Bent Tine

bluedunn

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Hi-

Well that didn’t take too long - out working with my new-to-me grapple today and bent one of the lower tines. I tried clamping a piece of 3’ pressure treated lumber to the tine for leverage, and then pulling on that to try to straighten it but that didn’t really work.

The grapple is a Land Pride SCG0548 and says it’s AR400 steel. I’m not really sure how to straighten the tine and not really sure it’s worth worrying about. It’s not interfering with the grapple functionality at all.
Any suggestions? I was thinking that if I do bend it back to straight, I will probably have some reinforcements welded in between the lower tines.

Thanks for the help!
 

GreensvilleJay

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If it's bent 'left or right', get a big pipe wrench ,next to the bend, use a 'handle extension'(aka a long pipe), and 'tweak' the tine until a bit more than straight. release and it'll 'relax' to proper straight position.
 
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armylifer

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Another suggestion is to take a long piece of pipe and place it over the tine that is bent. Then use the hydraulics to bend it back. It got bent by hydraulic force, that can be used to bend it back into shape too, providing you are careful and maybe have someone to help you.
 

SidecarFlip

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Just like the guy with the backhoe ears bent... Get a oxy-acetylene torch and heat it dull red (plastic state) and bend it back. let it cool and paint it. You'll never get it straight with a cold bend and you'll weaken it too.
 
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armylifer

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Just like the guy with the backhoe ears bent... Get a oxy-acetylene torch and heat it dull red (plastic state) and bend it back. let it cool and paint it. You'll never get it straight with a cold bend and you'll weaken it too.
I have to disagree with that statement. For one thing, you don't know (either do I) how much the tine is bent. If it is just tweaked, it can be straightened out without damaging the metal. I have done it innurmable times with equipment throughout the years. Metal that is simply bent a little does not equate to something that is bent 30 degrees or more out of whack. Each case merits a careful assessment. One solution does not fit all circumstances.
 
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SidecarFlip

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Whatever. I always heat and straighten but then I have the tools for it. I never cold bend anything if I can help it. If the paint has flaked off the bend area, it needs to be heated if it hasn't then maybe not, but regardless, heating makes bending easier and no worry about springback. I bend stuff all the time and usually it stays bent because I'm not overly concerned about it anyway. You should see the 'headache' rack on my pallet forks. It's bent all to hell but it don't impact functionality at all so it stays bent. Has 'experience'.... 😀
 

armylifer

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Whatever. I always heat and straighten but then I have the tools for it. I never cold bend anything if I can help it. If the paint has flaked off the bend area, it needs to be heated if it hasn't then maybe not, but regardless, heating makes bending easier and no worry about springback. I bend stuff all the time and usually it stays bent because I'm not overly concerned about it anyway. You should see the 'headache' rack on my pallet forks. It's bent all to hell but it don't impact functionality at all so it stays bent. Has 'experience'.... 😀
I am mostly with you on stuff staying bent if it does not harm functionality. If I showed you the hood of my tractor you would probably wince at it. I had to take the cowling off completely because the plastic is literally cracking all over. The tractor is much easier to work on and maintain without that plastic junk cowling anyway.

I don't have any issues with what you are saying concerning repair of metal. I just avoid heating any metal because it takes the temper out. Even if you dip it in water or pour water over the heated part you cannot know if you tempered it too much. That being said, I have tempered metal before without apparent issues, I just do that as a last resort.
 

mikester

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Hi-

Well that didn’t take too long - out working with my new-to-me grapple today and bent one of the lower tines. I tried clamping a piece of 3’ pressure treated lumber to the tine for leverage, and then pulling on that to try to straighten it but that didn’t really work.

The grapple is a Land Pride SCG0548 and says it’s AR400 steel. I’m not really sure how to straighten the tine and not really sure it’s worth worrying about. It’s not interfering with the grapple functionality at all.
Any suggestions? I was thinking that if I do bend it back to straight, I will probably have some reinforcements welded in between the lower tines.

