Forks Pallet forks on E-Bay

caddison · Jul 17, 2004

Surfing the bay and came across these... forks If you are close might be a deal.....shipping might cause them to be less cost effective,

JimR · Jul 17, 2004

Wow, cheap enough I would say. There is a set near me for sale and the guy wants $190.00 for them.

jim_wilson · Jul 17, 2004

That is a very good price - and he has 12 dozen. At that price even with the shipping out to MA they are a pretty good deal - I might even get two sets.

OrangeGuy · Jul 17, 2004

I'd be careful. IMO it appears to be the forks only. You would still have to purchase the backframe.

OrangeGuy

jim_wilson · Jul 17, 2004

I just bought a BX23 a few weeks ago and one of the things I wanted to add onto the tractor before I even got it was some forks. After doing my research I realized that bucket forks were probably not the best way to go because they put the load too far out and added weight that brought the payload down. Seemed like having a dedicated backframe with forks was the best idea - until I started pricing it out. ATI makes a backframe that will fit my BX but when I priced out the backframe, forks, and the quick attach setup the dealer said I needed to have on the tractor to attach the ATI backframe it came out to $1000.00 ! . So at this point I started thinking well I guess I might as well get reaquainted with that TIG welder down in my basement I haven't used in a few years. Problem was all the solid forks I could find were expensive too - ATI wanted around $300 for theirs -and as JimR pointed out he found a set for $190 - which is not a bad deal from what I have seen. These $75.00 forks make my idea come together - I can probably build a backframe and fork setup now for the FEL on my tractor for a few hundred bucks. Now I have to go and find the local metal scrap yards in my area. I might even get two pairs of forks and build a pallet mover for the 3pt setup while I am at it.

Did I say thanks for posting the auction caddison? You just made my day.

Henro · Jul 17, 2004

Jim,

You may just want to make a light duty set of forks yourself using some channel or box tubing. The bx lift capacity is not much at something like 500 lbs probably, if you take the bucket off the loader arms...

That is only 250 lbs per fork. If you use something heavy duty like the ebay item, the forks alone could weigh 200 lbs for the pair, or maybe a bit less. This would impact the usefulness since you have to subtract the weight of what you end up from the lift capacity of the loader. Using forks like those would be very much overkill it looks to me...

Just a thought... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

jim_wilson · Jul 17, 2004

I thought about that - I wondered how much weight all this would add up to and how much resulting lift capacity I would have. According to the Kubota manual the LA210 FEL has a lift capacity of 463 pounds. It also says the bucket weighs in at 132 pounds. So I figure the FEL arms have a lifting capacity of 595 pounds without the bucket attached. Trying to figure out how much a forklift frame and forged forks would weigh I looked in the ATI catalog - they have a set of 42 inch forged forks weighing in at 92 lbs and 32 inch forged forks weighing in at 84 pounds. They also have a frame listed for the LA181 and LA211 loaders listed at 120 pounds. So using those numbers I figure a frame and fork assembly for this tractor is going to come in around 200 pounds or so - leaving me with a lift capacity of approximately 400 pounds when I am done. If this holds true it would be fine for what I want to do with it. I would use the forklift attachment for hauling lumber around, carrying cement bags, car parts etc. 400 pounds ought to be enough for me. I wanted to get forged forks so I could do stuff like pick up a load of plywood that was sitting on a 2x4 and stuff like that - if I use steel tubing I wont be able to do that. I figure if these forks are beefier than I really need I can probably carefully cut a little bit of meat off of them (make them narrower) to save some weight. I think there was another thread I read where somebody actually made a pair of forks by cutting one fork in half. I also planned on asking the guy who had the auction to send me the lightest duty forks he could find - he said he has 12 dozen so he must have a decent selection to pick thru.

JerryG · Jul 17, 2004

I made a set of bucket forks about 4 years ago. They are made from 2"x4"x 1/4" tube. I have lifted over a 1000 pounds lots of times with them. They have never bent or bowed or anything.

caddison · Jul 17, 2004

I was looking at another set on ebay and the price was $99.00 but the shipping from where they were located was a little salty. Based on 225 lbs the freight was going to be $400.00 plus via Fed Ex ground express...surely all truck freight isn't that high is it? There are some quick attach plates on ebay for $80.00 so if you can fabricate could have nice set of forks on the cheap.