"Oversized" Grapple Fork Built From Scrap Steel

"Oversized" Grapple Fork Built From Scrap Steel TRACTORS Loaders 32-2-28 "It handles larger logs and is more versatile than anything on the market," says Michael Bryan, Warren, Ind., about the grapple fork he built using part of the frame and the spring-loaded shanks off an old Deere 12-ft. field cultivator. "I designed it to handle brush and logs and also to use as a pallet fork. Best of all, I didn't spend a nickel to build it - just my time," says Bryan, who built the unit two years ago. "I got the cultivator free from a neighbor." The grapple fork measures 66 in. wide and is equipped with 40-in. long tines. He used channel iron and angle iron to make quick-tach mounting brackets on the back side of the cultivator frame. The 20-in. long curved cultivator shanks pivot up or down on a homemade rockshaft equipped with stub arms. The shanks come off by removing three bolts. A 2-in. dia., 6-in. long hydraulic cylinder - off the boom on a Terragator self-propelled fertilizer applicator - is used to raise and lower the shanks. Some of the straight tines were made by cutting down the driveshafts off old combines. Others were made from scratch using 1 1/2-in. dia. pipe. "I can carry two to four big logs at a time depending on their size, whereas most commercial grapple forks can carry just one log. That's because the tines on my grapple fork are much longer," says Bryan. "Commercial manufacturers have to limit the size of their grapple forks for liability reasons. But you just have to use common sense and not take too big a load so you don't tear up equipment." The long tines are spaced so they can also be used to move a wooden pallet. "I've used the platform this way to work on windows around my house," says Bryan. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Michael Bryan, 9973 S. 700 W., Warren, Ind. 46792 (ph 260 468-2039).

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