qa plate thickness

[chuck172]

I'm thinking of building a ssqa pallet fork attachment. I'd weld lugs on a qa plate, run a bar through, and get forks from a scrape yard. I noticed the plates on ebay were 1/4", 5/16", 3/8". What thickness should I use, and could anyone recommend an ebay dealer who they dealt with?

 

[Gary Fowler]

We got one for a bale spear from Everything Attachments. It was cheaper than I could buy the plate for.

 

[chuck172]

I just priced used forks from a salvage yard. $100.00, plate will probably be $150.00 or so. I'll be up to $300. in material real quick. New qass fork setups are 600.
I'd probably be better off looking used in craigslist.

 

[ENC]

Hard to find used ones on CL they are too handy to sell. When they are on there they sell fast and for almost as much as new.

 

[BHD]

If you can find used forks good luck,
when I was looking I was told law required them to be cut up and not resold, for safety reasons,

but then places will not sell or give one used tires so your forced in buying there new ones, so I do not know,

but I had no luck finding used forks, ended up having to buy new ones,

 

[chuck172]

How well do the clamp on forks do?

 

[George2615]

Hard to find used ones on CL they are too handy to sell. When they are on there they sell fast and for almost as much as new.

Agree 100% with this. I looked for over a year and only saw 2 sets of forks. They were gone when I called. Used forks at scrap yards were always gone when I called too and they wouldn't hold a set for anybody. So I ended up building a set of clamp on forks using C channel. They worked OK but the screw used to clamp them would always loosen up. I modified them to a fixed frame that I could attach to my bucket or 3 pt. I still have them and can use them on the 3 pt. as a carry all.

I got a new tractor a few months ago so figured I splurge on a real set of QA forks. I bought a brand new set for about $500 plus tax from a local skid steer surplus place. Titan attachments also has them on Ebay for 5-600 including shipping. Mine back plate is 3/8" thick. Used forks were always gone at the scrap yards too.

 

[Xfaxman]

I'm thinking of building a ssqa pallet fork attachment. I'd weld lugs on a qa plate, run a bar through, and get forks from a scrape yard. I noticed the plates on ebay were 1/4", 5/16", 3/8". What thickness should I use, and could anyone recommend an ebay dealer who they dealt with?

The thickness depends on the lifting capacity of your tractor, but since you didn't put that in your profile or tell us in this post, I don't know what to recommend.

I can show you what happens when they are too thin. :thumbdown:

Had too much weight on the forks, the straight edge shows where the 1/4" thick top lip bent up as it popped off of the SSQA.


On the Toolcat after getting straightned.

 

[k0ua]

How well do the clamp on forks do?

Lets put it this way:.. You are going to be a LOT happier with some real SSQA forks. I have had both.

Everything Attachments Compact Pallet Forks with 42" Tines

 

[charlz]

I have clamp-on bucket forks and they can be a little iffy, always wondering when I am going to damage my bucket. I made a SSQA for my tractor so one of the things on my list is to make a regular set of forks for it. Shipping cost is a big issue for me so I plan on buying/getting shipped just the forks and making a setup similar to what k0ua linked to.