Slightly tangential, but does anyone know where to get a bolt on kit for basically a short (~2in) piece of square tube that one can mount on the side of the bucket, for pulling t-posts?
I can pull t posts effectively using a chain (from the center, I don't even have hooks, just wrap the chain around the center tines of the grapple). But since I don't have any help, each t post requires 2 mount/dismounts to secure the chain on the post and then remove the post from the chain once it's pulled. I was slightly disappointed that my Blue Diamond root grapple cannot find a purchase on the narrow t posts. However, I recall seeing a dude on the interwebs who had welded a short length of square tube to the side of his bucket. He drops down the bucket where the tube, slightly larger in diameter than the t post, goes around the shaft of the t post, then curls the bucket slightly to lock into place, then lifts out with the loader. Once the post is out, curling the bucket back to vertical lets the post slide out. Seemed like a brilliant idea! Not having access to a welder, it seems trivial that someone should be selling a bolt-on version of this for folks like me-- you know we're willing to overpay for this stuff so take my money please!
(Additional context disclaimer: I know there is a real risk of bending the t post doing it this way, and I don't care because I've got a few hundred of these things with no use for them. Got rid of the horses 4 years ago and been slowly pulling up all the cross pasture fencing. Also, I always have a big ass 6ft brushcutter on the rear for ballast and, with appropriate caution taken, am not concerned about the off center load on my loader tipping me over or twisting up the loader. I'm grandaddy slow doing loader work in part bc I've read so many of these horror stories on forums like these--and, unfortunately, obituaries in the local news. My chicken butt would have stopped long before anything left the ground or started to bend).