So I'm in the market looking for a grapple as I have some land clearing to do at my friends house. Basically, I'll be clearing out the brush: jagger bushes, leaves, etc and also take out trees that are down along with some dead ones that need dropped. Plus, I want to be able to use it on other applications, like demolition or what not. Just look for the most versatile one for my needs. I've researched and looked at so many, my question is, which out of these two grapples I've found, which would be more suited for what I am doing. The rock grapple has replaceable teeth plus the jaw opening is greater and tines are spaced at 4 7/8" apart. My thought was with the teeth The root grapple has the curve to it with the serrated end and the tine spacing at like 8 7/8" and opening at 39"...The gentleman told me the rake is the more popular model of the two. I've also been told its better to go with the two separated claws verses one that runs the full length because of picking odd shaped items..They both retail for the same price at $2400 plus shipping...And I was told the steel is 572 steel, which I think the guy meant a572 whom I was talking too. Also, I was told by one manufacturer that the ROC does come into play with this stuff..meaning if the attachment weighs in at lets say 800lbs and your rated at 2000lbs, then you'd be left with being able to lift 1200lbs of logs or whatever. Is that correct? here are the two grapples I was looking at: http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/skid_steer_rock_grapple.php http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/skid_steer_grapple_rakes.php
I would go with the Rake between these two. Price seems reasonable. ROC of your machine certainly plays into the equation as it does with many attachments. If you get too much rake on too small of a machine you cant lift anything.
ok. thanks...and reasoning for the rake? I figured having replaceable teeth would be more beneificial...but it sounds like not..the rake has a 39" opening..do you think thats plenty or should I look for another one with a larger mouth opening? attached a couple of pics of what I have to clear out...as you can see, it will be alot of brush in between the trees and all the down trees..
KSSS...thanks on the ROC help...that is what is coming into play when I'm looking at getting another machine, the Case SR220 verses the 250 model verses the others...but you had said about adding counter weights to the 220 if I go with that model, so I think I would be good..Like you said, I don't want to be undersized on the machine...
Yair . . . jsinpa . I'm not a skiddy hand by any means but over here very few are not equipped with a "4 in 1" and I see them clearing acres of similar sized stuff we call wattle. They seem to do okay and unless you intend to do a lot of clearing I couldn't imagine having an attachment just for stacking sticks. Cheers.
I have about the same opening distance on a Quick Attach grapple that I have and seldom is the opening too small. The benefit of having the dual independent grapples is worth it. I doubt you could ever wear out the teeth, I would not be concerned about that. http://www.quickattach.com/shop-by-department/skid-steers/grapples/products/saber-tine/ This is the grapple that I have that use for land clearing. I bought it to handle larger trees for a specific project. I bought this one because of how HD it is and I liked the spacing of the tines. It actually works better than I would have thought for all types of clearing. I am not advocating this for what your doing, just as another idea of what is out there.
I went with the Bobcat "industrial grapple bucket" when I bought. I had previously used a homemade brush rake (much like one would put on a dozer). I couldn't stand the open back on it for moving brush, always had a stick poking back through trying to hit the machine (or me). FWIW, I added bucket teeth on mine so I could "rake" with it, also makes getting under logs easier. It's also nice to be able to use it as a bucket for leveling out dirt or ruts without having to change attachments. Ed
I have the root grapple or rake on my 287B and it works great for pulling out trees and cleaning up deadfall. The curved up teeth in the front work better for picking up trees and for getting under roots to pop them out.
See already some good advice Tim
Mobiltech...what brand is yours? did you see the link to the one I looked at? your opinions on that one?
I have a Bobcat grapple, the one with tines and not a solid bottom. Purchased this grapple initially for construction site clean-up but use it now for demo. I wanted a grapple that would allow some dirt to be able to fall through. If I were to purchase another grapple, I would go with the one that has replaceable teeth but that's my application. The tines on my grapple are worn on the bottom from scraping across the ground, asphalt and concrete, in the future I will need to replace them or go with another grapple that has replaceable teeth. However I don't clear much with my skid as we use the 953 or 321 for clearing jobs. When I have used the grapple to clear small areas, I don't like it. It's great for raking and stacking debris but not so good for clearing - I prefer a bucket as the grapple tines get in the way but that's my $.02. Also the two separate grapple clamps are far superior to the one as it allows you to grasp different sized debris - there is always different sized debris.
