Tractor, skid steer, or excavator?

oceans · Mar 29, 2025

chiselbit said:
No offset, it’s just curled out or up in that pic. In any case I didn’t do anything to it, stock set up from kubota.it does bleed off like if I grab a log off center, if it’s big enough it will rotate heavy side down. Kind of a pain if I’m in the middle of something delicate like the other day ground man was trying to untie a rope while I held log up off of a retaining wall and it kept rotating down and he kept sliding down hill with it,, finally had to chase him off and bring it down to me rope and all.

What model is your Kubota?

Treetopflyer · Mar 29, 2025

oceans said:
Just measured and it’s 50” tip to tip. I’ve held pieces over 1,000 for sure but I don’t have any data to provide hard numbers.

That’s impressive is yours much different than what chiselbit has posted?

oceans · Mar 30, 2025

Treetopflyer said:
That’s impressive is yours much different than what chiselbit has posted?

The grapple design is a bit different for sure, and mine is what would be referred to as a sorting style or brush style grapple. By my estimation, the biggest difference is the rotator design. Mine is a worm drive where his is a piston motor design. Each has its ups and downs.

I knew I wanted to hold quite tall pieces securely in position. If his is overloaded in that scenario, the piece will overpower the rotator and it will drift down to the ground. If mine was overloaded in the same scenario, it will break and fall to the ground.

The worm drive vs. piston motor rotators is similar to a knuckle boom vs. a stick crane, respectively. The worm is much less forgiving in “feel” and possibly slower to rotate, but its holding power is much more difficult to overcome. You just have to make sure it’s sized properly. Mine is advertised as good for a carrier up to 7 ton and I’m at 5.5 ton with my machine. Proper size, and don’t try to hold a 70’ tall, 24” diameter field grown Oak straight up from the base and you’re good!

chiselbit · Mar 30, 2025

oceans said:
What model is your Kubota?

That one is an x040. I also have an x080 that I run grapples and a masticator head on

oceans · Mar 30, 2025

chiselbit said:
That one is an x040. I also have an x080 that I run grapples and a masticator head on

I’m looking at E88 machines. It’s a problem! LOL!

tnttree · Apr 1, 2025

oceans said:
The worm drive vs. piston motor rotators is similar to a knuckle boom vs. a stick crane, respectively. The worm is much less forgiving in “feel” and possibly slower to rotate, but its holding power is much more difficult to overcome. You just have to make sure it’s sized properly. Mine is advertised as good for a carrier up to 7 ton and I’m at 5.5 ton with my machine. Proper size, and don’t try to hold a 70’ tall, 24” diameter field grown Oak straight up from the base and you’re good!

I like your worm drive sytyle, much more compact unit for higher lifting
We over size our Piston style rotators as the forces and leverage a small 3.5ton Ex puts on both the arms and Rotator are incredible, sizing to your EX is crucial