Thanks for the comeback trakloader! Are they going to add some hinged plate panels on the lower sections of the uprights to further protect the tinware?
I do have some more questions, if you don't mind, regarding the barge and loading/offloading. Will the shovel ship with the barge or stay on the loading end? Will it unload trucks, be serviced by a wheel loader or just load out of a cold deck then deck on the barge? Or will it retreive the logs from the water? Excavator front might allow this. Will lose a little in stacking height though. I don't mean to sound like a smartass, I'm curious. I've never paid any attention to the loading/unloading of the log barges in our area. I think they use cranes down here. Out of sight, out of mind.
Am I correct in assuming that whatever they "dangle" the grapples from will involve cutting the ears off the bucket to keep the pin and link relationships the same, and welding them to some sort of box (or heel) to pin the grapple to? Or simply bore a hole in the adaptor plate to hang the grapple from?
After all the work they did with riser and guarding, I'm thinking they will go with a heel rack and gain more reach and versatility.