Using Hydraulic Grapples in Fire Prevention and Forest Management

With a unique combination of strength, control, and flexibility, The hydraulic grapple rake, a versatile new loader/tractor/skid steer attachment, is speeding forest management tasks.

From logging and national park conservation to fire prevention, property and habitat protection, too many forest management tasks are still done the old-fashioned way: with shovel, chainsaw, and backbreaking sweat. Even when equipment is used to pick up, move, or stack trees, logs, brush or other fire hazards, there are drawbacks whenever these tasks require control and efficiency.

Traditional bucket attachments, for instance, tend to scoop excess dirt, have trouble holding unwieldy loads, and are largely ineffective at tasks requiring fine control such as raking limbs or debris. In response, those responsible for managing private and public forestland are adding a versatile new attachment - the hydraulic grapple rake - to their loaders, tractors, and skid steers. Since it's much more efficient than manual labor and more adaptable than the bucket, the grapple rake, which hydraulically opens, closes, and moves its jaws of spaced metal tines, is becoming indispensable. It can remove trees, logs and brush or surface rake limbs and debris without removing needed topsoil or piling up unnecessary dirt. It can dig out roots and stumps. It can securely pick up, move, and stack logs, trees, or irregular loads up to several thousand pounds. With intertwined teeth, it can also grab and place material down to 3 inches, and reach within inches of desired forest habitat without disturbing it to rake, lift, drag, or haul loads. It can even create piles and pick them up from the front or lift them from the top, which is especially helpful when loading debris piles onto trailers or tending the piles for burn disposal.

In Steamboat, Colorado, Bob Chapman was faced with the enormous task of removing 300 trees because of beetle kill on his 70-acre property. Bob hired a commercial timber company to do the work due to the enormity of the un-welcomed task.

"I wondered how they were going to clean up the huge mess without destroying habitat for the living trees and adjoining grassland. I was so impressed with the way a skid steer mounted grapple rake navigated living trees while removing huge loads of debris that I talked the timber company into letting me operate it for a few days." Chapman said "It looked like a war zone, with logs, branches, and stumps everywhere."

He used the hydraulic grapple rake manufactured by Colville, Washington-based AnBo Manufacturing, which specializes in high quality designed products for tractors, loaders, and skid steers. While their attachment operates like a bucket in that it can be raised and lowered, and rolled forward and backward, it has a third hydraulic function to open and close its jaws.

With the ongoing beetle kill and the ever ending fire prevention tasks, Bob Chapman decided that he wanted a grapple rake for his own multi-terrain loader. Anbo Manufacturing was contacted and built the rake to fit his loader. A six-foot grapple rake with 6-inch tine spacing was decided upon. This would allow the dirt to sift through the rake's tines, but not brush and debris.

Before to remove debris, Chapman used a 4WD tractor with bucket attachment He didn't like the results. "Because the bucket lacked finesse, it left holes and skinned spots that removed topsoil and made it difficult for decorative grassland to grow back." Chapman liked the results of the grapple rake, he continued, "Since the grapple rake just scrapes debris off the top and can back rake with accuracy, the grass grew back beautifully in one season."

Now Chapman put the hydraulic grapple rake to good use on a five acre, Nederland, Colorado property for fire mitigation. Before when Chapman tried to remove flammable juniper ground spread still trying to preserve the delicate aspen. He found that the juniper grew among rocky outcroppings making the task very difficult.

With this difficult task in front of Chapman he said. "I'd hired a crew to remove the juniper, but it was basically pickax, shovel, sweat and cuss." Chapman continued, "you couldn't put a chainsaw to it because it grew among rocks and dirt. The needles went right through leather gloves. After two weeks of backbreaking labor, when they'd cleaned up less than 1/10 an acre, the finally quit."

Turning to the grapple rake for help Chapman adds, "using the grapple rake, I was able to pull up the juniper by the roots so it wouldn't grow back -- right from its rocky outcroppings." He continues, "My loader has a push force of about 6,000 lbs, and several times I stalled it pushing on big rocks, but the grapple rake was fine. It's strong enough to handle whatever you throw at it."

