Skid Steer Logging

[jpgreen]

I'm not as tall as you guys I'm 5'11'' @ 230. There's room to step over the seat.

I dunno.  It seems farily roomy to me, but I'll have to get in it and think about that if I were taller.

My buddy- West Coast Chris is tall like you guys.  Man he's real tall.  So tall I think he's gettin' taller every time I see him..  :D

I bought this off ebay and I got it for $1200 out the door shipped by calling and negotiating with the owner.
I think it will be perfect for what I've got to do and handy cause I can dig with it, skid logs and trees by grabbing one end, and then picking up brush piles also:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=320190559471&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=011

[TexasTimbers]

This is great info on what lloks like a great mcahine. I had no idea it even existed.

barbender yes I agree I think the perception of the 70s and 80s little tiny "tippy toy" bobcats are still with alot of folks. Anyone who runs a fairly heavy machine with plenty of power for any length of time though I think they generally come around pretty quick.

I have a grapple. It's a store (online) bought that is considered lightweight because i didn't want to buy the 1200 pound grapple and reduce my tipping weight so drastically. But mine keeps getting torn up after just a few hours of use. I rebuild it and weld on extra 1/2" plates "chasing weak points" and thoght I finally had it beefy enough in all the cylinder bracket areas - but this last failure was a suprise to even me, the owner of the cheapo built thing. One of the hydraulic cylinders practically blew up. It cracked the front seal flange on two sides and shot fluid all over the place (no direct hit on me) with so much pressure it sounded like a 22 cal. going off near my ear even over the engine. It also completely tore off the front claw bracket it is attached to which is a doubled 1/2" steel design and looked to be welded on well. there are no voids visible anywhere in the weld which is now plainly opened up to see like an autopsy. So it did at the same time.
This happened when I grabbed down on a log. My skid steer operates the aux hyd by a middle pedal - I have three pedals (Korean design ) ) and I have always had to act a human "bleed valve" when grabbing stuff with my grapple because if I leave the pedal depressed (closed) too long the pressure tears something apart on the grapple. i learned this when I used the grapple th every first time. It ripped one of the back brackets off on the first use. I welded it back on and was careful not to keep the valve open (pedal down) too long but soimetimes the pedal gets stuck in the "engage detent" if you are not real careful. It's handy when I punch holes because I don't have to keep my foot on the middle pedal to keep the auger spinning and it frees up both feet so I can use the lift and tilt functions to rock the auger in hard clay which helps digging in hard soils as you know.
Anyhow, all that to ask you what you think is wrong. i called the grapple company early on and they - get this - basically said I got what i deserved because I bought their lightweight graple versus the heavyweight one. I had asked if the light weight would handle grabbibg the logs and had been told it would handle anything it could pickup on a skid steer my size (42HP). So no help from them. I have been wondering all this time if their is sipossed to be some sort of bleed off valve or some sort of hydraulic pressure limiter on the grapple to limit the psi the cylinders get. i am fairly hydraulic ignorant so it may be a very dumb question. But I am looking for answers that might enable me toi make the thing reliable. I love the very light 600 pound weight of it because it still leaves me with nearly 1400 pounds of tipping weight. Any ideas. ???

[pineywoods]

TT I don't know what kind of valve that foot pedal is connected to, but there should be a pressure relief pop-off on the valve body, most of them are adjustable. Look for a large bolt that sticks out of the valve body. It will have a jamb nut on it to lock it down. Loosen the jamb nut and back out the bolt to lower the maximum pressure going to the cylinder. On my dozer the control valve for the hydraulic clutch is adjusted down to 300 psi from the normal 2500 psi. You might have the setup where several control valves are all built into one casting and there's only one pop-off for the whole bank, but that would be unusual.

[TexasTimbers]

I'll dig out all the twigs from the pedal compartment and see what i can see. I need to grease all the fittings again anyway. If I do have that type of a flow control design I guess it means I will need to adjust back up for digging and back down for grappling. I hope not that would be downright inconvenient. Not nearly as inconvenient as repairing the grapple all the time though.
I scanned my manuals but didn't see an ajdustment notation anywhere.
Thanks for the idea.

[jpgreen]

I don't really know squat bout hydraulics, cause as yet I've never built anythin with them but thats all going to change soon.

Dayamm though... my AVS 4-1 doesn't have any kind of ripping pressure like that, but you can tell there's a limit pressure sw working.

Here's maybe a solution if you wind up having to re-adjust some pain in the ass valve...

On my Vermeer stump grinder there's a valve with a turn knob right next to the hydraulic controls. It controls the feed pressure to the system all cept for the cutter head speed.  So if you want to creep up, or go full bore, you turn the valve up of down like a hose faucet.

Couldn't be simpler././\\\... 8)

[barbender]

 That's what I thought too, sounds like a relief valve isn't working. Either that or your grapple is designed for a way lower working pressure. JP I was looking at that exact stump/root grapple on Ebay. It looks like just the ticket for stump removal, have you done any yet? I was thinking it would be great for clearing cause you could cut down the trees, buck and limb them, pile everything up, and then dig up and pile the stumps too. I'll be waiting for your complete performance evaluation :D. I have lots of stumps to get rid of, I'd really like to build something along those lines.

[TexasTimbers]

Haven't messed with the hydraulics yet. Cold and wet and not fit for human locomotion out there right now.

But in the meantime the answer to the stump removal question is a bright target on my radar also.

[jpgreen]

I haven't received the grapple yet. It is so popular, they have been backordered 10 days.

It looks built "hell for stout".  I think it will be a good all around tool.  Like them multi use tools..  ;D

[just_sawing]

I know that this is an old post but with the fact that a lot of people have given great information here is a question for you.
Using a Tree Shear how much damage does it do to the log?