Proposed Idea for better clamp on forks.

[Diggin It]

Gonna toss this out into the meat grinder to get shredded. If anybody likes it and decides to produce it, remember, I get the first million bucks. Maybe @kennyd ???

If you have ideas, let'em sail.

If you hate it, that's OK too.

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Typical Clamp On Forks as shown in left sketch clamp on to the lip of the bucket with a screw clamp that prevents the load from passing that point. The entire load is forward of the bucket edge which can lead to bending and greatly reduced capacity.


Proposed version on the right would allow much of the load to sit back of the lip and against the top edge of the bucket, bringing part of the weight further back towards the pins. This would reduce or eliminate the risk of bending the bucket lip and reduce the loss of capacity.

Back end of forks would be perforated every two inches or so to allow placement of the uprights for different depths of buckets --- square holes for carriage bolts maybe. Uprights would have female threads and screw down tight on the top of the forks. There would still be a small lip over the edge of the bucket lip to help with position retention, but would bear little if any force. This could be a spring clamp/force fit of some kind. A cross brace could still be used also.

Most all buckets have some kind of top edge for strength, angle, channel, square tube, etc. Top of uprights would seat behind this edge to keep them from moving forward. Clamping force would be provided by a turnbuckle type of assembly similar to a top link that should provide sufficient force for locking into position without putting stress on the bucket.

Quick sketch that doesn't show a lot of detail. There would have to be some sort of gap between the bucket and the bottom of the forks to allow for a pallet to slide back over the bucket edge.

Too stupid for TBN????

 

[ultrarunner]

Looks good but my BX is limited in what it can lift…

 

[flyerdan]

It's a better design than the original, which is just a lever to pry the cutting edge down, kind of like a can opener.
I'd make the bottom overlap a bit longer, and if I was building a set for my own use would use small trailer jacks for the adjustable kickers inside the bucket. That would allow for quicker in and out or adjusting fork width without swinging a wrench.
You won't get anything into the bucket unless you slide it on top of the forks, think of the edge as the bend in the forks where they bottom out.

 

[jaxs]

Gonna toss this out into the meat grinder to get shredded. If anybody likes it and decides to produce it, remember, I get the first million bucks. Maybe @kennyd ???

If you have ideas, let'em sail.

If you hate it, that's OK too.

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Too stupid for TBN????

Nay,I'd say about typical for TBN. I'll forfeit my royalties and stay with time tested and proven forks.

 

[CalG]

Looks good but my BX is limited in what it can lift…

Your BX can lift more if the load is closer to the tractor! ;-)

 

[4570Man]

Your idea already exist. And they are a lot better than the ones that just clamp on the bottom.

 

[ultrarunner]

Your BX can lift more if the load is closer to the tractor! ;-)

Which is why bucket forks have limitation.

I was unloading sacks of concrete from a flat bed and it would carry 700lbs across the path but no way will it lift 700 lbs... just as it should be.

 

[kennyd]

I appreciated the mention, and while your idea certainly has some merit I don't see an easy way to make them universal, there are a lot of different shaped buckets out there.

If one needs forks, and I'd argue everyone does, then time/money is better spent on a true QA system to attach them (and the bucket and grapple LOL) and not on any sort of "bucket" or "clamp-on" forks.

 

[mikester]

After you buy a pin on to ssqa adapter you will wish you had done it sooner

 

[Lazy Sod]

I don't understand why you folks in the USA and Ca. are so wedded to bucket forks, surely it must be difficult to see the fork ends. Is it because most people are living in the dark ages and have to knock out pins to take their buckets off?

I think that some type of quick attach system is essential in this day and age. I know that some of you use the skid steer quick attachment system for changing attachments. Here in the UK, the euro bracket system has become pretty universal for the f.e.l. manufacturers, whilst the tele-handler makers tend to all use their own systems.

Here is my Kubota bucket with euro brackets welded on. Thee yellow paint is to make the hooks even easier to see. I also have included a photo of my pallet fork attachment fitted to my previous tractor, an M7040, using euro brackets. The hook on the pallet fork is for moving trailers about.

 

[4570Man]

I don't understand why you folks in the USA and Ca. are so wedded to bucket forks, surely it must be difficult to see the fork ends. Is it because most people are living in the dark ages and have to knock out pins to take their buckets off?

