Anyone heard of forks with a push-off feature?

[swick1]

Professional rock wall builders use a stone grab that can rotate as well as grab and has a wrist joint.

http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v2/128799447/Hydraulic_Rotating_Excavator_Grab.jpg

This may give you some ideas

 

[dstig1]

Yep, A clamshell on an excavator is basically the "ideal tool" for it. But since the clam shell attachment alone is 10's of thousands of dollars, it isn't realistic for anyone not doing this work for business. I'm talking about a couple hundred bucks in steel and a hydraulic cyl to add on to my forks to make this process go easier with a tractor or skid steer.

Thanks for the link.

 

[dstig1]

Here's an interesting one I found. Still aimed at silage, but it's the right principle
Rata Industries | push off buck rake

And this is along a slightly different path
East West Engineering - Push Off Attachment - Type: TPO3 Push-Off Attachment

 

[boggen]

*shrugs*



find some metal that will fit over each individual fork. weld on some sort of hinges or spot to connect scissors to. drill hole through bottom of forks main support beam. drop a pin and some washers on for the scissors. hook up cylinder.

problem with putting up on bottom, is trying to get up under stuff, and the scissors catching on every thing.

going to also assume there is not much "width" between the holes that the FEL arms connect to. and guessing why everyone links so far are showing "vertical" setups vs horizontal setups for the scissor action.

it does get a tad annoying, you almost have forks out from under something just 1/2" more, but what ever you do, you just can't tip things and lower things just right. and you end up dragging what is on the forks back away from were you want it...and then you fight with it. till finally you get what you want.

if you do a vertical scissors as other folks link show. you do not have to build the entire "wall" that pushes things off. just run your bottom support and angle brace off each side. and skip rest of the mesh of the wall.

sadly forks get used to much. to load heavy stuff. and all it would take is grabbing a hold of wrong lever and have some expensive piece of something go crashing down :/ and guessing reason why i do not see the "pushers" more often on forks.

 

[k0ua]

I think just more practice with setting the rocks will help. I have been able to set a lot of rocks with just the forks by tilting initially until the rock is about to slide off, but not quite. Then catch the outer edge of the rock on the lower course of rocks enough continue the tilt and extremely slowly creep backwards and lower the tilt angle and let the close edge down slowly. Then if you need to, push with one fork to finish the final set position. You do have to have a hydrostatic transmission to move slowly enough.

James K0UA

 

[C-Range]

I think just more practice with setting the rocks will help. I have been able to set a lot of rocks with just the forks by tilting initially until the rock is about to slide off, but not quite. Then catch the outer edge of the rock on the lower course of rocks enough continue the tilt and extremely slowly creep backwards and lower the tilt angle and let the close edge down slowly. Then if you need to, push with one fork to finish the final set position. You do have to have a hydrostatic transmission to move slowly enough.

James K0UA

This would also be my sentiment, although I don't have a vision of the setting. The OP mentions needing the full length of his forks, which doesn't seem normal for building walls so I'm supposing he must have an unusual situation.

The landscaping forks I previously mentioned cuts down on tip speed upon dumping/curling, allows heavier loads by keeping them closer, and otherwise allows what K0ua described much better than with full length forks.

Good luck!

 

[dstig1]

*shrugs*

View attachment 281280

it does get a tad annoying, you almost have forks out from under something just 1/2" more, but what ever you do, you just can't tip things and lower things just right. and you end up dragging what is on the forks back away from were you want it...and then you fight with it. till finally you get what you want.

Boggen - you hit it on the head. James, Chris - I am looking at an improvement here. I was able to set a couple hundred rocks successfully with the forks as-is, but it could have gone a lot faster if I had a way to push off rocks at the correct position. I had plenty of practice...

I really did need the reach as I was bumping against the lower layers with the skid steer wheels even with 48" forks, so short forks would have caused a lot more problems.

Boggen - As to wrapping around the forks with the tube as you show, I think it is best to stay riding on top of them. That way you can set the fork spacing as needed. I had to change that around several times for different sized rocks. Otherwise your mechanism looks like what I had in mind. I would keep it above the forks or it would be a big problem picking rocks up with gouging into the ground too.

I need to add to my house build thread with the wall pictures. When I do that, I'll post it here for reference, so you guys can see what I'm talking about.

Thanks, Guys.

 

[C-Range]

"Skid steer"?

Well that explains it a bit. Maybe you mentioned using a skid steer, but I must have missed it. I was envisioning the equipment in your signature.

Good luck with your adventure Dave.

 

[dstig1]

Yeah, it looks like I didn't mention it, though it doesn't change the utility issue to me. The tractor has a slightly longer forward reach than the SS (not a ton more) but just didn't have the lift capacity to handle these rocks. Maneuverability of the SS was amazing and made the project go a lot faster. Doing it with the tractor would have been very painful, if even possible, due to the way a tractor steers compared to the SS. I had to rent the biggest SS I could find for this (S300 Bobcat, 85hp).

I'm kicking around a couple ideas here on how to do it... Not sure it will be worth it or not, but like you say, it's an "adventure"...

 

[Scooby074]

I just noticed you have a grapple on the tractor. I gather it wont do what you want? Even if you could adapt it to the skid?