Having the right grapple for your compact tractor is an important choice to make to maximize your tractors capabilities. There have been traditionally two distinct types of open brush and log grapples. The first one is the typical root grapple. This style grapple is usually designed with the rear tines terminating on a slight curve just after they reach the ground with a very flat grapple top to close very hard on the material you would be picking up. This will have some limitations on the size of the load since the curved floor at the back is only about 6″ long.

The second type grapple is a long floor grapple where the floor could be 24-30 ” long or more. The lower tine floor usually has a curve on it which can make it harder to getting under the material. Because of the long floor it can put your loader into a tipping situation with your small compact due to the leverage of having a log way out on the end of the floor.
The Hybrid grapple is designed with the operating load capacity of the sub compact tractors in mind. The floor of the Hybrid Grapple is approximately the same length as the bucket floor of your tractor 15″-16″ long. This is important as the manufacturers try to design the loader bucket to work with each compact tractor’s design capabilities.
The hybrid grapple has a heavy-duty 2″x 8″ hydraulic cylinder with a large jaw opening of 36″. because the floor does not curve up at the end it allows users to get under the material they wish to pick up.
This is just common sense.