Anyone own a forklift? other uses?

As my hobbys get heavier, I built some bucket forks so I could move pallets with the tractor. These Didnt turn out like I hoped. I can never see the ends of the forks, and getting them in the pallet was a problem.

Decided to buy a forklift where I can easily see my forks. Cant really play with it much till this snow disapears. So far I'm thinking moving pallets and mobile scaffolding at the moment.

Anyone one else own one? lets see some pictures and other "creative" uses

Our safety director has a bunch of photos of folks using forklifts in creative situations. He isn't a big fan. I think it is neat when they load a forklift on the back of a truck using the forks.

I recently used one to apply downpressure to a roll up door that had gotten stuck.

I am sure there are many uses...

Aaron

I bought a telehandler a year ago. Not very compact to use in a tight shed, but it has big tires, four wheel drive, and I can reach out and snag something far away. It's been very fun to use for all sorts of things.

Neighbor has one with an electric motor that attaches to the 3pt hitch and has rollers on the bottom. Can be used to lift stuff solo but safer on the tractor. Real handy and don't take up much space.

Dave

We have holes in the fork tips on both forklifts at
work, use both nearly every day for lifting large
parts off machines, moving equipment around the
shop/yard, moving barrels of stuff all over. At my
previous job, we would take the forks off during the
summer and use our Lift-All forklift with a Steffen
Systems 10 bale grapple to load hay. Worked slick,
other than the Lift-All was slower than molasses in
winter time, but you got used to it pretty fast.

Friend of mine bought a stand up three wheeled machine , small tires on it. got it for 75.00 at auction. has a 3 stage mast . needed battery.

He set it in his basement stationary beside it has a large press, electric motor driven . He plumed in the lift , built a cage on the forks and now has an elevator for getting up into the house. and a working press.

LOL http://freesmileyface.net/get/cats-and-dogs/dog-7.html

That was me ??? Don't now how that happened didn't look when I had to add the user name

The usual forklift is a neat compact useful tool, but like any tool, they have limitations. I was at a major forklift rental place a couple of weeks ago to buy a pair of H.D. forks. They had a beautiful big heated warehouse with rows of forklifts waiting to be rented out. And in one corner a full sunken loading dock with the full flatbed and Peterbuilt tractor, all set up for instant loading any forklift. What a place!!

So I found the forks I needed (used), and they are real heavy, maybe 150 to 200 lbs each. So the guy grabs a forklift and brings the forks out to my truck in the plowed parking lot. Now this guy is an expert with the equipment, but you should have heard him about the darn forklift tractor not being able to turn predictably, and the smooth hard rubber tires just spinning on the slightly icy plowed lot. With any kind of incline, he was just out of luck. They are totally out of their element once they are off dry concrete. They are just a mammoth weight following the whims of gravity.

So my solution to use on the farm is to have a forklift attachment for the BobCat. Unfortunately, last fall, I had one of those creative moments in which I came up with a new use for the forks.....stabbing at tree roots to finally pull the tree out (maybe 7" diameter maple). The tree won, 2 forks snapped. These were not light duty forks, but 5" wide by 1.5" thick. They snapped right at the heel bend. So I found a pair of 6" wide by 2" thick probably rated at 8000 lb capacity, and will be welding the necessary top loops on them for use on my BobCat attachment forklift frame. Maybe I won't break these. My BobCat is a 975 model, so it has quite a lift capacity, and is right at home in off road conditions.

Just remember that forks can break, and hydraulic hoses can burst without warning, so never allow anyone to stand or walk under a lifted load.

Paul in MN

Very useful machine when I am doing things by myself.

Vito

Build or buy a set of fork extensions for it. Amazing how handy they are.

My pal Kenny's Ford 960 coming out of the paint booth.