I have a grapple similar to the grapple rake you posted. It does not work well for me. With the tines curved up at the end, I have to tilt is all the way down to pick up anything. That limits me to one or two logs/trees/whatever at a time. I can't go along and rake stuff up and close on it. I think the flat tines would be better. If I were to buy again, I would strongly consider one of the clamshell grapples where the tines are almost vertical. But without ever using one, that might not work as expected either. With the grapple I have, unless I have it dropped down all the way, it tends to push stuff away rather than picking it up.
Mine is a Stout that I picked up new at an auction. It is average in build strength not real heavy duty but I have pushed it pretty hard with the 287 and never had a problem. I only paid $1500 for it and Ive seen them go for less. As k45 says you have to run the rake tilted over to pick things up but that's why it rakes because you just run with the tines in the ground a bit and pull up anything near the surface. The wide tine spacing lets the dirt go right through. If you tried to do that with a rock grapple the tines would plug up with dirt immediately and it acts like a solid bucket. I have a rock bucket and it wont rake very well. I guess it depends on how deep you want to rake. Heres one like it http://www.purplewave.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?131204/H4363/5
Ok, so what's the purpose of the curve on the end then? From what some of the different manufacturers were saying that I talked to, it actually helps with getting underneath stuff more. And K45, you are correct, I thought the whole purpose with the rake was to get the tines down in the ground some to "rake" or pull up on the roots etc. I saw a video demonstration online on one where they said the tines could go in as much as like 2'...which I thought was a little crazy to go that deep with a rake. I figured if your down in the dirt, like 6" at most, that is plenty... K45, that was my initial thought also was the one with the replaceable teeth..but then they also told me with the rake style one, the curl is a little bit better verses that rock one...plus as Mobiltech was saying about tine spacing, the rake is at 8 7/8" verses the 6" spacing which from what everyone is saying, does help with letting dirt threw.. I think I did see that one, Mobiltech...I'll have to check it out again..The price is nice on that one..but knowing me, I how I tend to push the limits with stuff at times, i may be better off with a heavier duty one...but thanks for the input on yours..I will definitely look into that one... here's the video of the one where they said the rake can dig in I think to the 2'.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZc5Be2Z7mI
That video was something else....looked like he got a bunch of soil in the debris by going so deep. Trying to do that in a woodlot would be an exercise in frustration, lots of roots that you won't be cutting through with a skidsteer. When I use mine in the woods, I don't go any deeper than necessary to clean the surface, not worried about anything underground. Just cleaning up the debris, nothing more, its a woodlot. Ed
Bumpsteer...Ed...That was my exact thought after I saw that video as well...Why would you go that deep, especially in the woods...I posted some pics earlier of where I have to do the work and definitely can't see going that deep. Like you said, I was just planning on cleaning the surface, maybe only going down a few inches into the ground..not to the extreme of that video though... Josh
One other quick question for all of you on this subject...As far as the clearing out part, I'm basically just removing all the brush and down logs..leaving all the good trees...So if I go with the rake version, do I need to worry about pulling out all the roots in or around the trees that are staying? Or if I stay closer to the surface with the tines, will I be ok? The last thing I want to do is kill my friend's trees by tearing up the roots..
I bought one from a dealer on ebay after shopping around for mine, The tines are all 3/4" plate, including the grapples. It was a little cheaper than what I could get locally too and much heavier. The tines on it also didn't turn up on the ends like most others. I use it for handling logs, pushing brush, moving scrap, setting rock for retaining walls, all sorts of things. I dont like it for clearing, I go back to a tooth bucket for that. I looks a lot like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/68-Heavy-Du...=BI_Heavy_Equipment_Parts&hash=item4170bf1b7e John
Thanks John...it looks like everyone has kind been in agreement that this one: http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/skid_steer_grapple_rakes.php is the way to go....verses this one http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/skid_steer_rock_grapple.php Looks like I'll be going for the root rake one... Josh
I have a very similar one to that you are leaning towards now. I have been happy with it and it does pretty good for clearing. The lack of replaceable teeth has not been an issue for me.