Thanks for the help!
If it's really AR400 I wouldn't bother trying the re-bend it, it's like trying to bend spring steel. You need a lot of force and it springs back somewhat.
 

bluedunn

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Here are a couple pictures of the tine. I’ve tried a couple times now to bend it back, but man, that steel is tough. I’ve been thinking of getting a long pipe, sliding it over the end, and then wedging the pipe against a large tree, and trying to use leverage to bend it slightly straighter. That said, the weld at the cross piece isn’t damaged, and don’t want to make things worse.

4DFF5D4F-42DC-4386-A5A9-A7A09B531BE7.jpeg
33C88035-1A94-4AC3-84C1-C4B8368ACE18.jpeg
DB51DDBC-1E45-44AB-81F4-60FCC820E810.jpeg
 

GreensvilleJay

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rotate the grapple until tine is horizontal,
slide a long length of tubing over it to the 'base',
grab end of tubing and pull....
if you ain't got the strength....
use comealong attached to tree,car ,tractor
given long enough bar and puller, the steel WILL bend
slow and steady wins the race..
 
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D2Cat

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If you have a large (36") pipe-wrench, I'd suggest putting it on the bent tine just in front of the bend, and extended to the left side of the tractor. That looks like a couple of inches in front of the weld. Put a 2" heavy wall cheater pipe 5-6 ft long on the pipe-wrench. Then get the tractor near a large tree, and position the machine so you can back the tractor and the pipe against the tree. As you go back you will have the leverage to straighten the bend.
 
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jajiu

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That bend is minor compared to the one I did. I was moving boulders and folded the bottom tine almost to a right angle. My neighbor had a torch set-up and I drove my tractor to his house and he heated it up and I bent it fairly straight again. Works fine. Your bend is so minor I'd follow the comments to cold bend it back straight.
 
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bluedunn

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If you have a large (36") pipe-wrench, I'd suggest putting it on the bent tine just in front of the bend, and extended to the left side of the tractor. That looks like a couple of inches in front of the weld. Put a 2" heavy wall cheater pipe 5-6 ft long on the pipe-wrench. Then get the tractor near a large tree, and position the machine so you can back the tractor and the pipe against the tree. As you go back you will have the leverage to straighten the bend.
This is where I was headed in terms of sliding the pipe over the tine, wasn't thinking about using the pipe-wrench. I do have an 18" pipe-wrench...not sure that would work.
 

Tornado

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Those tines are pretty thin, wow. I skipped getting a grapple with my tractor, even though I really wanted one, in order to save on cost. I went instead with a root rake. It las long curved lower tines. It has some of the functionality of a grapple just no clamping, obviously. Ive come to love that thing. The tines on it are a solid 1" thick steel. The thing weights over 400lbs. It is near impossible to bend those tines. If I could simply have a grapple on the top for clamping this thing would be the perfect grapple.
 

NHSleddog

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Heating a small portion of metal "red" in the middle of an assembly will actually cause a weak spot, not remove one. All around the edges of the red area will have stress where the particles never came back into alignment.

Heat treatment will usually involve the entire assembly being heated and cooled as an entire unit. Spring steel is one obvious example of spot heat completely ruining the strength of the assembly. Working with glass with give you some really finite experience with heating sections of an assembly. A lot of people do not realize that MANY materials are heat treated or annealed (including glass).

Typically with steel like this, one good bend deserves another.
 
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NHSleddog

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Those tines are pretty thin, wow. I skipped getting a grapple with my tractor, even though I really wanted one, in order to save on cost. I went instead with a root rake. It las long curved lower tines. It has some of the functionality of a grapple just no clamping, obviously. Ive come to love that thing. The tines on it are a solid 1" thick steel. The thing weights over 400lbs. It is near impossible to bend those tines. If I could simply have a grapple on the top for clamping this thing would be the perfect grapple.
The entire 60" LP unit is just a pinch over 200lbs. with pistons and all. If you have a 1000lb lifting capacity, that is 20%. Many grapples are 600-800lbs. With one of those he would not need to worry about bending it because he couldn't get it off the ground to do anything with it.

Definitely a balancing act between strong and light going on. The AR400 helps a lot.
 
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bluedunn

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The entire 60" LP unit is just a pinch over 200lbs. with pistons and all. If you have a 1000lb lifting capacity, that is 20%. Many grapples are 600-800lbs. With one of those he would not need to worry about bending it because he couldn't get it off the ground to do anything with it.