We've used 3 point hitch forklifts to load 30' combine heads onto trucks. The tired 4630 Deere didn't have enough pressure to lift it but the 8420 did. For picking up pallets of seed with this forklift system the squishy single radial tires on the back of the tractor combined with the long wheelbase make the tractor a little unpredictable accuracy-wise when trying to get those forks into the pallet just right. It's about as all-terrain as you can get and the chances of laying it over with the load raised high are pretty slim but I still consider it a part-time use type of outfit for work that doesn't require much accuracy. Jim

I have an old Baker 4000lb propane forklift. Smooth tire concrete only, but I use the heck out of it. Not fancy, no side shift, manual trans, but starts anytime and does the job. I'd like to have a pneumatic tire forklift to at least run on gravel, but for what I need, this one works great. Get some pallet racking and stack your extra stuff to the rafters. I have everything on pallets and just pluck things off the racks when I need them. Really heavy wheel weights are simple to put on now, as well as rear tires, filled or not. I also set my 4 and 5 bottom plows on the trailer with it for the plow days. I don't have a big loader tractor, so the forklift does most of the work. Best $1000 I ever spent.

> Cant really play with it much till this snow disapears.

There's a building supply place that I drive by on my way to work that has a snow bucket for their forklift. I've seen it getting use a whole lot this winter.

No surprise you broke forks doing that with a 12,000 lb. machine. Most forks are made out of higher carbon steel similar to spring steel. You need to use special procedures to weld and/or re-temper them. Dave

That might? be OK for moving objects but sure wouldn't pass for lifting people. You can't even use an engineered freight elevator, using a certified electric chain hoist, to lift people up and down. I know a motorcycle shop that has that type of elevator to lower bikes into the basement for storage. They can lower Goldwings no problem but there are serious fines for using it for people. A forklift would be even worse than a chain hoist. Dave

Yes; have two units actually. one is walkie/stacker unit lifts close to 4000lbs we call the (go-cart) the other unit is 12000.00 lb lift unit we call (big Boy). no good at doing pics on here so for just some of the atttachments i have made go to Farm Show magazine (last addition I got Vol.35.1 page 8)and you will find half page of them in article( assembly business attachments). have 8ft for extensions both units, have implement hitches for both,have we call side slinger, boom pole lift,equipment gang assembly lift arms etc. Big boy has extra tank hyd coupler valves etc to be able to pump new oil into new hyd cylinders to get new machines pumped and primed full of oil so it will lift and fold. the other feature to all things i have made is they will all interchange on tractor,skidloader or forklifts. Also have built 3pt hitch that will slip onto bigboy for big 3pt hookup machinery.and it also adapts 3 pt quick hitch to tractor ,skidloader ,or forklifts. Both of my units now are electric powered (hugh battery) which I love. Yes only drawback to both units is they are not offroad,but skidloader handle all of that problem,so as long as i can get stuff delivered,or onto my large cement pad i can lift it. just finished assembling another semi load of (Westfield) grain augers yesterday . i assemble Great Plains,Westfield,Kinze,landoll,New Holland,Sitrex,etc) 17 total on that load. now trying to get back to lawn mowers that came in crates few months ago. To relate to the first article about fork attachment on tractor loader yea i totally agree the idea seems great but it turns out they reallly are not unless another person is handy. You simple can not see them good enough to go into pallets and to lift items with out poking into them. On skidloaders yes they are wonderful. but on big forklifts, and teleheandlers etc they are harder to see and sometimes impossible to see the actual ends of your forks. Speaking of lifts or loaders does anyone need a very nice used loader, i am still getting rid of units I was using to lift machinery pieces around with before i got my forklifts. Units same as new and have never seen manure or hardly dirt far as that goes cause had forks on them basically whole time. Don't get mad here at me , I know this is not the for sale list, just we were talking about forks and loaders and thought if it would help some one out then fine, and just always be safe with those units.

Dave,

I know you are a better welder than I am, so maybe you can give me some advice here.

First up, I have an Esab 260 Multimaster (wire feed 70 R3 wire, and DC stick up to 300 amps, plus torches).

