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3ton Indusco hooks, 3/8 chain hooks and 2 receiver welded to top of bucket.
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3/4 weld on ring with reinforced gussets.
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There are times I would like to use the FEL bucket and not have to drop it and hook up the forks or grapple for light lifts. And even with the forks, sometimes it is convenient to have a hook or two. I have been looking for a hook or ring that would clamp onto the bucket or pallet forks...much like the clamps used for clamp on pallet forks. If I had fabrication skills and could weld I would make my own, but has anyone ever seen something like that? Plus a clamp on hook can be positioned to wherever it needs to be.
"IF" people used their hooks for JUST lifting a static load, balanced on the loader, there would never be a problem. But something tells me I would win a $5 bet that every single one of us has used our hooks to pull or yank on something, and not always in a perfectly symmetrical manner. I found some really awesome diagrams and charts that show what the real forces end up being on different cables or hooks or clevis loops etc when tension is being applied from different angles. In all cases the ratings go WAY, WAY down, sometimes down to 1/3 of rated working load !
Like if you has a cable coming down, then split in two with each end attached to the ends of an I-beam and the I-beam used to pick up something heavy off it's ends. Depending on the angle of the cables or chains from the split to the I-beam the safe working load of the cables/chains drops like a rock ! Pretty neat learning experience.
You basically always want to pull "straight on"....i.e., 0 degrees.
There are times I would like to use the FEL bucket and not have to drop it and hook up the forks or grapple for light lifts. And even with the forks, sometimes it is convenient to have a hook or two. I have been looking for a hook or ring that would clamp onto the bucket or pallet forks...much like the clamps used for clamp on pallet forks. If I had fabrication skills and could weld I would make my own, but has anyone ever seen something like that? Plus a clamp on hook can be positioned to wherever it needs to be.
Well, so far I've only used my hooks for dead lifting static loads. But I won't say "never" to pulling on something with them. It would have to be small and light, whatever it was though. For more "serious" pulling, I'd just use a clevis or similar on my draw bar.
My dealer welded 4 hooks across the top of my bucket when I bought mine. I've used them many times since. Most have been very small, light loads of a few hundred pounds only. I also use them to steady a load I'm picking up with the bucket by wrapping a chain (usually) or sometimes a strap around something I don't want to fall out of the bucket during the lift and transport. Most common thing that comes to mind is when I haul my burn barrel (55 gal drum) over to the spot where I dump my cold ashes on an ash pile. The chain wrapped around the barrel keeps it from falling out of the bucket on the way.
I think this is the only pic I have that reasonably shows the hooks across the top, but you'll have to zoom in to see them well.
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(found a better pic than I thought)