Jack’s Grapple Saw Advantage

Jack had ventured into the world of contracting with the purchase of what was Kubota’s largest excavator and was working on a project to install district heating to Bradford’s city centre municipal buildings. Whilst this project is long gone, Jack hasn’t looked back and has gone on to build a large customer base around his hometown of Windermere. “The Bradford project was a jump straight into the deep end for me.” Jack admits. “It taught me a lot and gave me valuable experience, but it’s definitely not the type of project I want to be involved in again on a long-term basis.”

The work Jack is now regularly involved in is centred around Cumbria. Undertaking a variety of construction and landscaping projects sees Jack kept very busy. “We haven’t looked back since concentrating on what we see to be our core specialities.” He explains. “We are very hands on and like to provide a comprehensive service working for a good client base.”

Whilst many of the projects Jack has on the books are construction related, Jack also regularly undertakes a wide variety of landscaping operations for some of the estates in the area. It was on one of these more rural projects that we met up with Jack and his Kubota again.

As an area densely populated with trees, the hillsides surrounding Lake Windermere were terribly affected with Storm Eowyn in January 2025. Whilst many of the trees which were downed during the storm have long since been cleared, there are pockets of privately owned land which have been cordoned off awaiting attention. It was one of these parcels of land which Jack had been contracted in to remove hanging trees and to fell those sadly deemed to be at risk of coming down in the near future.

Situated on typically tight country lanes, the decision was made early on to use the Kubota to manage the trees already down and contract any felling work to an experienced forester James. Working from a detailed report, the trees requiring removal were identified and those which needed James’ attention were felled.

Over the past two years Jack has invested in a range of attachments to benefit his varied operations, one being an Intermercato five finger grab designed for wood and brash clearance. “This is a good grab and would have handled most of the work.” Jack commented. “But with some of the trees in full canopy, putting James in a position of risk to cut limbs away wasn’t in the deal. We have got a cherry picker on site for some of the work, but many of the trees are in locations where this couldn’t get to and required us to approach them with just the Kubota. This pushed me to add a grapple saw into the fleet, something I had been considering for a while.”

The market for excavator mounted grapple saws has grown hugely over the last few years with more and more contractors using them to reduce the amount of work undertaken with chainsaws. One of the latest entrants to the market is tiltrotator manufacturer engcon who have recently launched three models suited for excavator base weights from 7 to 26 tonnes. The MG12, MG16 and MG20 utilise a 0.26, 0.36 and 0.52m3 timber grab respectively to handle timber whilst the business end of the attachment uses a Hultdins 550S saw to cut through up to 600mm of timber in one go. At just 560kg, the MGS12 Jack has purchased has a lower overall weight than many competitors increasing the capacity and reducing the load on the base machine. As the attachment is designed to work with the EC-Oil system, the base machine’s oil flow and pressures are aligned to provide a perfect match between the machine and attachment. The self-contained saw unit comes with its own lubrication tank for the chain reducing servicing time and with automatic chain tensioning and simple, quick chain and bar replacement, down time should be kept to a minimum.

Like many attachments in the extensive engcon range, the MGS grapple saws are designed to be used with the manufacturer’s EC-Oil coupling system which allows for safe and simple coupling and uncoupling without any issues of back pressure in the pipes or leaking oil on the floor. “The EC-Oil has been a great addition in my tiltrotator.” Jack explains. “Not a day goes by that the tiltrotator isn’t taken off. The time the EC-Oil saves me is immeasurable and it means that I don’t have to put the tiltrotator through anything which may cause it damage.” The MGS12 purchased by Jack has been supplied by Jack Hull who also supplied and looks after his EC209. “To be fair, the engcon has been faultless over the past two years with just a couple of seals requiring replacement on the EC-Oil connectors.” Jack comments. “If anyone ever says to me that tiltrotators can’t stand up to proper, hard work, I tell them they don’t know what they are talking about.”

Jack is also extremely pleased with the reliability given to him from his Kubota. Originally using a KX080-4A, he swapped to the updated KX085-5 in June 2023 and in the following two years has spent almost nothing on repairs. “The first year’s servicing was taken care of by PV Dobson who supplied the machine, and I took over after that.” Jack explains. “They are always on the end of the phone if I need any help, spares and service items are always in stock and they are a genuinely good bunch of people to deal with.”

Back to the operation just over the hillside from the lake and Jack and James were part way through the clearance of felled and hanging trees. With the MGS12 coupled up to the EC209 Jack deftly trimmed off limbs from the downed trees safely placing them to one side. The brash and smaller branches from the operations was going to be chipped for biomass whilst larger branches would be cut and dried for firewood. Some of the larger trees however were destined for James’ workshop where they will be cut up to make a variety of beams and flooring products.

“We won’t let anything go to waste from this job.” Jack explains. Whilst the added reach of the two-piece boom enables Jack to reach the limbs of the fallen trees, the large trunks lying on the ground look to be a little too heavy for the compact Kubota to handle. Folding the two-piece boom back and reducing the machine’s reach allows jack to lift a 6m long, 600mm diameter trunk off the ground just enough to let the grapple saw do its work. Whilst this old oak has both machine and attachment on their limits, two or three steady passes with the saw allows the trunk to be cut in half. Now with two slightly lighter pieces of timber in front of him, Jack uses the grab on the MGS12 to grip the trunk and manoeuvre it into a safer position before it is collected.