Powerhand EX28 forestry grapple

One head, four machines: the standardisation case

Every EX grapple has a carrier band, but the EX28’s is the odd one out. It spans 12 to 25 tonnes, which is more than double from bottom to top and wider than the EX25 at 8 to 12, the EX36 at 16 to 25 or the EX40 at 20 to 30. For a contractor with one excavator that breadth is irrelevant. For a contractor with four, it is the entire reason to buy this model: a single 0.28 m² head that can be moved onto whichever machine is on the job, instead of a grab per carrier sitting idle in the yard. The forestry grabs buying guide covers the family and the EX25 vs EX28 vs EX36 vs EX40 comparison sets the four side by side.

That argument has a cost, and the cost is utilisation. A head chosen to suit a 25 tonne machine will work part empty on a 12 tonne one, and a head chosen to suit the 12 will leave the 25 under-used. The EX28 splits that difference deliberately. Whether the split is worth it depends on how often the head actually moves between carriers, which is a scheduling question rather than an engineering one.

What the 0.28 m² and the 50 mm tines buy

The capacity figure is what drives cycle size on brash and chipper work. The 1,632 mm maximum opening is what the jaws reach around, and it reads 9 mm under the EX25 because the EX28 gains its capacity through jaw depth instead of width. Nobody will notice that on site.

The specification that does matter, and the one that makes a shared head viable, is the tines. The EX28 is the first EX with 50 mm solid Hardox tines, and a grab that lives on four different machines and four different operators takes more punishment than one that lives on a single carrier with a single operator. Part of the 173 kg the EX28 carries over the EX25 is in that tine section, and on a fleet head it is money well spent.

Weight is published as 496 kg bare and 617 kg with rotator. The rotator figure is the one to work with when rotation is specified.

Why the band is a shortlist and not an answer

Capacity is what the head contains; lift is what the machine can hold at the radius the operator is working at. On a grab bought for a range of carriers that distinction does more work than anywhere else in the family, because the same 617 kg is a modest deduction on a 25 tonne excavator and a serious one on a 12 tonne machine, and the head will fill on the first and rarely on the second. The practical consequence is that a fleet buying an EX28 should check the chart of its smallest carrier, not its largest, and accept that on that machine the head is a brash grab rather than a log grab. The lift capacity calculator and the lift chart and attachment mass guide show how to work it through for each carrier in turn.

The coupler is the real standardisation problem

Moving a head between machines is easy in principle and awkward in practice, because the hitch is rarely common across a mixed fleet. A 12 tonne excavator and a 25 tonne one will usually carry different coupler sizes, and every adaptor between the two adds its own mass and its own stack height. Stack height is not a footnote: an adaptor that lifts the head 100 mm further from the stick changes the geometry at full reach and moves the effective centre of gravity outward.

Settle three things before the order. Which coupler each carrier runs, what adaptor is needed for the ones that do not match, and what each of those adaptors weighs, because that last figure changes the lift arithmetic machine by machine. Hoses are the other detail: auxiliary line sizes, quick-release couplings and the rotator circuit need to be consistent, or the changeover that was supposed to take ten minutes takes an hour. The quick couplers and attachment changeover guide covers the changeover itself.

Where the EX28 earns its keep

It suits subdivision and civil clearing, where the excavator is already mobilised for earthworks and the grab stacks and loads felled timber between other tasks, biomass and chipper operations feeding mid-sized machines, road corridor clearing where traffic control makes fast clean stacking valuable, and storm damage and dangerous trees work. That list is broad on purpose. A crossover head is bought by contractors whose work is broad, and its value is that the same grab handles Monday’s subdivision and Thursday’s storm call-out without a second purchase.

Timber density still governs what a grab holds, and Australian hardwood is heavy enough to shorten bundles well below what the jaw volume implies.

Stepping out of the band

If one carrier does almost all of the grapple work and it is 20 tonnes or more, the case for a crossover head weakens and the EX36 adds 0.08 m² and 296 mm of opening for 220 kg. If that carrier is a 12 tonne machine, the EX25 saves 217 kg with little practical loss on vegetation. Where timber handling is occasional rather than routine, a general sorting grab may be enough, as the forestry grapple vs sorting grab comparison explains. And where cutting is part of the cycle, the EX28 grapple saw carries the same 0.28 m² head with a 600 mm saw at 986 kg, a difference the 25 tonne machines in the band will hardly notice and the 12 tonne ones certainly will.

Specifying and supporting a shared head

Mounting style, rotator torque and gripping pressure control follow the family and are set out in full on the EX25 page; the hydraulic matching guide covers the rotator circuit. What differs for a shared head is the rotator flow, which has to suit the auxiliary output of every carrier it will hang on, not just the best one.

Support follows the same logic. A grab that moves between machines is lifted, parked and re-hitched far more often than one that stays put, so pin and bush wear runs ahead of the hours the head has actually worked, and a proper transport stand with the hoses protected pays for itself in avoided rotator damage. Price pins, bushes, cylinder and rotator seals, and confirm that replacement tines are held in Australia.

Confirm before ordering

• Every carrier the head will hang on, listed by model, with its chart figure at working radius
• 617 kg with rotator (496 kg bare) deducted against the smallest of those carriers, not the largest
• Coupler type on each machine, and the adaptor and its mass where they do not match
• Adaptor stack height and its effect on reach geometry understood
• Rotator flow demand checked against the auxiliary output of every carrier in the fleet
• Auxiliary hose sizes and couplings standardised so changeover is quick
• 50 mm Hardox tine replacement and repair arrangements, with Australian stock location
• Transport stand suitable for frequent parking between machines

Frequently asked questions