Definitely a balancing act between strong and light going on. The AR400 helps a lot.
Well, as luck would have it, I don't have access to anything that would heat the steel up to anywhere near being red. I do however have a 5' piece of steel pipe and a larger pipe wrench...weekend project. I'll slow and steady.

Yea, I have a BX1860 and the LP grapple is ~48" and is just over 150 pounds, so definitely light-duty. I likely pushed it too hard. What I'd really like to do is add some reinforcement to the lower tines, similar to the upper.

Eventually I'd like to get a EA grapple, but for now, this will do. The price was right and it really does make things go much faster.
 

Tornado

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The entire 60" LP unit is just a pinch over 200lbs. with pistons and all. If you have a 1000lb lifting capacity, that is 20%. Many grapples are 600-800lbs. With one of those he would not need to worry about bending it because he couldn't get it off the ground to do anything with it.

Definitely a balancing act between strong and light going on. The AR400 helps a lot.
Oh definitely. The Root Rake I got with my tractor is actually one size too large for my L2501. It is manufactured by a local guy who fabricates lots of grapples and rakes and markets them to local dealers. He does great work, and he designs his rakes in different sizes. The one he designs for my tractor size is One step smaller. Obviously, a 400lb root rake on the front of a L2501 seems a little odd, because you are indeed giving up some lift capacity to carry that big heavy rake around. When I bought my tractor I didn't realize any of this. The dealer offered the root rake to me and a decent price because I was struggling with wanting a grapple but not wanting to add the extra cost of it and a third function, and so I took that offer.

I've actually been surprised how much weight I've still been able to lift with this rake. I am still able to pick up 2 logs for example that are 10-12 foot long and 12 to 18" thick. When I bought this tractor I knew very little about tractors, so when I began to read and learn, and then realize that I was limiting my lift capacity and such, I was then a bit surprised to be lifting what I estimated was over 2,000lbs. I had seen the specs on the L2501 that suggest lift capacity around 1100 lbs etc etc. So I done more digging. The reality is that the L2501 can actually lift around 2600lbs. off the ground. Someone like me who had never owned a tractor wouldn't have ever known this, as I didnt understand all the mechanics involved, and was just going on the specs. The fact though is that the specs rate the lifting capacity at 1500mm height, which is over 4.9 feet off the ground. At that height and at the pivot pin is where you see the highest lift capacity listed for the L2501, at 1431 LBS, but even this doesnt tell the full story. I told myself "But I know I am lifting in excess of 2,000lbs so how is that possible.." Well you have to look at the lift capacity curve graphs to really understand what's going on. This is a single page in the LA525 Loader owners manual, and what it shows is that the loader can actually lift around 2600lbs off the ground. That limit drops off with every inch you go up in height. For someone just trying to move big heavy logs to my firewood pile, it means I can lift a lot more than what all the spec sheets show, because I just need to get the logs 12 or 24 inches off the ground - just enough to transport. I think a lot of new tractor owners dont realize this when they are shopping for a new tractor. I certainly didn't. I saw the ~1100 LB. lifting capacity in the spec sheet and thought "ok so I can lift a little over a thousand pounds with this tractor" Nope - I can actually lift over 2,000lbs all the way up to around 24 inches in height. If you just want to get it 6 inches off the ground to move it, you can lift around 2,500 lbs. The numbers change a lot if you stay under 4 feet. Most of my loader work and heavy lifting is actually done at a height that is below where they rate the lifting capacity for the machine for the purpose of the spec sheets. When you consider all this, the 400lb root rake all of a sudden isn't as bad a deal as it seemed to me when I first learned all this. I thought I had nearly cut my lift capacity in half by purchasing the root rake, but I hadn't really.
 

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aaluck

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The price was right and it really does make things go much faster.
If you don't mind me asking...how much did that grapple set you back. I have been really thinking I could use one of these.
 

bluedunn

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If you don't mind me asking...how much did that grapple set you back. I have been really thinking I could use one of these.
No worries - I found it used at a dealership about an hour away. After some haggling, I got it for $600.