Out with the old and in with the new!

[Kevin_H.]

A bit of a tool gloat here, It always makes me feel good when I can buy a new tool.

This is our new to us S175.




This replaces a 743 with about 4600 hrs on it, it's like nite and day  8)
Kinda makes me want to just go out and play in the log pile for a while.

I put this post in here cause it's part of my milling operation, hope its in the right place.

[sawguy21]

Kinda makes me want to just go out and play in the log pile for a while.

:D :D :D :D :D Sure fun to have new toy...oops... tools.

[getoverit]

Congrats on the new tool !!

I like the little blinking light on the top. Just sets the whole thing off and tells everyone that sees ya that you got a new tool  ;D

[Kevin_H.]

The Little blinking light is way cool.

I have it automaticly set up so that it comes on anytime my wife is using the machine. :D

ya can never be too careful...

Danger will robinson, Danger...Danger.

[Kevin_H.]

The funny thing is the blinking light may be for me, but the BACK UP BEEPER is for Kevin :D

the wife
Lynette

[MULE_MAN]

Thanks for putting in your 2 cents Lynette, Now we know the REST of the story  :D :D ;D

I knew Kevin was leaving something out  :D  :D  ;)

[Kevin_H.]

yep, She busted me 

I guess that will learn me to type behind my wifes back.  :D

[MULE_MAN]

Well that's a nice looking Bob Cat,  How much will it lift  ???

[Kevin_H.]

It's rated at 1750 lbs, I really like the push button start, no keys to loose, but I think it needs a grapple.


The 743 never gave us much trouble, but with the hrs it had I think we might have been on borrowed time.

As we worked the mill today, I had to stop every once and a while and stare at it for a while... :D

[DoubleD]

Congratulation on your new amazing skidsteer  8) 8) 8)
its better that mrs don't know what you type ;) :D

[TexasTimbers]

 8) 8) 8)

Nice toy. It will come in handy too when you have to off load the over-sized doghouse out of your pickup. You'll need to buy one at the BigBoxStore if you keep playing with fire with the Missus.   

[Mo-Ark]

Congratulations on the new tool/toy! Feels good, doesn't it?

I was at the Little Rock Farm Show back in February and found out from the local dealer rep that if you add a "0" to the end of the model number on the "S" series, it'll give you the weight rating of the machine's lift capability.

Good luck with the new machine!

[Kirk_Allen]

So what did you do with the old skid steer?

[Kevin_H.]

Well kirk it's still sitting here,

Bobcat is giving me a week to decide weither or not I want to trade it in or sell it out right.

We gave serious thought about putting it on here, but it does have a few small problems and I hate to sell it to a forum friend and have something serious go wrong with it.

I have no fear of the dog house, lynette can hand it out as well as she takes it. ;D

[ElectricAl]

Wow Kevin,

Pretty slick ride.  I got a chance to move one about 100' a couple months ago :D


So your thinking of adding a grapple ;D 

We looked around for a while before finding one we liked.
Here is their ad, no web site yet : 



Here is the real thing ready for work.


Last month the Grapple moved 12,000' of Cottonwood. It was nice being able to set the logs in our dump trailer instead of dumping them off the forks.


Of coarse we had to do a little Landscaping too.



We are very happy with this Grapple. The Tines are flat across the bottom clear to the tips.  Also,  there are no cross braces at the tips to trap trash. The tines are 1" wide and have a 140,000 psi rating.

Maybe Faver would like to be a Sponsor here

[sawguy21]

Nice. The grapple is a lot safer and easier on equipment

[Kevin_H.]

Hey Al, That same grapple caught my eye in the heavy equiptment trader, i like the fact that it closes down to about 12". My main thought was using it to load slabs, we have several people come by and pick up trailer loads, trying to load them with forks can be a pain.

how is it to unload a log truck with the grapple? do you have enough reach to get the logs in the middle of the bunks?

Hey what kind of lift does that JD 250 have anyway?

[ElectricAl]

Kevin,

The grapple design is so slick and quick ;D

I tried to move some 2' square concrete pads for Linda's garden and snapped one trying to just pinch it It has plenty of clamping power.

I have not tried to unload a log truck with a skid steer with forks. We paid 25 grand for it and dropping a log on it would really chap my Ash.

I would try it now that we have the Grapple, but all the trucks around here have loaders.

As far as getting the center logs.......hand your trucker a LogRite cant hook ;)

The JD 250 is rated @ 1750lbs,  we added the factory weight kit to get 2100lbs operating weight ;D

You'll really like the vertical lift on the S175. It is a whole lot safer.


Sawguy21 is right on the safety of locking in a load. I moved a dozen 30' pine logs for a farmer with the grapple. Quick and easy, did not drop any. Try that with some slippery forks.

[Kevin_H.]

Forks are all I've used to unload log trucks, and yes I have dropped a few  ;D , but they typically go off to the side.

Went and got two loads of logs tonite and the logger has a grapple that he doesnt use anymore, just might have to do some swapping.

I must say that the new 175 was nice to unload with. some of the logs I brought home tonite were big enough that on the old 743, i would have had to rock it back and forth to get the arms up high enough to get over the log bunks. 

[ScottAR]

Welcome MoArk...  Where abouts are ya?

