Permanently mountedForks

[Anonymous Poster]

A neighbor of mine was describing a set forks that were permanently attached to a an FEL bucket. They were hinged at the top of the bucket so that when they were not needed they were stowed against the back of the bucket. When needed they are flipped forward and fall in front of the bucket. The pivot point is a bar across the top front edge of the bucket, so once they are flipped down they can be slid side to side for any desired spacing. Has anyone seen something like this? If yes, any pictures?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Go down to "other brands" and then "JCB backhoe's awesome". You'll find <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/forumfiles/19-159295-BackhoeandLandRover101.jpg>this,</A>

JCB might be British but they're the most thinking kind of equipment maker I've seen yet.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Yup, JCB is real thinkers, they swiped the flip forks form Caterpillar, who had em 20 years ago.
There are 2 big drawbacks to flip forks, first, you need a heavy enough bar supporting them not to bend in use, and second, they are dam heavy to flip.
The heavy part would be a real killer on small tractors that have limited loader capacity to begin with. Small tractors also loose considerable lifting capacity when forks are mounted on the front of the bucket, the whole geometry changes.