wide. Why? Three basic reasons. 1) That's all they need to work efficiently, 2) A wider grapple would be less selective and make picking up specific items like a stump more challenging, and 3) A wider grapple increases risks of tipping over the excavator. #3 is a real concern when you have an excavator with a lift capacity of more than 30,000 lbs and you consider what happens when you apply that lift while the outboard edge of the grapple is unknowingly snagged on an object that won't move. It would get exciting real fast. The power of the excavator would tip the machine over. By using narrow grapples, that won't happen as easily as the load is centered.

CUTs aren't likely to tip over but the sort of twisting forces demonstrated in Eric's photo are not great for the tractor or FEL. Narrow grapples make that type of scenario less likely to occur.

Meh. A wider grapple over the hood of a tractor allows the operator the ability to see what whey are doing at the ends. In the photo above I'm ripping a root ball out of sand. The only reason I would accept a narrower grapple on a tractor is if I was limited by my power to lift. Moreover, a wider grapple allows more lightweight material to be carried, a problem I largely face with endless piles of material to be transported to burn piles.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Clearing a spot for my camper on my remote property with the EA dual lid Wicked grapple. Not Ted level of abuse, but I was pleased with being able to move the trees in one piece and pile them for burning later.

Welcome to the party :cake: resent: and thanks for sharing!!
I enjoyed your ENTIRE video. :applause:
OH, and you couldn't hide the smile!!

That there was some nice ripping and gripping, courtesy of these puppies.
Travis

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Meh. A wider grapple over the hood of a tractor allows the operator the ability to see what whey are doing at the ends. In the photo above I'm ripping a root ball out of sand. The only reason I would accept a narrower grapple on a tractor is if I was limited by my power to lift. Moreover, a wider grapple allows more lightweight material to be carried, a problem I largely face with endless piles of material to be transported to burn piles.

Awesome video as always, Eric!

Guys, check out this one small, yet HUGE observation I noticed right off....

When he raises/lowers the loader quite swiftly, the whole tractor DOESN'T shake like it has an anchor attached to the front end.
In fact, it really produces no reaction at all, even though he has NOTHING hooked to the 3pt. for ballast besides a quick hitch.
The fast motion video draws more attention and lets us witness it over and over again.

This is an extremely significant point made possible by a simply ideal, properly weighted Wicked Grapple IMO.
Travis

 

[IslandTractor]

Re: The WICKED Root & Debris GRAPPLE!!!!!!!

He's not doing it with an excavator, he's doing it with a tractor...

Again, a more fair comparison would be with a skidsteer. Excavators have nothing in common with a tractor, I do understand what point your trying to make, it's just a poor example.

I understand we are not talking about excavators. We are talking tractors with FELs and how to use them in demo. The reason I discussed the excavator was two fold. One to show the disadvantage of a wide grapple and secondly to show that a narrow grapple is all you need. There are parallels that are useful to consider. If a professional demo company primarily uses 3-4ft grapples on machines that can lift 30,000lbs, that should tell you something. They could easily run a ten foot grapple if they wanted but they don't. Why you might ask? Most likely for both safety and efficiency. Think about it.

As far as tractors are concerned there seems to be a lack of appreciation that the tractor FEL is a lifting device and not the best choice generally for demo work or bulldozing. Recall that we had tractors for about a hundred years before someone thought of putting a loader on them. Tractors are pulling devices primarily. Loaders are engineering after thoughts and are clearly designed simply for lifting. Long skinny loader arms are not for pushing or ramming. Do so at your own risk. Skidsteers are purpose built around the loader and have evolved as construction tools so have very different strengths and weaknesses compared to CUTs. They are much more powerful generally and arguably designed for the abuse meted out at construction sites. Their loaders are considerably stronger than what we have on our CUTs and the loader arms are not as long. They also tip over regularly.

Do excavators have anything in common with CUT FELs by design? Not much other than a very long loader arm and the fact that they are primarily used for lifting not ramming. But in this instance, demolition, they are in fact used similarly to how a CUT with FEL would be used. Not bulldozing but pushing weak spots on a building to make it collapse and then move the debris into piles or to lift into a dump truck/trash container. A 4 or 5 foot grapple would be more than adequate for such a task. If you were going to do that daily then a CUT is the wrong tool but for occasional demo work a CUT is fine. Been there done that. A four foot grapple works fine. If you are doing it every day, you don't need a CUT you need an excavator.

 

[Bigfish50]

Hey Travis,

Nice videos posted by both Imaybail and Eric so thanks guys for rubbing it in.. LOL Just thought I'd follow up to see if you had a better wag on when my 54" single lid wicked grapple might get put on a truck headed west? Cheers!

 

[IslandTractor]

Meh. A wider grapple over the hood of a tractor allows the operator the ability to see what whey are doing at the ends. In the photo above I'm ripping a root ball out of sand. The only reason I would accept a narrower grapple on a tractor is if I was limited by my power to lift. Moreover, a wider grapple allows more lightweight material to be carried, a problem I largely face with endless piles of material to be transported to burn piles.

You and I have the same loader. I have a 48" grapple and can see very well where the edges of the grapple are. Directly in front of the SSQA plate and unobscured by the FEL arms. The grapple is easily seen in front of the tractor, I don't need to look around any obstacles or lean out. In fact, the edges of my grapple are directly in front of my eyes and directly in front of the FEL arm. I can see the edge from inside the FEL arms, I don't need to lean over to see outside. A six foot grapple will have the edge a foot outboard and obscured often by the FEL arm. Do the geometry and tell me who can see the tips of the outboard grapple tine more easily.

Wider grapple really doesn't add much to the capacity for brush. Look at the photos below of brush and trees in a puny 48" grapple. I can get in more brush and trees into a 48" with 42" jaw opening than someone with a wider grapple but only 37" jaw. Brush is sticky. It's all about how big your bite is not how wide. (And, notice that one of those photos is a puny little CK20 with the same grapple).

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Hey Travis,

Nice videos posted by both Imaybail and Eric so thanks guys for rubbing it in.. LOL Just thought I'd follow up to see if you had a better wag on when my 54" single lid wicked grapple might get put on a truck headed west? Cheers!

Our 5 week "guesstimate" from when the order was placed is the best honest answer I've been able to come up with. A few have shipped faster and some have even went over a bit.
Fingers crossed for a couple more weeks!!
Travis

 

[IslandTractor]

Our 5 week "guesstimate" from when the order was placed is the best honest answer I've been able to come up with. A few have shipped faster and some have even went over a bit.
Fingers crossed for a couple more weeks!!
Travis

Of course if Travis wasn't fooling around with his beautiful pickup truck on weekends he could lend a hand in the shop and get you the order faster! Now THAT would be customer service.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Of course if Travis wasn't fooling around with his beautiful pickup truck on weekends he could lend a hand in the shop and get you the order faster! Now THAT would be customer service.

More like fooling with my beautiful lawn(I give much credit to the EA Alternating Depth Aerator)! The truck has been a little neglected as of late!
Travis