[Mo-Ark]

Kevin-You're going to love a grapple! I did a little urban/suburban logging last winter and after seeing what my friend could do with his Gehl 4635sx, I hunted up a Bobcat 873 that came with a grapple bucket, matter of fact, that was the deal clincher. The images below of the Gehl won't really give you a clean shot of unloading logs off the C-60 "short-log" hauler they were loaded on, but it may help with some overall perspective. I do residential tree work, and while the "root" grapple like the one ElectricAl posted on would really have played into my debris cleanup better, I took what I could find close to home. (300 miles away)

Loading


Unloading


This Gehl has roughly the equivalent lift and reach ratings as your S175, if that helps. You're not going to be able to cleanly pick the logs from the center of the bunk if it's loaded to the gills, but with the breakout force of that skid, you won't have any problem picking the closest top log, even if it's "pinched", and working your load down from there.

Here's a shot of my Bobcat 873 with the grapple bucket. The root grapple would be handy as heck, but the lower bucket works well for smoothing the messes that I make here in the yard. I've got less than 20 hours on the sticks, so I'm still making, uh, messes. If the customer's yard I'm working in is high-dollar sod, the Bobcat has to stay off, anyway. Six of one, half a dozen of the other...

Bobcat 873 with grapple bucket


I looked so long and hard for a suitable rig that it wore me out. If you don't trade in the 743 I'd list it here and give the guys a shot at it. Sure, it would be a shame to sell it to anyone and have the machine blow a pump or some other major component, but that's the chance you take when you buy any used piece of equipment. The 743's capabilities might play perfectly into one of the members' needs.

Al-I called up the fella on the Faver grapple; really nice guy, we talked grapples and skids for at least half an hour. Here's a link to a page where the entire add can be found that you posted if anyone cares to take a look. My eyes ain't what they used to be.  ;D Faver root grapple. When you get to that page, click on "View display ad", and you'll download a small .pdf file. Tom (designer and builder of the grapple) will send a brochure of all of his grapples to anyone that's interested. He makes a killer grapple with beefed up steel, these things won't fold up on you under the abuse they receive while working logs.

Scott-I'm in Hot Springs. You?

[Kevin_H.]

Hey Mo-Ark,
that is a nice looking 873 with the grapple, i think I might try to do some trading with the logger that has one. my main reason for wanting one is for moving and loading slabs, trying to move slabs with the forks can be a huge pain.

your right I think the root grapple might be the best, but the one he has looks like yours with the solid bottom

I think the 743 will go to bobcat, they gave me a good deal on it so I believe I will have them come and get it on monday. it crossed my mind that someone here might be able to use it, but again i would feel real bad if it gave a member a bunch of trouble.

We use the 175 today to go and pick up an a/c D17, the A/C did not have the front end on it and the bobcat did a real good job of picking up the front and pulling it up on the goose neck.

[ElectricAl]

Mo-Ark

Great photos ;)

We actually started with a flat bottom grapple. It worked good but picked up too much dirt in our application. However a local tree service we work with loves his flat bottom for blasting down the street cleaning up messes :D

A while back Bibbyman started a thread about their grapple, so I joined right in ;D
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=4332.msg57702#msg57702


Tom at Favor is real easy to get along with, and his Grapple makes life fun ;)

[ScottAR]

Paragould, over in Rice country... 

[Mo-Ark]

Kevin-- Man, if I could swap out a grapple, I'd do it in a heartbeat! As Al's images illustrated, with a little imagination and finesse, there's no end to what you can pick up and move with these things. I can see right now that in a few years down the line, I'll have more money tied up in attachments than I've got in the rig, itself, and am already looking forward to spending every dollar. The skidsteers for sure aren't the answer to everyone's needs, but I'm constantly amazed at the combination of brute strength and versatility that they bring to the table. I know it sounds corny, but I'll be sitting here at the end of the day, all showered down and resting, and suddenly get the urge to slip on some flip-flops and go outside to walk around the 873 and just....look at it. All I can say is, it's the best money I ever spent!

You might cut down on the amount of dirt you pick up with the grapple bucket by tilting it forward 'til the bottom's in a vertical inclination just off the ground, then ease forward 'til you've got a big enough bite to pinch down on. Many times, I can use this move to slick up all the limbs in a pile, but the slabs will probably be a bit more difficult if they're lying on ground zero. This move picks logs off the ground cleanly, too, but a little time on the sticks will tell ya how you need to work your slabs with a "bucket" grapple as opposed to the "root" grapple.

I've been lurking at the FF for months; putting together a folder of images for you guys to laugh at and preparing to post an "introduction" thread, but I couldn't resist the temptation to chime in when a thread came up on Bobcats and grapples. I spent so many hours scouring the Internet for skids and grapples that it almost made me blind, and for sure, drove me a little crazy. I'll post an introduction, soon, sorry if I've partially hijacked your thread.

Great photos ;)

Well, thanks for the compliment, but you got me started!   pc_smiley Your first post to this thread was chock full of nice images and information. Working in the residential trees, I found it a little ironic that Tom, at Faver, said he designed and built his first grapple because one of his buddies that runs a tree service complained that he kept tearing up the grapples he'd been using. What a pal! I've also visited your image gallery, and don't mind admitting that it made me a little "green".  ;) Right after I stumbled onto the image galleries, I found myself spending as much time poking around in there as I did reading threads. Man, I gotta watch myself, I'll sit down to check if there's a new thread of interest, click on into the galleries, and the next thing I know, I'll look at the little clock in the corner of the monitor, and an hour, or more, has rolled on by. I doubt I'm the only one that this has happened to. This place is "TREE-MENDOUS!

Welp, I'm off to fire up the Bobcat and find something to move, dig up, displace, or destroy. I won't have far to look.

Mitch