Thickness of steel for grapple build

woodlandfarms · May 6, 2011

I am going to build a bottom portion of a grapple for my PT. I have it designed and am ready to go but someone posed a question I wanted to get your guys opinions on.

The top grapple is 1/2 inch material. My tractor lifts around 1200lbs. I was planning on building a 8 tine bottom out of 1/2" steel, with 1/4" thick square cross tubbing. My neighbor said that I was overbuilding and that 3/8" would be fine and reduce my attachment weight.

I am planning reinforcement pieces. Triangles of steel along the tines to keep them from bending left and right.

Any thoughts before I place my steel order?

Rustyiron · May 6, 2011

Just for a point of reference for you, I have a "store bought" 84" root rake/grapple and it prolly weighs about 1000 lbs (a guess) and it's tines and grapples are all made out of 1/2" plate with the typ. reinforcements. I have it on a SSL that has a 3750 lb roc and that is the "rated op. cap" whitch is 1/2 of the tipping load, I have tipped it! with no damage to the unit. At 1200 lb loader cap. you might want to scale things back so that you have capacity past the weight of the attachment.