Grappling with Inefficient Fire Prevention and Forest Management
June 6, 2008
The hydraulic grapple rake, a versatile new loader/tractor/skid steer attachment, is speeding forest management tasks with a unique combination of strength, control, and flexibility.
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.
Bob Chapman was faced with the unwelcome task of removing over 300 trees on his 70-acre, Steamboat, Colorado property due to beetle kill. Due to the enormity of the task, he hired a commercial timber company to do the work.
“It looked like a war zone with logs, branches, and stumps everywhere,” says Chapman. “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.”
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.
In the past, Chapman used a 4WD tractor with bucket attachment to get rid of the debris. This had unsatisfactory 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 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.”
While trying to clear a defensible space around a five acre, Nederland, Colorado property for fire mitigation, Chapman tried to remove flammable juniper ground spread and preserve the aspen that was desired. The juniper grew among rocky outcroppings so the task was 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.”
As 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, it satisfied his need for strength. The added strength preserves more lift and payload capacity than similar products, and makes the grapple rake light enough for mini or compact skid steers or tractors.
Chapman states, “I don’t know how I’d have done the job any other way.” With the grapple rake, by himself was able to clear a defensible space around his property. He adds, “I ended up taking out 215 cubic yards of slash and debris, and loaded it onto trailers in about 100 hours. 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.
With thousands of trees toppled when Hurricane Katrina hit on Tom Hauptmann’s property about 60 miles from New Orleans, it took him and his wife three days to make it to their mailbox from their driveway. Cutting and moving downed trees. While others were dragging trees with a tractor and chain, Hauptmann used a front-end loader with a 4-way clamshell bucket to accomplish the task. The inefficiency still 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 decided to try the 6-foot, hydraulic AnBo grapple rake with 6-inch tine spacing.
Hauptmann shared, “The grapple rake is strong enough to pick up anything your machine is capable of. “My limit is blowing out the tires on my front end loader.” This grapple rake is strong enough to pick up and carry 40-foot sections of tree to 18-inches in diameter, he estimates also weighing up to 4,000 pounds. Finding it faster and easier than cutting logs into smaller sections, dragging or carrying them separately.
Because his control and grip are better with the grapple rake, he’s now more efficiently cleaning up and managing his property. He’s using it to pick up trees, logs, limbs, brush and debris, and even uses it to dig up stumps and roots.
After using the grapple rake, Hauptmann adds, “unlike bucket jaws that essentially pinch, the grapple rake wraps around the load. Continuing, “It’s teeth and curvature are better for grabbing and grasping. It operates like a hand and gives much better control and holding power. You can grab so much more with the grapple rake.”
One job in particular proved the grapple rake’s efficient capacity to Hauptmann. Inadvertently, he had built a burn pile of trees and logs for disposal under a power line.
He realized he had to move them. “With the bucket, such a job would’ve taken me 20 loads to finish,” he says. “With the AnBo grapple rake, it took me just 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.
Finding the grappling rakes’ flexibility extends to pacing and shifting objects in the burn pile. Hauptmann finds it helps 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.
Whether for logging, national park conservation, fire prevention or forest management, 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 are finding that substituting its technology for costly, time-consuming labor is a good investment that continues to pay back, year after year.
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