Because of serious risk of somebody getting hurt or maimed if a load falls when a fork breaks, I will not be welding the broken ones. I bought nearly new ones 2" thick X 6" wide at the top of the fork X 48". They look to be in excellent shape, and still have the manufacturer's stickers on them. But the fork carrier frame I have needs a loop at the top of the fork (these have the very stout hook that rides on a vertical flat, notched fork carrier. The rod holding the forks on my carrier is 1.75" diam, and never bent. The loops on the old forks are 1/2" wall thickness hollow tubing welded to the top edge of the fork.

So my plan is to get some round tubing with 1/2" wall thickness with a 2" diam bore, and weld them to the tops of each fork, with no need to eliminate the stout welded hook that is just below the top edge. The oversize bore is to allow some ease of fork movement on its support rod and make the possible weld distortion and shrinkage of the welded tube a non critical issue. I have not bought this steel yet.

The welding plan: 1) Clean all oil residue from the top area of the fork. 2) preheat the weld area with a big propane torch. 3) Lay a root weld with 6011 DC. 4) Layer up with 7018 DC.

As the shielded wire (.035) is faster to use, I would prefer to use that, but am concerned with not enough penetration. What's your thoughts about wire VS rod, and any recommendations about welding proceedure? I hope to do this within the next week.

Thanks,

Paul in MN

We have a SKyTrac 6036 . If I had to buy a forklift for rough terrain that is the berries. It will lift almost anything we need it to. We even adapted an old Ag Bag bucket to some steel tube and use it to put round bales in the mow on a hip roof barn on the mow floor. we even use it for the lift to split tractors. Has a basket for it use it as a manlift for roofing or siding trimming limbs along fence rows. Every day it is around there are more uses.

probably so but some lifts are for people to get them up to different levels in a racking system. Osha allows it if it has a safety cage on it.

I'd use stick in a heart beat. Check with a fork lift shop/manufacturer to see if they can tell you what type of steel the forks are, ie/ carbon content and if they have a welding procedure for them. Then you can go to the welding supply to get rods designed for welding that type of steel. I found the following on the internet. Dave

Welding of Forklift forks

My maintenance crew wants to take some forks off of a lift that had an engine blow up and use them on a similar sized capacity forklift. However, the mounting is different. Thus, they want to remove the existing clip type mount and weld tubing to the top to enable mounting on the other lift. My questions are:

1. What are the ramifications of welding and/or tempering the forks by welding on the top where it mounts to the vertical risers?
2. After welding, what should be done to temper the welds?

A quick search revealed this information:

1. Preheat to 600*F with a soft flame.
2. Postheat to 800-850*F with a soft flame.
3. Cool slowly.
4. NEVER weld on the face, or under any circumstance the INSIDE RADIUS of the HEEL.
5. Normally, never weld within half the diameter of the face. IE, 2" thick forks can only have a 1" weld on the sides.
6. Anything else causes soft spots and weakens the forks from their load rating.
7. Always match the lesser steel, usually mild steel, and use a low-hy electrode such as 7018 or 71T-1.

This a condensed, generalized weld procedure from many fork manufacturers.

Is this a fairly accurate procedure?

Dave,

Thanks for your work on this topic. I did not think of Googling the question.

Paul in MN

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Hedge clipper that cut sides and tops.

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Good for picking apples. Electric stacker mast operated from cage.

<a href="http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/r16/Wardner/?action=view&amp;current=houserepair025.jpg" target="_blank"></a>
House and barn repair. Sure is handy when roofing.

Paul,

You have a 975 Bobcat? is that the one with the John Deer diesel engine?, if so I wanna drive that one!
I worked on a big Bobcat years ago but not quite the famous "975" but almost as big it had a Perkins diesel in it.. I took apart the hydrostat drive motors and checked them out, they checked out good, it was fun to drive, but I have not ever driven the 975..

I have a Case 1845 skid loader with factory auxillary front and rear and also a Mustang 330 skid loader. I like them both

Where abouts are you in Mn. ? my place is East of St. Cloud and West of Milaca.

~Will