Pallet fork grapple build...

[OH_Varmntr]

I'm going to be building a single grapple finger for my FEL forks. I'll be basing it off of Cotech's design.

I have a 2"x8" hydraulic cylinder. I've got a set of JD forks whose frame has 2 horizontal cross members that are 3" square tubing I will be making a quick attach setup for. I'm going to try making it so I can disconnect the hydraulic hoses, pull 2 pins and slide the assembly up and off the forks' frame. At the same time, I'm going to try building the frame as shallow as possible to avoid it getting in the way of normal fork work.

Pallet Fork Grapple - YouTube

Starting out with this.


The grapple frame is made of 2"x1/4" wall and 3"x1/4" wall square tubing.


The Hobart 240v machine does a much better job than I'm capable of doing.

From the back of the fork frame.


The 3" tubing will have another piece of tubing or perhaps a 1/2" plate welded to it that will extend down behind the fork frames 3" tubing. This will hold the grapple frame onto the fork frame.


The cylinder will be mounted in some fashion like this, and the pedestal for the grapple finger will extend up in front of the cylinder.


Hopefully I'll be able to get the grapple pedestal built tomorrow evening, then make some mounting tabs for the grapple finger and the hydraulic cylinder. The grapple finger will be made out of a piece of the 2"x1/4" wall square tubing.

 

[XSKIER]

Your pics are so small. However, your plan and welds are so nice!

 

[OH_Varmntr]

Thank you! I'm not sure what went awry with the pics...

 

[OH_Varmntr]

Well, since the site is back up and working...

Nearly there. I only need to install the hoses.

Here's everything mocked with the cylinder retracted.


Cylinder extended a full 8" of stroke.


Frame all welded up ready for paint.


Welding the grapple arm to the 1/4" pivot plates.


Arm all welded ready for paint.


Installed on the tractor. The slip-on fit of the frame is pretty tight, but I added 3" u-bolts at the bottom for more security. They're only 3/8" bolts for now, but I'm going to find some 5/8".

 

[hupte]

wow that looks really nice. and very handy!!! i like the idea of a fork grapple. you can pick up more weight since the attachment is lighter than a grapple bucket. do you plan to add any teeth to help bite into the logs or do you think thats overkill?

 

[olyman]

you will find,,that with just the one piece to hold brush, the brush may try to twist sideways and come off. adding a rectangle piece of cattle fencing, with 2x2 tube borders back to the center finger, will stop that...

 

[OH_Varmntr]

I may add teeth after using it a little tonight. It works very well. This is a 24' log, ill be cutting everything down to 14' max to fit in my dump trailer.

 

[Philbo]

SWEET! That looks great. Nice looking welding, too.

I use pallet forks quite a bit to load logs on a portable band mill and sometimes really wish I had that setup to hold the logs back a bit.

 

[OH_Varmntr]

Thanks! I've got around 30 man hours in this, including dad helping me on some of the stuff. MUCH of that time is just grinding the mill-scale to have a good clean welding surface. I also wire-wheeled every square inch of the remaining surface and it really shows through the paint.

I have used nothing but forks in the past to load my old flatbed. There were only a few logs that I grabbed that were balanced the first try, so this should definitely cut some time off the process. I bet it'd be just as useful for your mill too.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I've been using another skid steer this week with forks instead of my grapple and . Between learning the goofy drive with left hand and run boom with right and the forks it hasn't been all that productive.

I can normally get about a cord of logs loaded on the log deck. With the forks, lucky to get 5-6 logs without them getting all crossed up.

So yeah that stinger dealio should work out pretty decent.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I LOVE my grapple.... I hope you built your's strong, so you can do things like this,

Mine get's some rough use, nearly every day without a whimper, and I've had it for years... I'm glad I have it, it just makes many of my jobs so much easier...

SR

 

[OH_Varmntr]

I used it for about 5 hours today and I'm super happy with how it performed. I pulled logs out of big stacks of logs and it did flex noticeably when pulling from an angle, so I won't make that much of a habit. If I were going to do that often, I'd build another one and have 2 on the forks.

This is version 1.0, and it may get a few revisions as I use it more.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

The problem with having two on the forks is, everything you add takes away from what you can lift, and that's important to me!

SR

 

[OH_Varmntr]

True. Do you leave yours on or do you frequently remove it? I could install 2 permanent ones on my forks that would weigh what my single removable one does.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

True. Do you leave yours on or do you frequently remove it? I could install 2 permanent ones on my forks that would weigh what my single removable one does.

Sure, but then each would have to be lighter duty than what you have now.

Mine doesn't flex any at all, no matter what I do to abuse it! It's extremely well designed and heavy duty, it's also not a light weight.

I do leave it on, as I use it all the time, but there are times when I'd like to have it off, it's just that it would be off for such a short time, it's not worth removing it for one small job.

I was very careful what brand/model loader I bought for my tractor, it picks up more than any other loader of it's size, so it's not hurting me too much to leave it on...

SR

 

[OH_Varmntr]

I don't see them being lighter duty, they'd be the same as what I have now, minus the removable frame. That frame weighs a lot, I didn't want it to twist.

The point on mine that flexes is the 1/4" plates at the pins. But I didn't build it for side pulling.

Mine isn't an engineered tool that I bought. I "designed" it myself and it works great.

 

[CWME]

Nice work! What are you running for a welder?

 

[OH_Varmntr]

A 220v Hobart BetaMig 250. It was being thrown out at my last job because it "didn't work" and they bought a new Miller. I replaced the contactor and cleaned up the rotary tap changer and it welds very nice. I can easily weld 1/4".

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Are FEL on tractors not rated for much weight? My S250 Bobcat is "rated" for 2500lbs but it has no issues picking up double that.

 

[OH_Varmntr]

The 460 loader on my tractor is rated for 23XX lbs of lift to full height. I've lifted enough to raise the rear tires of my tractor off the ground. But I'm not exactly sure how much it was.