Forks mounting a forklift frame to front of tractor.

Ausmac · Dec 13, 2019

Hey guys. My old forklift has finally packed it in. Have been limping it for the last year. Old jigger is not worth an engine rebuild so I was toying with the idea of mounting the fork frame on the front of an old 65hp fiat. Heavy tractor should handle it and won稚 be lifting excessive weight. Wondering if anyone has done this at home from scratch and not bought an entire assembly to bolt on the front. Looks like there are heaps of rear mount ones but I would rather it on the front so I can drive around with the load on. Wondering how far back you started the frame to mount the forks on. Any pics or drawing on how to start attacking this project would be very helpful. Thanks.

flashpuppy · Dec 13, 2019

Front is not a great idea, in my opinion, for several reasons.

With a load on the front, it is much harder to see what is in front of you. Same reason you are not supposed to travel forward with a large load on a regular forklift.

The front axle is not designed to carry that kind of weight all the time. Smaller tires, lighter bearings... The rear axle is much better suited to handling the load.

4570Man · Dec 13, 2019

It might be alright on the rear. I think you’ll bust the front axel in short order. Was the tractor originally setup to have a loader?

Ausmac · Dec 13, 2019

I was thinking the front as I think it would carry more there. On the linkage arms you could lift with the hydraulics on the fork mast however when you went to lift the entire load on the 3pt arms I知 not sure they would lift the load as well as the mast. On the front the mast would be permanently mounted to the body and chassis and would not rely on lift arms to keep it off the ground. I have seen a couple of these old tractors with loaders in front but none yet with a fork mast. As far as viewing problems I would be happy to travel backwards as everything I do is in close proximity to the shed. Again not looking for super heavy duty as if I can get it to lift a ton that is all I will require.

4570Man · Dec 13, 2019

What’s the front axel of your tractor like? Old farm tractors aren’t known for having beefy front axels.

Ausmac · Dec 13, 2019

It looks heavy. It is a late 70 model so they were built solid. Well at least more solid than equivalents are today. I am open to all options so if you think a rear mount would be better I can certainly look at going that way. I am just not sold that the 3pt arms will keep the load up. Has anyone used a rear lift fork assembly on a smaller 2wd tractor? The specs on the tractor say a total weight of around 6300 pounds.

hawkeye08 · Dec 13, 2019

A local farmer has one on what looks like a MF35 orchard tractor. I think it came from the orchards that way. He uses it to gather his round bales from the field and bring them to the edge. I have not seen it in action, but I think he loads trailers with it. You might be able to find some orchard tractors on google with forklift on front..

Ausmac · Dec 13, 2019

Thanks mate. If a MF35 can handle it the old fiat 650 should have no problem. Although the MF models had heaps better hydraulic systems. A round bale weighs about 250kg or thereabouts, I want 4 times that capacity. That is where I think I will run into trouble now listening to what the others have told me. I am trying to get away from spending money on a forklift rebuild. The last thing I want is a tractor snapped in half!