LandPride SGC05 grapple problem

[millsan1]

First, I love my grapple. It is really a useful implement.

I have used it for picking up leaves, making brush piles, grabbing rocks, etc.

That being said, mine failed yesterday, in an impressive fashion.

The welds on the upper brackets, where the rams attach, broke.

I looked at the welds, and the brackets are only welded on one side. That is really odd, and a poor choice by LP, IMHO. The brackets are a single piece of 1/4" steel, acting as a standoff from the cross member. These brackets take all the stress. Seems silly to not spend the extra buck or two to weld both sides of the 1/4" piece.

I have to bring it to my dealer to have them "start the process" with LP.

I am hopeful this will be easy and not a painful drawn out thing.

I could repair the weld, but this is a brand new piece of equipment (45 days old or so) and the damage is from poor design, so I don't feel like I should do the repair.

The point of this post is to let people know about this flaw. I suggest, if you buy an SGC05, that you weld, or have someone weld, the unwelded side of the bracket before using the tool.

Left Bracket

Left Bracket front

Right Bracket

Right Bracket

 

[CountryBumkin]

Wow - I never noticed the welds are only on one side. I'm going to check my welds when I get home.

It looks you may have had some old cracks there too - based on the rust in the crack. Had you noticed that earlier, and rewelded then, maybe you could possibly have prevented the total failure.

 

[CountryBumkin]

I took a close at my SG05 Grapple, and it's like yours - I have a full length weld on one side of each bar/bracket and a smaller 3/4" to 1" weld on the other side (one at top and one at bottom). It would have been nice to see full welds on both sides.

 

[millsan1]

I took a close at my SG05 Grapple, and it's like yours - I have a full length weld on one side of each bar/bracket and a smaller 3/4" to 1" weld on the other side (one at top and one at bottom). It would have been nice to see full welds on both sides.

Yeah, it seems like a foolish thing to do, on the manufacturers part. It would cost very little to do the full weld.

Once mine is fixed or replaced, I will have a buddy do a full weld for me, as my little welder can't pull this off.

 

[skeets]

DAYUM

 

[D2Cat]

Skeets, how do you type a one word response and get it to post?

I typed in "A trap" as an answer to another post, and forum told me the response too short.

 

[rtgt]

Yikes!

That doesn't look good.

Hopefully Landpride will get you fixed up and running again.

 

[Kennyd4110]

Wow, that sucks, unfortunately not the first LP grapple failure reported here:

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16030

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15779&highlight=grapple

 

[Kennyd4110]

I suggest, if you buy an SGC05, that you weld, or have someone weld, the unwelded side of the bracket before using the tool.

I don't think that would have helped much, the single weld held just fine, the tube is to thin and ripped next to the weld causing the failure. The bracket is poorly designed, it should have never been just stuck to the top of that tube-even if the tube was thicker IMHO.

 

[millsan1]

I am hopeful that LP will make good.

I will be calling dealer today.

 

[Daren Todd]

Skeets, how do you type a one word response and get it to post?

I typed in "A trap" as an answer to another post, and forum told me the response too short.

I think it's a 10 character minimum counting spaces. : eek : or counts as 5

 

[Bigshooter]

My SGC 06 has welds on both side thankfully.

 

[millsan1]

Well, here we are, two weeks later.

LP is sending a new frame to dealer to put everything together.

No ETA.

I am glad they are fixing it, but I need that implement. Waiting is the hardest part.

 

[CountryBumkin]

Post back if the new frame is fully welded - maybe LP learned something and improves their manufacturing process.

 

[rtgt]

Well, here we are, two weeks later.

LP is sending a new frame to dealer to put everything together.

No ETA.

I am glad they are fixing it, but I need that implement. Waiting is the hardest part.

Sorry to hear about the problem, but glad to hear that Landpride is standing behind the repair.

 

[millsan1]

Good News/Bad News

Good News:
New grapple frame supplied
Dealer installed it the same day it came in, and called me before noon to come pick up!

Bad news:
Same shitty welding. Will have to fix.

Thanks

 

[RWey56]

I'm planning on picking one of these up in the next week or so, and given this thread and others re the same subject, before I even hook it up I'm going to look over the whole thing and likely fire up my Miller and add whatever extra welds are required.

Because this thread is two years old, it will be interesting to see if LP has addressed the issue.

 

[bearbait]

I'm planning on picking one of these up in the next week or so, and given this thread and others re the same subject, before I even hook it up I'm going to look over the whole thing and likely fire up my Miller and add whatever extra welds are required.

Because this thread is two years old, it will be interesting to see if LP has addressed the issue.

Please post your results, thanks.

 

[RWey56]

Please post your results, thanks.

Will do.

If the implement is the same as in the past, the pictures suggest there's a lot of places that could benefit from some small patch reinforcements and simple corner gussets as well. Who cares if it adds 10 or 15 lbs ?