Grapple trucks are great for many operations. Many companies run them around here, despite high dumping prices and our dump sites being sloping mud pits. They make a lot of sense for companies that focus on bucket access. Many places you can get a boom truck, you can get a grapple truck in, or a big skidder to move short massive piles. If you are sending in a lift to nibble down lots of material very quickly and get out, they make a lot of sense. If you are cutting or rigging large/long pieces (as climbers tend to working from the inside of the tree at attachment points to structure) keeping the pieces long and maneuvering them to be processed is more productive, especially if feeding the chipper is continuous. It skips an additional manned process of loading. Our chipper has a remote that the mini loader operator can use to control the throttle and operation.
Chips are so much easier to get rid of. We even sell some.
I haven’t worked with a grapple truck enough to say what is better for brush capacity. If I had to guess, our 30yd chip truck is comparable to a 50yd grapple. Obviously, grapples excel at large quantities of wood. It’s rare for us to run into a project with that much timber at once, and unless you can get the grapple to it, loading directly into a trailer or can is going to save a step (vs). We run a big trailer that we are probably going to replace with a hooklift this year as opposed to going with a grapple for wood for that reason. Cans are also more versatile for hauling other materials and equipment.
I think it’s important to add that we do not have a lift of any sort in our operation, yet. We climb or use a crane for literally 99% of our business, working a specific (although not small) niche of tree work. The few days we need a bucket we sub one. My perspective on grapples may change after we get a lift, who knows.
