Looking for opinions if adding a heavy root rake with grapple to my newly acquired 941B tracked loader is a good/bad idea. I'll be using it mainly for cleaning up after using my excavator on the big cedars (some bases are 20-24" wide) and then for going straight after the smaller cedars (6-8") by itself. These cedars are not true cedar trees but actually central Texas juniper ashe which is like a big bush. With the excavator, I'm leaving a lot of roots and bits of stump as the larger cedars tend to shatter at the base instead of coming out as a good wad with my excavator...probably operator error...but still annoying. I'll be pushing everything into piles while also using the root rake to level out the mess I'm making in general. Anyone added a root rake/grapple to a small crawler loader? How did it work?
I can't add much about your root rake/grapple idea other than a couple of cautions and a question: 1. If the attachment is a new one or new enough to have the manufacturer still around, talk to them about recommended hydraulic pressure settings for lifting and grappling. That should at least get you into the ballpark to avoid potentially damaging situations. I don;t know if your hydraulics setup allows for different pressure settings for each valve... Creep the pressure up once you get used to how the grapple works. 2. Be VERY careful about pushing on stuff with the back of the grapple when it is not fully closed!!! The mechanical force you put on the grapple is then resisted by the hydraulic cylinders and the pressure can get high enough to blow hoses or blow the top off the cylinder. I learned that at the first sawmill I worked at back in the age of dinosaurs--They had a couple of 966C's with grapples and the guys got to grading the log yards with the fronts of the grapples--they blew several cylinders apart before the shop guys got tired of fixing the problem and figured out what was happening. It is just fine to push with the grapple but make sure it has a mechanical stop that it can go against when fully closed before pushing! That stop then takes the abuse. Alternatively, a pressure relief valve in the "grapple open" side of the cylinder(s) will work. 3. Where I come from, Juniper is valuable resource...is your Juniper quite aromatic when it is split open? I did some sawmilling design work for guys in Arizona not long ago and they said that they continually had trouble with poachers coming into their forests and dropping Juniper to steal the wood. Up here in BC it doesn't grow very well, more like a shrub, at least in the interior of BC, so I don't know much about it. But it is the wood that is cut very thin and used inside of Hope Chests and the like to add the pleasant aroma, which lasts for years. Have you checked with loggers or sawmills in your area if there is any value in your wood? Good Luck! Jon.
Hi Jon- I'm probably thinking of a different system then you are thinking. I'm referring to the root rakes that are pinned on and have the grapple arms come over the top just to hold the brush so you can transfer/lift/pile it. Look at this pic I found on the web for what I'm referring too. There's no pressure on the grapple portion except to grasp- can't push with it.