Shear Grab - Opinions?

bealaha

we recently purchased a new NH ts 110 with a quickie 950 loader, an upgrade from our old 85hp tractor, so as previously we only used a tine silage grab, but now wher thinking about getting a shear grab, so my father has been talkin to sum farmers who have them and theyt were not overly positive about them, unless they were on telehandlers or jcb's, with the main issue being the weigth of them and the speed they work, often slow.
so id just like an opinions on the use of shear grabs on my type of tractor or what size would we be looking at getting, or as sum farmers mentioned to us to just stick with using a tine grab.

dasheriff

I would personaly go with a 4ft 4" it should be well able to handle it i think from my own experience and i would go with a rossmore or mchale if you can..

5live

I had a 4'4'' on a fiat 100 90 and found it very slow. I had to sharpen the blades every day or it would be 2 hours to feed. I bought a john deere 6110 with a tine grab two years ago and wouldnt go back. The losses when feeding are bigger with silage falling out the sides but i can throw out all my silage in an hour. The big drawback i can see is when most of the cattle are out the feed face is very rough so there are feed losses here with exposure to air and there are high losses if the pit isnt finished before the cattle are out

blue5000

I've a sheargrab, I only close it in maize silage, just use it to 'grab' grass silage, never close it in grass anymore.

Buy a second hand 4' wide, there is loads of em in dealers yards around the country. Watch out for rusty rams, seals, try get one with burnside rams if possible. Also check tines, they tend to snap near the crank, or inside the box. I know a lad used to weld a bolt to the broken end, looks pefect from the outside!

Don't get a straight edge, go for a serrated edge as they are easier to close and replace blades. Redrock is a good make.

John_F

had a sear grab on a 290 massey before, what a disaster, too slow, bursting pipes etc etc. hyd. pump on tractor has to have a good flow in my opinion. If your going through pit slow then it may be worth while. use tine grab now and bucket for maize. Anyone here have any experience of them buckets with tine on the front, think there more used for rubbish, i saw one on a tractor along the road one day, doubt it would go through grass but could be good for maize ???

mayo_lad

5live wrote: »

I had a 4'4'' on a fiat 100 90 and found it very slow. I had to sharpen the blades every day or it would be 2 hours to feed. I bought a john deere 6110 with a tine grab two years ago and wouldnt go back. The losses when feeding are bigger with silage falling out the sides but i can throw out all my silage in an hour. The big drawback i can see is when most of the cattle are out the feed face is very rough so there are feed losses here with exposure to air and there are high losses if the pit isnt finished before the cattle are out

the advantages of a shear grab over a tine grab are as you pointed out it is self sealing on the pit face and holds the block better during transport

from your post 5live i would have put the slow cutting time down to low pressure in the tractor.
i had my shear grab going through a valve chest feed from one continuous loop( it is mounted in a high lift mast on the back of the tractor) which was very slow i know have it on 3 different spool valves on the tractor and it is much faster it takes me around 20 seconds to cut a block now which i consider very fast .

aidanki

for a ts110 wouldn't go bigger than 5ft had a mckenna 4ft 6" (for sale, all teeth tight no leaks) on a ford 7610 tanco 878 loader for 15years 5000hrs never a bother from the loader or front axle, hydraulic pump got soft on the tractor and grab wouldn't close but thats machinery

shear grab will be easier than tine on the tractor as no pulling and dragging when reversing out of pit, much cleaner cut etc.

time to close shouldn't be a problem ts110s have good hydraulics IIRC, anything over 5ft will have 100mm bore rams rather than 90mm bore which will slow down closing time by about 1/3

also for a tractor choose one of the lighter makes as don't need all that structuraly strength go for a quicke, mckenna, tanco, rossmore, wylie light duty, redrock light duty

next step up would be mchale or nugent

ultimate would be wylie, redrock, tighe or geith more suited to artic shovels telehandlers etc

for 4ft 6" make sure of 2 reinforcers in the blade or it will bend

go for it you won't regret it

Muckit

The reason tines break or a shear grab doesn't close cleanly all the way, is down to the distance between the tines and the shear grab blades. As the tines points wear from rubbing off the concrete the distance between them and the blades gets greater and so puts greater pressure on the tine and it snaps. Tines should be replaced BEFORE they get to the stage where they snap. Take a look at the length of the two outside tines of a shear grab (which are usually NOT cranked) and compare length to the inside (cranked) ones and you'I see what I mean.

Also check to see if the blades were replaced. If they were not replaced by a lad that knows what he doing and used the right weld and ampage, he's more than likely overheated the blades when welding them on and taken the temper out of them. No matter how you try, they'I never hold an edge and you'I never be able to sharpen them.

As for how fast a grab closes, as mentioned, it's down to the size of the ram and the oil flow from your tractor. Your new hollkand should have a high oil flow and should have no problem closing a grab quickly and neatly with the minimum of pressure. You shouldn't have to rev a modern tractor hard, ours closes just as quickly with tractor just ticking over.

Tine grabs are best suited to big farmers that are clearing the whole face (or close to it) every day. For the small time farner only putting in 6-8 grabs a day (or less), the shear grab is your only man. Another tip, keep the pit low and long rather than short and high to keep pit face as small as possible

aristo

John_F wrote: »

had a sear grab on a 290 massey before, what a disaster, too slow, bursting pipes etc etc. hyd. pump on tractor has to have a good flow in my opinion. If your going through pit slow then it may be worth while. use tine grab now and bucket for maize. Anyone here have any experience of them buckets with tine on the front, think there more used for rubbish, i saw one on a tractor along the road one day, doubt it would go through grass but could be good for maize ???

Have a look at the parmiter shear bucket, have one and would highly recommend it, handles everything form meal to grass silage with no spillage moving around the yard.

aidanki

aristo wrote: »

Have a look at the parmiter shear bucket, have one and would highly recommend it, handles everything form meal to grass silage with no spillage moving around the yard.

shear bucket far too heavy for a TS110