Bought pallet forks

[beppington]

Well all the tree damage from the Northeast snow storm forced my hand. I got a set from Chris Perry at Artillian.com and I must tell you that the design, material quality, fabrication, welding, painting and packaging are excellent. The tolerances for the QA frame are perfect. Hopefully the pictures show you the details of fit and finish. The tines are 42" which for me are the right size. Another feature on the tines is an over-center lever instead of a pull-pin for locking the tine to the rail. Chris spends a lot of effort on packaging/product protection for the QA frame. It took more time removing the protection than putting the unit together on the loader frame.

Functionally, they work great with excellent visibilty. Also find the chain slots on the rails good for securing the load.

There must not be any dirt where you live.

 

[B58Hustler]

Dave,

Not sure if this helps, but would there be any benefit from removing the forks (or not) and using the chain hooks to attach the object (tree trunk?) to the frame with chains to get it out of the hole?

Chris that's a good idea, sometimes the obvious-isn't-. I've got 16" and 25" skidding tongs and plenty of chain so that should do the job. May have to hook up a 5 foot piece of chain between the slots and then hook my pulling chain to the center of that
to get a pull from the middle of the frame.

 

[kennyd]

I don't see much of a need for a backstop!

Me either. I just moved a 2400 pound Bridgeport Mill in pieces with my forks on two different tractors. No backstop needed.

https://picasaweb.google.com/113966569709555812037/BridgeportPart1

https://picasaweb.google.com/113966569709555812037/BridgeportPart2

 

[RRILEY]

A Load of these and you will appreciate a back stop.

 

[grsthegreat]

Heres an example of why i like the back protection bar. This pallet gets stacked on upper shelf. Crummy cell phone camera takes crummy shots.

 

[kevinwak]

Hi Dave and Everyone,

Dave, thanks for sharing your experience and impressions here on TBN. It looks like the forks must be a big help cleaning up after the recent storm and your 3320 sure makes them look nice!

With regard to a backrest on the forks, I fully understand these preferences. When these forks were conceived, the original intent was for use on a 2305 subcompact machine with little lifting capability. Every ounce of weight mattered (matters). The 18" of frame height was considered enough backrest protection. Still, for those who wanted to add something higher, the frame was offered in an unpainted state for folks to add further additions as desired. It has always been a plan to design and offer a backrest when time allowed.

As of now, we have prototyped a backrest and it is in use however it has since been redesigned for improved mounting, lighter weight, and higher capacity (1000 lb vertical load @ 23-25 lbs). At present, we are working diligently on optimizing the cost of the backrest and trying to get it offered asap.

This backrest is targetting the following novel characteristics, 1- It will be field installable, 2- It will be removable, and 3-It will be shipping friendly. The field installability is so that those who have already bought their set of forks can later add the backrest, if so desired. The removability is so that when you don't need the extra protection, you can store the frame aside and retain the lower weight and better visibility.

As for shipping, we are currently able to ship by less expensive and much more convenient ground parcel services over freight or truck shipping. By having the backrest be a separate component, we can continue to stay within the ground services constraints. If it were joined as one piece, this would no longer be possible.

For anyone interested, there is a section on the "coming soon" page of the Artillian website which discusses the progress of the backrest.

Thanks again for everyone's observations! They are greatly appreciated. And again, thanks to Dave.

Man I want these