My homemade quicktach pallet forks...

[GV40U]

Steve, great project. I'm interested in doing the same for a similar sized Kubota L3430 with QA bucket. I'll buy the quick attach plate, (about $100) and I have access to a pair of free forks /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif but they may be too big or heavy. That leads to my question: What size forks did you use and can estimate the weight of the completed attachment? Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[gotrocks]

Great looking forks. Welding looks good paint aint bad either.
Question, how did you get that large pic to post?
When I checked the size on properties is shows 166,218 bytes.
I thought 100,000 was the limit.

 

[Inspector507]

He linked to them from another site.

 

[5030]

swa240z:

That is a nice job, except for one thing. The upper mount needs to be notched so the forks will index the notches to keep the forks from sliding back and forth.

I just slot milled the notches in a similar bar that a friend fabbed for his NH. With notches in the upper mount, you can use the forks to straddle lift drums. You already have the detent pins in the forks so you are halfway there. The other nice thing about locking the forks to the upper mount is that without the notched mount, the forks will slide around if they are dragged on a surface.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

I can't figure out where I am supposed to send my check...

OK, I WANT ONE!!!

I really like the 3PH attachment.

I'd add a receiver for a bale spear. (I use mini round bales, I sure can't afford Deere's $900 bale spear...)

Great job, awesome first project!

 

[swa240z]

Hey all, thanks for the nice comments! I was pretty happy with how it turned out considering it was my first real welding project. The only thing that didn't turn out as expected was the mounting bracket for the top link on the 3PH. It pulled a bit to one side as I welded it and I didn't notice until I was done welding. I couldn't budge it with a sledgehammer.

I dressed it up just a bit over the weekend by adding some Deere stickers to each side.

I'm also looking at adding a removable headache rack as well as removable grappling hooks for easy movement of brush piles and logs.

Jim - I'll probably take you up on your offer to provide some measurements for the 4 in 1 bucket. It would be easier to copy than design one from scratch. I'll probably be making two since my buddy wants one for his 4410. Thanks!

Eric - You're right on in terms of paying for the welder. That was how I justified it! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Greg - the forks that I found were a little bigger than I wanted, but I wasn't about to pass up the deal. They are 42" forks, 4" wide and 1.5" thick. I think the whole thing weighs around 280-300 pounds.

Daryl - You are absolutely right! I had planned to cut the slots into the top rail BEFORE I welded the rail to frame. THEN I planned to grind some slots in BEFORE I painted it. I guess I got in too big of a hurry and forgot. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I think I can still grind some in with my 9" grinder.

Mike - Adding a bale spear would be fairly simple on this setup. I'm thinking about adding a boom pole that would mount on the fork frame. Haven't figured out how I'd mount it exactly, but it should be fairly simple. That way I could use the boom on both ends of the tractor.

Steve

 

[patrickg]

Well, not much left to say in praise of your fork job that hasn't been said. The forks themselves look exactly like what I have on my Kubota 4610HSTC. I don't know if you got any specs with yours but mine are rated for 1300LBS, some less than the shorter forks.

About those toggle latches on top of the forks: those are designed to lock the forks so they don't move in or out getting wider or narrower from any side force during use and they are made to work with a series of detents in the top rail that the forks slide left and right along.

While you could probably get by most of the time without the detents, some day it could take a big bite out of your backsides.

In the picture you can just barely see the sort of brass colored lever almost hidden behind the top of the fork. The detents aren't evenly spaced but are symetrical about the centerline.

Im not a pallet fork expert so I don't know if there are industry standard fork width settings but if you are interested and don't have a convenient source for dimensions, I would be happy to measure the patern of detents on mine and get back to you.

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gifPat /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[swa240z]

Hey Pat,

It would be great if you could check the spacing on the detents. I was just about to ask if there was some standard or something for the spacing. Thanks!

Steve