3 pt grapple - anybody ever made one?

[DaleK]

Just wondering if anyone has made a homemade grapple to put on the back of a larger tractor than what most of the commercial ones I've seen are meant for. It would be on a 115 hp MFWD JD 7510 and I'd like to build at least a small winch into it but primarily use the grapple, mostly because my father insists on "helping" me in the woods at least part of the time but can't get on and off the tractor to hook up logs so I have to be there to do it, which mostly defeats the purpose of him being there to help. I already have both front tires loaded and I could put an extra 1200lbs of weights on the front.

[mikedell]

Years ago when my grandfather was still alive and logging, I helped him build a 3 point grapple for our 4440 JD tractor. We had to add close to 2,000lb out front worth of weights, to keep the front end on the ground.

Overall it worked out pretty well but we wound up reworking the design about 3 times until we had a good working design. Our biggest issue was getting the 3point area strong enough to keep from bending, and our final design had a swivel grapple. Final design worked great but it took awhile to get there. Ill dig through the old pics and see if I can find some pictures of it for reference if you want.

[thecfarm]

Go to the top of the page and put in home made grapple. I found a few old topics. I have no idea if they will help. Good luck. Sounds like your Father still wants to help. Probably when you was about 5 he was saying the same thing about you.  ;D

[DaleK]

Yeah the trick is finding ways for him to do things safely. He tore a hydro line down with the disk Friday trying to go someplace we've never taken machinery for that reason

[John Mc]

If I recall, Tractorbynet.com had a few threads about people building their own 3 point hitch grapples, but most of them were for Compact Tractors, not something as big as what you are talking about.  Still, it might give you some ideas...