Thanks Jerry...it sounds like that one is the way to go...
Just a suggestion. I got the Faver grapple for my Takeuchi. I use it here on the ranch for rocks, trees, brush, hay, everything! It is amazing! Plus, I don't think you will find a beefier built grapple. It does weigh a lot (1200 lbs.) but it is solid! 1-inch bottom tines. You can rake with these tines because you don't have the support tube or bar 3-4 inches back from the tips of the teeth. I couldn't find any other grapple that was built as solid as this is. Highly recommend Faver.
Thanks NV.....I think I did look at that one also..but I'll check it out again....
Bought the Solesbee grapple rake...being shipped out tomorrow so I'll let everyone know how it is. Got it with shipping included for $2261.00....
Congrats, jsinpa. I'm glad you finally found what you were looking for. I too will be in the same position and don't know which one I will be going with just yet. I'm not ready to buy, yet, and still have lots of looking to do. So are all these terms interchangeable. Say when folks call it a root grapple, grapple rake, rake, ect. Do they all mean the same thing, but they're just shaped and built a little different from each other? I'm still trying to get an idea of what exactly I may need as well.
hey Garrett....actually they are all just a little bit different from what I've found...the root grapples I've found, the front edge is curved and serated for ripping out the roots...the rakes, are usually one full length looking rake on the top verse two independent grapples...a rake is just that..a rake with no grapple on it...You definitely have to watch the wording from different companies....what are you looking to do with it...maybe I can help you out...I had rented one the other weekend so it did help me to figure out what I wanted more...like the one I rented, the tines were straight on the bottom with no curve to them... The rock ones, the tines are closer together verses the root ones which allow the dirt to fall through..
Pics don't really show the amount of work that needs to be done, but maybe will give you an ideal of what I'm up against. Lots of brush piles from me hand cutting and stacking. The floor needs to be cleaned of debris and dead trees that have fallen. Lots of widow makers and some near the house that need to come down. I have a old oak that ended up in my pond I need to get out, eventually. Huge amount of pines that have fallen from the droughts. All those have to be cut with saw and stacked for burning. There's a lot of saplings all throughout the property that need to be pulled up and out of the ground. I'd like to take quite a few of the 4-5 inch hardwoods and rip them up out of the ground as well. Mainly my only concern would be one side of the creek which is about 12 acres. The other side is too steep and I am still trying to decide what I need to do with it.
Awesome property Garrett..how many acres do you have? Those pics you posted, that's basically the look of the property I posted on here...down trees and debris and a ton of jagger/thorn bushes to pull out..I can tell u from this from this past weekend renting one. I cut my logs into 8' lengths to pick up and move. Only reason for that was because it was about the most spacing I had between trees without taking quite a few good ones down which isn't what I'm trying to do. If you look at my pics posted earlier in this thread, you'll see I'm in the same boat as yours. The one I rented, ripped up underneath the size your talking about and pulled them out. I'm hoping mine will be here by Thursday so I'll take some pics for you. Did you check out Solebees? Also does your machine have HI flow? I was seriously thinking of renting a machine with hi flow and using one of those forestry cutters/mulcher on the place I'm doing..my machine doesn't have hi flow so I'd have get both machine and mulcher..especially since I heard your suppose to have impact glass on the door.
