Grapple Advice Needed Please

  • Thread starter Levi
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Yes, I think the baby grapple is a 2000 with around 750k miles. It's a good running truck, I drove it from Dayton Ohio to Marian, SC, didn't skip a beat the whole way there.

New trucks are around $220 if you purchase a glider, if you buy a virgin you have to add FET Tax...
 
Thanks for the info.

What is a glider?

As far as Levi getting nauseous re sticker shock, I guess that part is all set.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #103
Hey with the cab mount you could make a bunch of money and trade up to a rear mount.

Idk about the kboom for brush and logs. Ive never used one so consider the source, but I think a hydraulic clamshell or grapple is a must for speed and ease.
 
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  • #105
Agreed about the cab mount, might be the way.

You can get a clamshell attachment for the kboom and an RC!
 
This truck, wondering how much is being asked.

$65k Cory, Kenworth T800, 600k miles, prentice 120C, 20ft bed, everything just painted a year or so ago. Still runs great, he put some money into it after the SC storm redoing all the brakes, new clutch, and some other stuff.
 
Agreed about the cab mount, might be the way.

You can get a clamshell attachment for the kboom and an RC!

Kboom is super slow compared to a dedicated grapple like a prentice or the lightning loader. And you can really smash stuff with it like you can with one of ours, making it harder to stuff the bed with brush.
 
I don't know Levi....If you buy all this fancy equipment, then you're never gonna come to Illinois to work man!!! Don't do it!!!!
 
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  • #110
Kboom is super slow compared to a dedicated grapple like a prentice or the lightning loader. And you can really smash stuff with it like you can with one of ours, making it harder to stuff the bed with brush.
Interesting and good to know, thanks.
 
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  • #111
I don't know Levi....If you buy all this fancy equipment, then you're never gonna come to Illinois to work man!!! Don't do it!!!!
Well I don't know, might have to come bum some work from ya just to make payments this winter!
 
My preference in cranes for a dedicated brush/log truck:

Palfinger Epsilon timber crane
Prentice type loader
KBoom

I actually run a kboom on mine, but I mostly chip into it, and then load some logs or a stump grinder on top.
 
Hauled 9 loads yesterday for the county in my grapple truck, on my second load today the AC clutch went out so I'm getting off that job early today.

Peter, Palfinger makes an Epsilon now with the A frame style outriggers for the US market, fwiw.
 
Seems like you need to match you truck to access, volume and material. You mentioned that you don't have huge volume, mostly. Will a Kboom suffice?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #116
Sean, I agree. A kboom will more than suffice. I think some of you folks would be amazed at how little our trees and resulting debris are in this area. The are very few trees around that you couldn't fit entirely into a 30yd roll off and that is not an everyday tree that fills one of those. Also, we do mostly pruning I would say.
 
Anything I've ever bought because I tried telling myself that's all I'll need has more or less been replaced with what I shoulda bought in the first place.

Just save and get the right truck, don't settle.
 
I couldn't agree more. I have bought things that I thought would get me by for a while and they did just that. They may have slown down or inhibited progress as to what it could have been had I bought the right tool.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #120
Indeed. Good to see you hear Jared. Nice to have beers last night too!
 
Sean, I agree. A kboom will more than suffice. I think some of you folks would be amazed at how little our trees and resulting debris are in this area. The are very few trees around that you couldn't fit entirely into a 30yd roll off and that is not an everyday tree that fills one of those. Also, we do mostly pruning I would say.

I wonder if a grapple truck is too much or not. Will you have to move material a lot farther than you would have to with small chipper that would get closer.

Larger trees and lots of removals are a different story. How many trailer loads per average job?

What is you average dump weight, if you have to go over scales?

Will you need 4wd in the winter?

I wonder if a 4x4 one-ton or F450 with a trailer would be better for smaller trees. Its been a long time since I've been in Boulder. Google Maps' imagery doesn't change my question a lot.
 
Sort of the direction I am heading myself Sean. I would love a grapnel truck/prentice. Trailer like Brendon had is going to suit me better. Fits our niche for now. I want a a self loader in a couple years if I see that the bio plant is a for sure thing. CA is hard on CDL stuff. Taxes and shat up the ass.
 
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