Anyone know of great HD skid grapple buckets?

I’m needing some skid grapple buckets for me & customers.

I want really HD versions...like to find a smaller MFG...but I’d listen to anyone’s thoughts.

If you have good or bad, let me know...I want to hear your thoughts.

Also...if it’s older than 4-5 yrs old let me know...everything changes if there was a buyout or ownership change. Sadly.

I don't have one personally, but some people have told me that the Faver grapples are incredibly strong and well built, but a bit pricy.... https://www.faverinc.com/skid steer grapple rakes.htm

Werk brau. We used to put them on sliders for recycling plants. Biggest consumer ,for us, was scrap iron and steel, followed by paper cardboard. Hopefully that speaks to the abuse they can survive. If the coupler stays together, the bucket will survive. Hoses and couplings were weak link.

I have a Bobcat 72" material grapple and root grapple. I have seen a Cat version that is identical also. The grapples will handle anything my skid loader will lift. They are built well and can be found used for under $2k.

I've posted this one before. We have one, can't break it, and we have it on a T770. It's a Virnig V50 Skeleton Grapple.

I had a cheap off brand one. I twisted it up, tore metal, and it broke. I purchased one of these from skid pro https://skidpro.com/skid-steer-atta...teer-skeleton-or-root-grapple-premier-series/ . I have a couple of attachments from them and couldn't be happier. I have no affiliation, just a satisfied customer. I guess it goes without saying, but it is heavy. That is the trade off for getting strong.

I've got a few attachments by https://www.quickattach.com/ and am very pleased with them. I don't have the grapple bucket but do have the grapple rake. It's probably the second most used attachment I have over the bucket. Good people to deal with too, they sell direct to the customer

I have Virnig and Quick attach grapples. Both are very tough.

Shimmy1 said:

I've posted this one before. We have one, can't break it, and we have it on a T770. It's a Virnig V50 Skeleton Grapple.View attachment 188733

Click to expand...

The 50 is standard duty, the 60 series VIRNIG is the heaviest duty grapple bucket I've ever seen,

I have Virnig's extreme duty solid bottom grapple. They don't give them away, but they are as well designed and durable as you will find available. The Quick Attach bucket I have is their Shark bucket. It has really heavy tines spaced about 8" or so apart. I use this for land clearing. Handling 50-60' pines, awkwardly arranged in bucket, creating huge side loads and that bucket has zero flex and the cramping power of the grapple is very good. My only complaint on that bucket is the center of the bucket is open and I have had logs shoot thru the opening and shear the hyd lines for my quick attach on the machine. It is easy enough to fix myself but shouldn't have to.

I have an erskine...works great and reasonable weight...

Interesting note about the gap. I have a basic North Carolina one I got first, that is open in the back (and yes had to add a ton of steel to it to make it stout enough to quit bending the tines). My second one is a CAT, and is closed back. The difference in visibility is great, and frankly I find I'm less productive with the closed back because of that. I have had a root poke through before, but not often. So I'm not all sold on the closed back end.

My thought was heavy expanded metal across the center.

I run a blue Diamond root grapple and have yet been able to bend anything on it. Very satisfied customer but they are pricey.

I've had mine over 13 years now, can't recall the brand of it, doubt they are even in business anymore. I know at the time I had to wait for it to be special built for me.

It depends on how and for what your going to use it. I've got mine on the largest New Holland rubber tired skid steer they make, thinking mine weights over 1000 lbs.

At the time the electric companies were buying the same grapple I've got and putting them on the largest tracked skid steers and were not tearing them up any.

I've been around over a dozen other brands and they all had major issues in my opinion.

I'd prefer two independent grapples with the fingers on the bottom much like the rock buckets have, think mine are 1/2 inch thick and have two steel shafts that run through them to hold them apart, thinking inch and a quarter shafts one near the front a few inches back and the other mid way back and an angle iron for a back bottom and tubing for the back top.

I'd prefer bushings and grease zerks for the pivots myself.

I'd specify my own tine spacing for my own needs. My clamps are made out of thick steel but they used heavy walled tubing instead of solid steel shafting for the back and top pivot portion of the clamps, we've bent them somewhat, solid steel would never have bent.

I've used mine mainly for land clearing and log handling, works good for brush as well, loaded a lot of shot rock out of quarries with it too.

I was thinking back at the time I paid over 3500 for it. Hoses are the main issue we've had with it over the years. Had to beef up the cylinder mounting points a few times, but we've handled a lot of large logs with it over the years, with some cowboy operators in the seat.