We only have 16 acres. When we were looking for property, I THOUGHT I wanted around 40-50 acres. Well, I'm glad we only purchased 16 because it is A LOT OF WORK! I'm not real old, but I'm no spring chicken anymore, either. LOL. We have just the right amount where we can't see our neighbors and it gives us a lot of privacy. So far I'm happy here, but if I re injure my back, I'm done and I'll be buying a old colonial home in town, lol. Yeah, I'll have to cut some trees up to get them out of there. There's some places in there that are quite thick. You just can't see them in the pics. I didn't look at Solebee's stuff. I haven't looked at any places, really. I have browzed, but no serious looking. My machine isn't high flow. I thought about it and I don't really need it. But I did think about going the mulching route, but overall cost of a setup like that pretty much made up my mind for me. It's an easier way to do it and faster, but it cost dollars going that route. I've got more time than I got money, lol. It's funny, my machine has the high impact plastic door. I sometimes wonder why the previous owners needed it. I know one thing, there looks to be no way to kick it out if I ever needed out. That worries me. If the back is on fire, where do I go? I have some thinking to do there.
That is a nice size piece of property when you have the woods..I've been looking around myself for a nice chunk. I'm not a big fan of large properties that are all open and prefer the woods. And you are correct, they are a lot of work, lol. Well, those high impact doors were for just that..using things like the forestry cutters, stump grinders, etc that can have debris fly back at the cab. Although, I think most of those types of attachments take high flow and without yours having that, so I'm not sure either....
Yep, 16 acres of woods is not the same as 16 acres of pasture, lol. You jump on your tractor and get to mowing with 16 acres and your done. You're never done with 16 acres of woods, lol. I'm in competition with mother nature and the squirrels as to who can do their job the fastest. Seems the squirrels and mother nature wins every time. LOL.
I bought this grapple rake several years ago and it is one of the attachments that will not do without. I had them split the grapple so that they work independently, makes a world of difference when lifting loads that are not uniform from side to side. It also works great with the grapple open, as a rake...the raised grapple protects the operator as my cab is open. http://www.cidattachments.com/xtreme_grapple_rake.html Enjoy...
that is one of the ones I had looked at Skid Shear....but i wanted the two independent like you had said...I didn't realize they would split it into two for you..I also liked the top to be used as a rake, but the problem I had with that type was that the bottom tines were really short...sounds like it is still a great one though...
Grit...yea, mother nature is a beast, lol....hmm, here I thought squirrels are minimal compared to the deer, bear, etc...Speaking of that...I had left my skid sitting in the woods, hopped in it last weekend and started working...I'm going along and saw a damn mouse running down the front of my loader arms at the bucket..scared the crap out of me cuse wasn't expecting that..what made it worse was about 15-20mins later when I was looking out the side window backing up and the SOB ran down the side screen...I thought I was going to have to change my pants after that one, lol....So needless to say the rest of the day every time I got out of the machine and back into it, I was taking a stick and poking inside the machine so I didn't have a "visitor" running down my lap...lol..
Hey Grit, I just worked on a place that looked exactly like yours. I had a virning grapple I think that i would prefer a more open grapple like a favre. Those pine needles plug up a rake really quickly and makes the grapple retain alot of dirt. The easiest thing i found to deal with the brush is to cut it into short enough lengths to get between the trees and make alot of small brush piles then use the grapple to pick them all up and make a bigger pile. When you burn the big pile if you will put water on it using a pump out of the pond you have you can burn the pile pretty close to the other trees without harming them (preferrably on a drizzly day). You have to watch it when the fire starts getting big spray it down it will take a bit but you can control it like a large camp fire, dont let it burn wide open or you can catch the tops of the pines on fire. The one in the pond be careful you dont want the skid close to the water, the ponds i have been around the bank is so steep that if you had an accident and tipped it in the water I think that it would be impossible to get out through that back window.
jsinpa, your story of the mouse reminded me of a time i was raking and piling prickly pear (cactus) with an open cab skid, i got a big bucket load lifted it up full dump on the pile that i was driving in to so the pile was nearly as high as the entrance to the machine...A dang 3 foot long rattlesnake was in the scoop i dumped pissed as hell looking right at me. I have never opreated a skid with an open cab since.
