Front-End Loader slide on bucket pallet forks any good?

[Gale Hawkins]

dwost glad you got your forks installed and in use already. They are the best set I found for $135.

There is a medical supply company near my office that sets out FREE pallets on the corner of their parking lot and I have picked up 15-20 so I can set equipment on them to keep it off the ground or stuff I want to be able to move with the forks. The pallets are not all the same size and most are made out of soft wood but it they were standard size oak pallets they would not be free.

[dwost]

Couple action shots of the "eBay" forks. They work great! Thanks again Gale for posting the link.

[ironpen]

I also got a set of these and used them for the first time this afternoon. They went on easily and I added a couple of 2x4's in the built in boxes on the forks. I did it by myself and after a little experimenting got them on in 5 or so minutes. Probably less than a minute with a second person for attachment help. My first lift was a log that was 20 or 22 inches in diameter and about 15 feet long. I was really nervous.....waiting for the forks to bend, chains to come loose or break, bucket to bend, etc. Once I lifted it, I got off and took a look. There was no bend in the forks or bucket and the forks didn't rotate or slide. So I hauled it to the burn pile and re-inspected. Everything was unchanged, After several more loads, they remained tight and position was unchanged. Vision is a problem, but this was my first rodeo and I did improve with time. The boards help a lot as well as I already kind of knew the forward angle because my bucket has a handy bar that sticks out of the top for bucket positioning. So far, this looks like a real bargain for $135 postage paid. I bought the chain tighteners from the same folks and they work well. I plan to work most of the day with them tomorrow and I will report back. It does look to me as though the chain method might be superior because there did not appear to a lot of pressure on the bucket edge. I think with that big one on the first lift gave me that confidence.

[k0ua]

Ordered the Construction Attachments Lightweight QA pallet forks, they should be here friday. Had a nice meeting with nue2farm, and we traded, and then "shot the cows husband" for about an hour. I will let you know how the new QA pallet forks work out.

James K0UA

The QA Lightweight Pallet forks are great. Good visibility and the load is much closer to the loader.

James K0ua

[chopped]

I try to make them as wide as possible, that way you dont stress the centrer of the bucket as much...

[nikdfish]

I picked up a set a while back (different vendor) & use them mostly for moving brush piles & cut saplings. They were made of square tube & I ended up welding in patches at either end to keep dirt out. I also notched the front mount angle a bit so they would hang on the bucket edge on their own until the chains were attached.

An alternative to the chain binders is a couple of "hook & hook" turnbuckles. I didn't find a big enough one locally (i.e. @ Lowes) & ended up using two smaller ones on each side (hook/hook + hook/eye). I find them easier to attach & properly adjust than the binders ...




Nick

[ironpen]

Well, I have used the $135 chain on forks for several days. They have worked quite well. The only problem I had was that the metal boxes you slide the 2x4's into tends to bend after a while and I had to reshape it a little about once a day. The visibility problem people have referred to was simply not a problem for me. Bucket is undamaged. My opinion is this is a very good value and the work quite well. I put some really heavy trees on these things, so much that the rear tires on my NH 3010 were coming up unless I worked slowly and the forks held up fine. Highly recommend these forks.

[Okiesprayguy]

I'm a little late to the discussion, but I also have a set of the forks Gale mentioned that are sold on ebay. I live about an hour from gc manufacturing, so I just went over and picked up a set with binders back in November. I really like them. On my L3400 with wheel weights on the rear and very little ballast(box blade or angle blade), I can lift 750-800 lbs(15-16 50lb bags of fertilizer plus pallet) with the forks and loader. If I hook up the disc or tiller for more ballest I can lift 1000+, but that becomes a pretty good strain and safety concern with that much weight extended on each end of the tractor. Overall I'm very pleased with my forks. They are also great for piling brush and hauling 8-12 foot logs to the wood pile to be cut and split.

[myyaz33]

+1 on the $135 forks. Outstanding value. I also purchased the ratcheting binders and use them for a few other things as well. That said, I now have a set of real quick attach forks, but they sure cost me more than the strap on ones. Both have their place but I really like the length on the strap on ones when dealing with tree debris.

[kebo]

I'm looking at buying a set of the clamp on bucket forks as well. Should I be concerned about bending the 54" bucket on my 790? My first usage will be to load a pallet on the forks with about 700lbs of cinder blocks on it. You think the bucket will handle that much without bending? Do the clamp on forks with straps or chain binders help support the load, or is their purpose mostly just to keep the forks in place??


I read about the disadvantages of using the forks but I don't have a quick attach feature so I don't have the option of going with the quick attach designs. Thanks!