Grab Hooks a Cheap Enhancement to Any Tractor Bucket

Had a question from Larry who has noticed that I have welded hooks on the top of my loader bucket. He wanted to know, what are they, where did they come from and what do you use them for?
Those are grab hooks and are used a lot around machinery as a place to anchor chains when lifting is done. Those grab hooks came from the dealership I used to work at, when I bought the tractor I told the guys in the shop to weld some grab hooks on the bucket, which was a pretty common practice, and I'm not sure where they got them, but they're readily available from a lot of sources. You'll find lots of choices if you Google "grab hooks." They're used for lifting and, especially if you don't have a set of pallet forks, I highly recommended installing them.
Without grab hooks, the tendency when lifting, is to wrap a chain around the bucket and then around the load. The problem with that is the chain can rotate around the center of the bucket and make the load hard to control. With grab hooks, the chain stays locked in place, and when the chain is placed over the lip of the bucket, curling it forward can extend the load out. So, if you were loading a bunch of logs on a flatbed trailer and you wanted to put one in the center, you could position is there by curling your bucket back and extending the load.
I have grab hooks on both ends of the loader bucket with one in the center. That middle hook gets in the way of my Add-A-Grapple, so if I had it to do over, I'd probably buy one more grab hook and position one on each end and then two about five inches either side of the center point of the bucket. Seems to me that would cover about any need.
Grab hooks are a great low-cost addition to any tractor. I don't use mine as much as some people because I tend to put my pallet forks on when moving things, but especially if you don't have pallet forks, put those grab hooks on and it'll help you lift and move heavy items and get them exactly where you want them.
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