Hydraulic free grapple!

G.rid

G.rid

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L48 tlb, ssqa forks, manual thumb for hoe
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Last edited:
mikester

mikester

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www.divergentstuff.ca
G.rid said:
I just stumbled across this on you tube. It's an interesting concept. Fixed lower jaw and movable top. Might be a bit of a learning curve to get used to it. But it saves having to set up a diverter valve.

https://youtu.be/-nOrwx9d5mc

https://www.loaders.com/Brush-Crusher™/Brush-Crusher™/Universal-Skid-Steer-Brush-Crusher


Does anyone have any experience with these, good or bad?

I'm not affiliated or premoting them, just looking for some real world feedback.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Better than nothing but in a short while you will wish for a hydraulic thumb instead. Think of pin on buckets vs quick attach. Once you start using QA you wont want to go back.
 
North Idaho Wolfman

North Idaho Wolfman

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Grapples have some major manipulation advantages to this design, yea it usable but it would drive me nuts roll being able to roll back a log or other material.
The price is above what a decent grapple would run you and you could use the saved money to set up the third function right! ;)
 
SidecarFlip

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Because I have 3 sets of remotes and flow control on both my tractors, I ran an extra set of lines from the back to the front end of my loaders and use a remote as the 'third function'. I run a WR Long hay accumulator for square bales and it works very well. Put QD fittings on the loader so I can dismount it if I need to, not that I ever do.

Don't think I've had either loader off since I bought the tractors.
 
tinkerwitheverything

tinkerwitheverything

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Not sure of how much of a grapple your needing. I made one that use's a winch to open and close the grapple.The winch cable opens and closes the grapple by having the cable out the bottom of the drum pulling the grapple down and out the top of the drum it opens the grapple. It's doesn't have a lot of squashing power but it does hold bush etc in the bucket to allow me to move brush etc:. I made it for my MF GC 2300 a few years ago but now use it on my BX 2370. I've modified the cable pull back a little different by adding a cam sort of to keep the cable from getting to much slack in it.Beats having to pile the bush on and tie it down to keep it from falling off. I'll post some pics just to give you a idea of what it looks like.
 

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John T

John T

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tinkerwitheverything said:
Not sure of how much of a grapple your needing. I made one that use's a winch to open and close the grapple.The winch cable opens and closes the grapple by having the cable out the bottom of the drum pulling the grapple down and out the top of the drum it opens the grapple. It's doesn't have a lot of squashing power but it does hold bush etc in the bucket to allow me to move brush etc:. I made it for my MF GC 2300 a few years ago but now use it on my BX 2370. I've modified the cable pull back a little different by adding a cam sort of to keep the cable from getting to much slack in it.Beats having to pile the bush on and tie it down to keep it from falling off. I'll post some pics just to give you a idea of what it looks like.
Click to expand...
Very Nice. :cool:
 
G.rid

G.rid

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L48 tlb, ssqa forks, manual thumb for hoe
Aug 19, 2016
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Oxford, NS, Canada
Thanks for all the feedback. Not that I'm in the market for a grapple but I can see where they'd be handy for certain jobs. It is a lot different concept than most out there. Eventually I think I'll build a hydraulic claw to mount on my existing bucket.

I did dig around their site a little more and found a price for the ssqa crusher.
$1,976.19 us plus shipping! :eek:

https://store.loaders.com/aspx/store/allAssemblies.aspx?loaderid=478

For something with limited mobility and no hydraulics, that seems very pricey.
 
S

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G.rid said:
Thanks for all the feedback. Not that I'm in the market for a grapple but I can see where they'd be handy for certain jobs. It is a lot different concept than most out there. Eventually I think I'll build a hydraulic claw to mount on my existing bucket.

I did dig around their site a little more and found a price for the ssqa crusher.
$1,976.19 us plus shipping! :eek:

https://store.loaders.com/aspx/store/allAssemblies.aspx?loaderid=478

For something with limited mobility and no hydraulics, that seems very pricey.
Click to expand...
Everything Westendorf makes is expensive.
 
Tim Horton

Tim Horton

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Doing some search I find as I suspected, the options are quite expensive. But I 'm kind of cheap on things if I can get away with it.

On another forum I found a thread about this implement. A couple years ago a poster bought a unit for a JD loader and promptly broke a cross member between the loader arms. The poster was quite un happy and returned the implement to the seller.

With the bottom "jaws" as it were in a sort of unhinged condition that will hang almost strait down, I suspect it will take some learning curve to learn to use this implement to its best. It seems easy to dig one or both bottom jaws into the ground and cause a problem.

There has been some changes between the model now and the model available 2 years or so ago.

I still would get one... If the price were more reasonable.

Anyone has one they plan to upgrade.... Be sure to let me know first...
 
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