Does anybody have info or experience with a front bucket mounted brush rake or grapple setup? My 590 sl2 has the hyd quick coupler, I use real forks on it also as my only forklift on the farm. I would like to find a rake or grapple that uses the standard case coupler setup. I have looked at the skid steer rakes, but the geometry is wrong, and I am afraid my big heavy hoe would have one of those pretzled up pretty quick.
Never seen one on that small of a machine however I did find this after your post piqued my curiosity.
As far as brush grapples go, I'm a big fan. The heavier, the better as far as durability goes. I bought a cheaper one and I have had to repair it twice now in the 2 years that I have owned it. Even with that in mind, a grapple is as handy as a pocket on a shirt. There was a company I found that makes brush grapples or grapple rakes for larger equipment like loaders and backhoe, but the price goes up quick with size. They could set them up for just about all the major quick connect systems too. I'll keep digging and see if I find the link to their webpage again.
I would rather have the full blown grapple rather than the retro fit grapple that mounts on your existing bucket. You can see what you are doing with the grapple because you can see through the tines on the top and bottom when you tilt it around to pick something up. With the add-on grapple your bucket is solid and you can't see what you are doing. Same problem with the add-on bucket forks. It's difficult during delicate maneuvers to see what you are doing over the solid bucket.
I don't have on but always thought it would be handy. Colon is right on the mark with cost though, the well built ones are a bit spendy, but you get what you pay for....if I got on I would use theses guys.... https://www.faverinc.com/
It looks like wallace attachments makes exactly what I'm talking about, I wan't ready for the $8000 price tag though
What about a clam bucket? It's not a bush rake but would helpful and can find them used for $2-3K
I can see where a grapple would be useful on a backhoe, but I don't think one could ever come close to being as effective as a grapple on a skid steer. If a backhoe was my only machine and I already had a quick connect on the backhoe, I would look for some way to make a skid steer grapple work, as least try it long enough to decide if it's really going to do all that you will hope. You'd also have the benefit of being able to use any skid steer implement.
Grapple on a heavy articulated Loader work well, on a skid steer too, on a TLB they can be less than optimum, too much tail weight to drive the spikes into harder ground, then any need to turn in soft stuff they generally scoot the front end unless MFWA. As a grapple is OK as a root rake would recommend a different machine.