Opico Skidster or sherpa mini loaders

[AHPP]

3 hours ago, doobin said:

 

The 76cm grapple bucket with the sides removed is the perfect weapon for moving 70cm chunks of butt.

Missed this earlier. It isn't.

Carrying things  1/10 
Wheelbarrow  2/10
Powered barrow  3/10
Grapple bucket  4/10
Pincer  9/10

 

That's only chunks of butt. I'd rate a grapple even lower for brash. Honestly, pincers are where it's at for trees.

[AHPP]

3 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

Shifting rings like Doobin says, shifting grinder arisings and sawdust, and piling brash straight into it.

You can also fix plates to the side to make a Heath Robinson bucket with the grab upright, as I’ll sub to a few builder mates.

 

I do see the grab as a must, like.

 

I’ll also want to move the chipper with it on some jobs.

Cast make a dedicated plate with a 50mm ball, and attachments are easy on/off, but I’d probably fab up a cheapo that fixes to the bucket.

 

It’s all good, there are so many options.

 

How do you transport your machine Alex?

I’m keen to see a vid of someone loading one up ramps into a Transit bed or similar.

Grapple buckets must do something well but I don't know what that is. Sawdust, grindings, rakings all go fine in a plain bucket, which also does the building work, isn't Heath Robinson, hasn't got hoses to damage and hasn't got the extra weight of the rams and clamps. Also larger volume in the narrow sizes. Also cheaper.

For trees, grapple buckets are crap compared to a pincer. Have both by all means but if you're starting with one, you'd be mad to not make it a pincer. Pincers move chippers by grabbing the drawbar if you don't care about damaging it or by grabbing something you weld to the drawbar if you do. Or screw a towball to a pincer. Just as easy as modifying a grapple bucket.

 

Mine goes in the side of a panel van, low floor height. I load like doobin, forwards, standing behind the machine. Keep a foot on each ramp and they don't clatter when you break over.

Edited January 19, 2022 by AHPP

[doobin]

34 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Missed this earlier. It isn't.

Carrying things  1/10 
Wheelbarrow  2/10
Powered barrow  3/10
Grapple bucket  4/10
Pincer  9/10

 

That's only chunks of butt. I'd rate a grapple even lower for brash. Honestly, pincers are where it's at for trees.

Grapple bucket keeps the weight well back so can lift more, and is ideal for fluffy stuff like grinding arisings. My grapple bucket has removable sides so grabbing longer logs etc is easy. I can see how one without removable sides would be limited use. Doesn’t matter how much of a bigger lump you can fit through a gap with a pincer, there’s a very low limit to how many kgs these loaders can lift before tipping.

I can see the attraction for branches and brash, but as said earlier I don’t work that way. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by doobin

[Mark Bolam]

Thanks Alex, all taken on board.

Every day is a school day.

 

I found the WQ’s controls jerky at first, but ‘feathering’ them came pretty quickly.

 

I’d be the first to say I’m no machine operator like Doobin.

I have the touch of a rapist.

[AHPP]

11 minutes ago, doobin said:

Grapple bucket keeps the weight well back so can lift more, and is ideal for fluffy stuff like grinding arisings. My grapple bucket has removable sides so grabbing longer logs etc is easy. I can see how one without removable sides would be limited use. Doesn’t matter how much of a bigger lump you can fit through a gap with a pincer, there’s a very low limit to how many kgs these loaders can lift before tipping.
I can see the attraction for branches and brash, but as said earlier I don’t work that way. 

That lump would be a bastard to get settled in a grapple bucket in one. You’d do it in rings, needing at least double the cutting and then you’d have to hand ball. One of those skinny kids could be replaced with the 90kg weight plate that wasn’t on the machine that day. I also suspect my grab is bigger (heavier) than the Sherpa one. It doesn't feel undersized...

Edited January 19, 2022 by AHPP

[Mark Bolam]

You didn’t ring it because you’ve nowt to clear the dust with!

 

That grapple looks massive, although I suppose most do on these tiny machines.

[Mark Bolam]

1 hour ago, doobin said:

That’s because the counterweight  is the heaviest bit on an articulated loader. On a pedestrian loader the driver is the counterweight- this particular style of counterweight is very variable, often twitchy and prone to instinctively jumping off if things go pear shaped! Therefore it’s best to remove it entirely from the equation and to know that the bucket is keeping the machine balanced the way it needs to be up the ramps. 
 

You just walk up behind it, like you would a tracked chipper. 

Thanks.

The only problem I foresee is that I couldn’t reach the controls from the ground?

Do you walk up the ramps?

[dumper]

1 hour ago, AHPP said:

That lump would be a bastard to get settled in a grapple bucket in one. You’d do it in rings, needing at least double the cutting and then you’d have to hand ball. One of those skinny kids could be replaced with the 90kg weight plate that wasn’t on the machine that day. I also suspect my grab is bigger (heavier) than the Sherpa one. It doesn't feel undersized...

Having driven your loader I can confirm your grapple is oversize for your loader its always a trade off between attachment capacity and ability of the loader to lift

[monkeybusiness]

9 hours ago, AHPP said:

That lump would be a bastard to get settled in a grapple bucket in one. You’d do it in rings, needing at least double the cutting and then you’d have to hand ball. One of those skinny kids could be replaced with the 90kg weight plate that wasn’t on the machine that day. I also suspect my grab is bigger (heavier) than the Sherpa one. It doesn't feel undersized...

How are you going to load that log into a vehicle/trailer/onto a pile with that grab? 
It might drag it closer to where it needs to be but there’s still going to be some manual handling by the looks of it (and a second area full of sawdust). 
That grab looks handy for dragging brash through narrow gaps, but I can’t personally see much other benefit. 

[Clicky]

Log grab over grapple bucket any day of the week especially the klou style ones. So much more versatile