Has anybody ever seen a grapple attachment, not an add on to a bucket, but a stand alone grapple for for JD 455 series loaders. An old sales guy told me dealers could order them as late as the 1990's but I have yet to find one anywhere. I thought about skid steer type universal mount but then how would I attach it?
I doubt you'll find one unless you have it custom made. Easiest option would probably be buy the biggest/stoutest skid steer grapple and weld new mounts on it to fit your loader. IDK if it would hold up though, a JD455 has a lot more ass behind it than even the largest CTLs.
Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll look into that. I found a company that custom builds the pin boss and I have a guy that can build the brackets. Spartan sells the heaviest blank universal attachment plate I could find online.
I think you'll need something a lot beefier than a skid steer mount or attachment. A JD455 is similar to my Cat 931B loader. It weighs 17,000lbs. or more. About 22,000lbs. with the backhoe attached. The bucket is very heavy duty. I think you'd bend/twist even the largest CTL grapple in short order.
Gotta agree with Dave Thinking outside the box a little a stickrake could be a good starting point and cut it back to the same width as the bucket, add the pin ears, profile cut all the fingers for the bottom and grab part and start welding. Make sure to make the grab part in 2 sections, LH/RH and operated with a ram on each section. The reason is that trees are different diameters from one end to the other and the grab will buckle if only 1 ram is used