Pallet Fork Length

[deezler]

I find it agravating to instinctively stand to get a better view and then kill the engine when I touch the pedal with an unweighted seat.

Jeez man, jumper your seat safety switch already. That's obnoxious. I drive and fork things all the time while standing.

On my old tractor with no ssqa, the 36" clamp-on forks were very easy to see out in front of the tractor. The lifting power sucked, though.
On my new tractor w/ ssqa, the 42" forks are invisible on the ground when I am sitting. Not a big deal to stand up once in a while to fork things at ground level, BUT, the "super ergonomic" FEL lever on the fender is made for sitting down comfort. I have to bend over sideways to reach back down to the loader joystick while standing to view the fork tips. Ugh.

I would extend the loader control stick, but I have 3rd function buttons on there and the wiring would need to be extended also. So I live with it. Thinking about getting 48" forks just for the visibility, instead.

 

[Username Taken]

Clamp some boards to your bucket about where the forks would be (laterally), then paint stripes 36", 42", 48" from the SSQA plate to indicate where the fork tips would be. Climb into the operator's seat to get an idea of their visibility. (Note that the spacing of the bars on the fork frame varies from model to model and will have some impact on visibility. It will surely be different than your bucket.) I find it agravating to instinctively stand to get a better view and then kill the engine when I touch the pedal with an unweighted seat.

Gotta love engineers

 

[Birdhunter1]

How much longer would you prefer?? 6 inches or a foot??

42" I think would be ideal for me to be able to see the tips of the forks better, that being said I've been using my 36" forks for about 13 years and I'm very proficient with them.

 

[Username Taken]

Jeez man, jumper your seat safety switch already. That's obnoxious. I drive and fork things all the time while standing.

On my old tractor with no ssqa, the 36" clamp-on forks were very easy to see out in front of the tractor. The lifting power sucked, though.
On my new tractor w/ ssqa, the 42" forks are invisible on the ground when I am sitting. Not a big deal to stand up once in a while to fork things at ground level, BUT, the "super ergonomic" FEL lever on the fender is made for sitting down comfort. I have to bend over sideways to reach back down to the loader joystick while standing to view the fork tips. Ugh.

I would extend the loader control stick, but I have 3rd function buttons on there and the wiring would need to be extended also. So I live with it. Thinking about getting 48" forks just for the visibility, instead.

If memory serves me correctly (haven't been on it since November and it's far away right now) to take your butt off the seat, you have to put it in neutral and lock the brake. Not really practical.

 

[jyoutz]

If memory serves me correctly (haven't been on it since November and it's far away right now) to take your butt off the seat, you have to put it in neutral and lock the brake. Not really practical.

On my HST tractor, I have to lock the brake to stand off the seat

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I was going to get pallet forks for the occasional pallet I move I have a two prong hay spear that has substituted nicely for the last 3 years, but I can't adjust the width, which I seldom did anyway. I've also found the 39" spears work pretty good for moving 8' bales of hay too, who would have thought?

 

[jeff9366]

36" SSQA Pallet Forks for me.

My primary pallet forks application is moving debris in woods work.

I routinely load 36" Pallet Forks with enough enough tree debris to challenge the the 1,700 pound lift capacity of my LA805 Loader.

Length over 36" just gets in the way.

It is rare for me to move pallets.

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[mo1]

For those of you that have an SSQA Pallet Fork attachment, what length forks do you have and, if you had it to do over again, what length would you get?

I know, I know, you can always buy a second set but, 1) It's a pain to R&R them and, 2) Money is always a concern.

Enquiring minds.

Apologize if this is an old topic. I looked, I didn't really see it discussed

I have 48" forks, they work well. 48" length forks are also the only length I have seen on any stock frame for my loader (JD500 QA). 5 or 6 foot forks would have been helpful a couple of times in getting a pallet picked up from the absolute center of a trailer where it needed moved a couple feet to the edge before it could be fully seated on the forks. But, I sure wouldn't want to have 5' or 6' forks on all of the time, they are pretty long.

 

[pokey1416]

Have 42”. Hard to see tips without stretching up on the seat. If you can see the tips noticeably better with 48’s, that’s what I would recommend. Had 42’s for my skid steer and assumed they’d be fine on tractor.

 

[rScotty]

On my HST tractor, I have to lock the brake to stand off the seat

Easy to fix that, just jumper the seat safety switch. Or if disabling safety switches bothers you, add a toggle switch on the dash. Get a switch with a led light. Very inexpensive. I couldn't tell which one I wanted for the Kubota and ordered 3 or 4 different switches on Amazon. The whole selection only came to about 10 bucks.

Kind of interesting that most of the discussion is about being able to see the fork tips rather than about lifting.