You know who the best oak tree planters are? Squirrels. I have it in for them, and they know it, lol. Thanks for tips, Dustin. Whereabouts are you? I have a burn pit that I dug out that is beside the pond. I pretty much cleared an area, but there are a couple of big pines I need to fell that are kind of close to it. Yeah, that pond has some steep banks; especially when it's full like it is now. I won't be going anywhere near it with my machine and have already given that a lot of thought. I do NOT want to end up upside down in there with no way to get out. No thanks. I just work that area the old fashioned way...... By hand. I should have clarified that I was going to deal with that oak in a different way. Sorry about that.
Me too. I've been looking for 10-20 acres, wooded as I hate wide open "pasture" property. The problem I have is land is so expensive without adding an extra hour drive time to my day.
Dustin...I have the side windows on my NH LS180, but no door...and trust me, between this winter plowing with it and what we just talked about...that's why I'm looking for an enclosed cab machine now! lol...holy crap, I can only imagine a rattlesnake being in there!! So did it come at you? We use to have them at the end of my parents driveway, so I know all too well about them. Well, now I'll be paranoid about snakes this weekend too when working there..yikes!
Grit, why can't you just use a long chain, hook it to the tree and the skid and pull it out? I've never tried it with my skid, but we have a 30-40hp tractor that we use on my grandparent and parent's house to pull the felled trees..I've pulled some monsters with that thing too...I'm thinking with the hp of your L190, you out to be able to do the same thing..As far as the squirrels, if you have any friends that are hunters or trappers, they'd be in their glory going squirrel hunting..lol...
CM...yea, I know what you mean...My grandparent's place is like 8-11acres with fields and woods...How much is ground going for down your way these days? I was always told its cheaper in the south?? I may have to go out an hour from work as well, but I figured for peace of mind, I'll deal with that before living in a development with HOAs...Depending what part of the state your in, could you look into a neighboring state if your close to them? I know around me prices are all over the place on land...I had found an 18 acre wooded area with a really small house (like a 100 sq ft, which I didn't care because I'd remodel it and expand it) in another county close to us..they had wanted $175k when I found it...I just looked it up again here less than 2 wks later and the place had a "sale pending" on it for $25k less at $149,900..I was so pissed! That same place with 20-30 acres closer to me is going for $600k and up...
Property in my area or my county I should say, goes from crazy to $10K an acre for something decent that would be an extra .5 to 1 hour worth of drive time in the southern part of the county. Average price for a 10 acre plot in a closer location will run $200K. There are exceptions and deals of course but I always seem to hear about them after they are sold. Lots in a development with an HOA can be picked up relatively cheap, a 100' lot can be bought for $25-30K in the outlying suburbs but that's the last thing I am interested in. I want a place with some space that I can bring a trailer with a skid home with me and park it, if I want to. Ultimately I would like enough acreage to have a house with a pond and a barn/shop to park the equipment and trucks. The shop will have a corner of it where I will put a living area above or adjacent with a lounge area (man cave without the cave) and kitchen. The corner of the shop will have roll up doors where we can open it up for gatherings and cook outs, preferably overlooking the pond. It will have a masonry bbq and smoker outside, complete with a dome pizza oven and sinks. This is my "final place", one can dream right? I am located in central Alabama, pretty much put a dot in the center, 2 hrs +/- either way to GA or MS, TN and FL are much more. The search continues but I am looking at $100-200K for 10-20 acres in the country that's closer in to my work area - property is expensive in the county I grew up in but didn't used to be 20 years ago. Those numbers don't work out at the moment but the drive goes on.
That's what I'll probably end up doing with it. It's a pretty big tree and you sure won't be pulling it out by hand. It's been in there for a little over a year now and is slowly degrading. The catfish are probably pooping eggs in voids by now, so maybe not such a bad thing. I pretty much got the squirrel problem under control. When I moved here, they got to meet my Marlin M-60 face to face. I even had one nesting in my '05 Duramax. Some idiot engineer thought it was a good idea to leave one side of the air box completely open. Well, I took care of him, too. Not the engineer, but the squirrel.
Yea, I think that will be your best bet. And here I thought you meant the engineer as well..LOL...Ever notice that sometimes we all wonder what engineers were thinking?? on everything. Just thinking here on that tree...I think I remember you have another tree close by as well..You could also always set up a pulley style system to pull it out as well...