To satisfy the need for strength, AnBo uses a special type of steel that has twice the yield strength (resistance to bending) and a much higher Brinnell hardness rating (resistance to wear) than T1 steel. This makes the grapple rake light enough for mini or compact skid steers or tractors and also adding strength preserves that give more lift and payload capacity than similar products.

Chapman single-handedly cleared a defensible space around his acreage, by using the grapple rake. "I ended up taking out 215 cubic yard of slash and debris, and loaded in onto trailers in about 100 hours," adding, "It's great at back-raking, grabbing, stacking, piling, whatever you need. Not only did I save over $10,000 in labor, but also lowered my insurance from $23,000 to $4,000 annually. I don't know how I'd have done the job any other way."

While coworkers of Tom Hauptmann were dragging trees with a tractor and chain, Tom and his wife spent three days cutting and moving trees just to get from their driveway to the mail box. Hurricane Katrina had hit and the Hauptmann's lived an hour away from New Orleans. Using a front-end loader with a 4-way clamshell bucket, the inefficiency frustrated him.

"I could pick up logs, but it was always dicey," explains Hauptmann. "Because the clamshell bucket had no teeth or curvature, I could pinch the logs but not really grip them. The load would slip out when it got imbalanced, so it was slow going and I had to be careful. When a load slipped, it not only took extra time to pick it up, but also to clean up the debris left behind."

While trying to dispose of the debris with burning, Hauptmann was dissatisfied with the buckets inability to rake leaves, and other debris with out scooping up dirt. Causing the piles to burn slowly, incompletely, or with too much smoke.

Hauptmann turned to a 6-foot, hydraulic AnBo grapple rake with 6-inch tine spacing.

"The grapple rake is strong enough to pick up anything your machine is capable of," says Hauptmann. "My limit is blowing out the tires on my front end loader." Hauptmann's grapple rake was strong enough to pick up and carry 40-foot sections of tree up to 18-inches in diameter, which he estimates weighed up to 4,000 lbs. This, he found, was much faster and easier than cutting logs into smaller sections, then dragging or carrying them separately.

With the grapple rake his control and grip are better and his ability to efficiently clean up and manage his property has increased. He is using the grapple rake to dig stumps and roots, pick up trees, logs, limbs, brush and debris.

Explaining what Hauptmann likes he states, "unlike bucket jaws that essentially pinch,the grapple rake wraps around a load. Its teeth and curvature are better for grabbing and grasping. It operates like a hand and give much better control and holding power. You can grab so much more with the grapple rake."

Accidently Hauptmann built a burn pile of trees and logs for disposal under a power line. learning about the grapple rake's efficient capacity.

Knowing he had to move the pile, Hauptmann says, "With the bucket, such a job would've taken me 20 loads to finish." But, "With the AnBo grapple rake, it took me five loads to move the entire pile. It made a two-hour project into a 20-minute one."

Hauptmann finds the grapple rake is useful in removing "nuisance trees and brush," quickly. "I simply put the teeth down and rip out the roots and all so they don't grow back," This works great on shallow roots. He simply slides the grapple rakes' teeth along the ground until there's a big enough load to carry to the debris pile. "I could never do that with a bucket because things would slip and go every which way." he says.

Hauptmann finds the grapple rakes' flexibility extends to placing and shifting objects in the burn pile for a cleaner, less smoky and more complete burn. "I can pick up and replace items in the burn pile, shift ashes, whatever necessary to keep it burning properly," he says.

For a good investment that continues to pay back, year after year, the grapple rake is making traditionally, tedious clean-up tasks faster, safer, and easier with its unique combination of strength, control, and flexibility. Those responsible for such work as logging, national park conservation, fire prevention or forest management are finding that substituting its technology is well worth the investment.

Article by: ChrisNewman | Total views: 10 | Word Count: 1557

About the Author

Anbo Manufacturing builds hard working attachments for farm and construction equipment. With a focus on Hydraulic Grapples and Grapple Rakes, Anbo makes rugged attachments for all models of loaders, tractors, skid steers and backhoes.