“Made-It-Myself” Grapple Fork

“Made-It-Myself” Grapple Fork BALE HANDLING Hugh Baxter built a grapple fork for the loader bucket on his Kubota tractor to handle big bales “The bucket worked fine to carry bales but I had to tie them on with a rope which got old in a hurry ” Baxter says “Rather than buy an expensive new bucket and grapple I decided to make a grapple myself ” His homemade setup has four teeth made from 1-in galvanized water pipes They’re secured with cross bracing and mounted to a 3-in rockshaft fitted to the top of his dirt bucket The teeth are reinforced and held in alignment with metal grating and bracing near the top of the bucket He had previously welded sheet steel to the sides of the bucket for added reinforcement and to double the capacity for moving wood chips and sawdust for his cattle and meat-bird chickens Baxter operates the forks with an 8-in stroke hydraulic cylinder mounted to the back of the bucket “With this setup I can pick up 4-ft bales on the round or the flat side and stack them 3 high ” Baxter says “My loader can lift up to 1 000 lbs For safety I leave my rotovator hooked to the 3-pt hitch for counterweight ” Baxter replaced the loader’s dual control valve set with a triple control so he can raise and lower the lift arms tilt the bucket and operate the grapple at the same time Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Hugh Baxter 4551 Chase Rd Lake Country B C Canada V4V 1L7 Hughbaxter4551@gmail com

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