Pallet Forks - What's your experience?

frank_f15 · May 7, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

RICH: have no experience with pallet forks on tractors, but do use fork lifts at work(rated to 5 ton) once u start to lift, if things ain't right , it can got to hell in a handbasket very fast. don't try and save a few bucks if it ain't safe!!!!! u know what you need to do, i don;t so use your common sense.

HR_Mutt · May 8, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

JOR_EL
What are you building with all the steel framing???/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
SUPERBABY getting a new home?
regards
Mutt

JOR_EL · May 8, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

Mutt,

SUPERBABY "home" mods!

A local HomeBase store is closing, and I bought a bunch of pallet-racks to put along the walls in my 40x60 shop. The steel frames and rails were strapped in bundles, which I brought home on an old flatbed trailer. Had 14 of the 16 foot-tall frames in the bundle my 460 loader didn't want to lift, but the "rollback" saved the day /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif ! (don't know what they weigh, but the bundle was HEAVY!)

Larry

Corm · May 9, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

Hello Harv. Do your clamp-on bucket forks cause any flex in the bottom of your bucket when loaded? Wthout any experience, it looks to me that with a heavy load out towards the end of the forks I think I'd be worried about what it was doing to the bucket bottom. If you've loaded your forks like that, have you observed any such flex?

Thanks in advance

Corm

JOR_EL · May 9, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

Mutt/Corm,

This doesn't address the issue of clamp-on bucket damage, but DOES illustrate that the forks (Rankin, anyway) will do what they claim.

I weighed one of the pallet-rack frames that I told you about. 162#-plus. Weight for the entire bundle 2277# - throw in a little cribbing,strapping,etc., and call it 2300#.The forks are rated for 2000#. Did fine! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

The 2300 plus another 350-500 for the fork set-up gives 2650-2800# total. No wonder the (2325 max-rated) 460 loader said "forget-it!"

Still got it off the flatbed, with the "rollback", though (rear ballast was a 48 backhoe, ... rear tires NOT filled). I'm pleased and impressed. No complaints here! These things are for-real workers!

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Larry

HR_Mutt · May 9, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

JOR_EL
Good to hear the info on how much weight is being picked up. One question....... WHERE's the PICS??/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif??
regards
Mutt

Harv · May 10, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

<font color=blue>Do your clamp-on bucket forks cause any flex in the bottom of your bucket when loaded?</font color=blue>

None whatsoever! I've hooked onto stuff that exceeded the lift capacity of the loader, and there was no distortion of the bucket at all. Most of the force is taken by the lower lip of the bucket, which is pretty darn thick and strong.

I have the shortest forks available from Gearmore (32 inches), so I can't say how the 36 or 42-inchers would perform.

JerryG · May 10, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

I have never noticed any flex in my bucket either. But, my clamp forks extend the full length on the bucket bottom. I don’t know what the most weight I have had on them. The largest load that’s been on them is 17 sheets of 24 gauge sheet metal, that was 36” x 22’. They performed fine.

cowboydoc · May 10, 2001

Re: Pallet Forks - What\'s your experience?

Rich,
The hydraulic forks that you are talking about is a 3 point setup that looks like a post pounder with forks attached to it. You hook it up with your lift arms and then it has an arm that attaches to the tractor. You hook it into your hydraulics and then you can lift with the hydraulics and tilt with the 3 point. They make them here in Iowa but are a little expensive. I will get the name of them for you. The other thing that you can do if you just want the 3 point forks is get a set of three point bale forks. They attach directly to the 3 point setup and are capable of lifting up to 2500 lbs. They are only about $150 new. I use them for moving round bales, posts,etc. I also have a box that I built that I can screw to the bale forks in about 2 minutes if I am going to be carrying other stuff or I have a 1" sheet of plywood that I screw to it to carry a bunch of square bales.