I think that some type of quick attach system is essential in this day and age. I know that some of you use the skid steer quick attachment system for changing attachments. Here in the UK, the euro bracket system has become pretty universal for the f.e.l. manufacturers, whilst the tele-handler makers tend to all use their own systems.

Here is my Kubota bucket with euro brackets welded on. Thee yellow paint is to make the hooks even easier to see. I also have included a photo of my pallet fork attachment fitted to my previous tractor, an M7040, using euro brackets. The hook on the pallet fork is for moving trailers about.

We have quick attach forks. Virtually every new tractor is offered with that option and has been for a long time.

 

[SmallChange]

I was unloading sacks of concrete from a flat bed and it would carry 700lbs across the path but no way will it lift 700 lbs... just as it should be.

Isn't that a bit dicey? You're adding weight by hand, beyond what would make the system go into relief using the lift or curl functions? It can't relieve itself if the cylinder is just getting loaded externally and doesn't get the chance to move itself. Keep loading it further and further that way and at some point it has to pop a hose or worse, especially driving over some trivial bump.

Or maybe I misunderstand what you're doing?

700 isn't much, maybe that's why?

 

[deezler]

Nope. You need the fork itself to be the lowest thing to the ground. How do you slide it under a partially broken pallet, etc? Your design would be bulldozing dirt or scraping pavement constantly, at that "cross brace" by the bucket front lip.

Kudos for thinking hard enough to attempt some problem solving here though.

Anyway the real answer is just to have SSQA forks on your SSQA loader, screw clamp ons of any variety.

 

[Vigo327]

So im not hating on it. It's a good idea, assuming your bucket top rail will already accept and retain the things. But the problem is as Kenny said, it can't be made universal enough to be a 'business idea'. Certainly something you can do for yourself and end up with with something better than clamp-on forks. But i see the main advantage of it not necessarily being the strength, but moreso that it could be built in such a way that you could pick them up and drop them without getting off the tractor.

In the end the easiest non-ssqa design for doing so would be the 'over the bucket' forks typically used by industrial TLBs, but those are not so limited by lift capacity or counterweighting or even operator's visibility as a small tractor would be.

 

[airbiscuit]

Someone on TBN made some wood forks following the same principle. They would work for brush lifting modest weight. The design is certainly better than clamp on.

 

[davedj1]

Clamp on bucket forks are a big no for me. First problem is lift capacity is limited due to how far out the load is, secondly you can't see that you are doing with them. Just no! LOL

 

[Cougsfan]

I don't understand why you folks in the USA and Ca. are so wedded to bucket forks, surely it must be difficult to see the fork ends. Is it because most people are living in the dark ages and have to knock out pins to take their buckets off?

Sorry that you think we live in the dark ages, mate. I think most of us Yankees realize that bucket forks have disadvantages and limitations. But some us of are doing things within the bucket fork's limitations, and we believe in using our ingenuity to come up with inexpensive solutions without having to run out and buy another implement. I think I have somewhere close to $0 tied up in my bucket forks that I fabricated from scrap metal, and am quite happy with something that is considerably less than perfect.

 

[Vigo327]

Dark ages huh.

Call me an ******* but unless you built your quick attach, don’t take too much credit for it. If you can’t build it you buy what the market offers you and if the market didn’t offer it to you you wouldn’t have it. Good thing somebody else built it so you can have it. Very convenient.

Tractors in general were primarily created for agriculture. At some point in history somebody probably asked a farmer “why do you bother growing all that when you can just buy it at the supermarket, way easier!” Hmm let’s think about this.

 

[airbiscuit]

Quick attach forks are way better than clamp on forks'
Clamp on forks are way cheaper than quick attach forks.

People buy clamp on forks if:

• Don't need them a lot or can't justify the cost
• Don't have to move heavy loads
• Want them for moving brush (they work great for that)
• Don't have a SSQA mount on their loader

Are clamp on forks the best option for everybody? Nope. Do they make sense for some? Yep.

 

[SmallChange]

The more I ponder it, the more I think clamp on forks should get ruled out for a reason I haven't seen yet here:

With clamp on forks, if you accidentally catch something sturdy enough on the end that you didn't mean to and you can't see it, you're at risk of bending your bucket even if everything else you do is reasonable.

Whereas, using just an OEM bucket, or using just pallet forks, I bet you could move the levers any way you want to, and you won't damage the equipment, you just might drive it into relief.

I bet clamp on forks can easily damage your equipment without anything going into relief. There's no safety check.