xj2025h lifting stuff with home built SSQA pallet forks

[jdom84]

I built these pallet forks from a pile of (s)crap steel I have in my back yard and today Ive been moving things around in my yard with them, now that it stopped raining for a bit. I have some videos ill put on youtube later.

I built it out of .25 thick steel 2x2 square tube and 2 chunks of 6 inch channel and some 2x3/16th channel on the sides and the center.



Added this hitch receiver today



SSQA attach points



I built the forks from 2.5 inch wide (I think) 5160 steel and backed them with 2" channel with a complete weld all the way around. There is a high chance that the weld will fail because I did no special preheat/post heat... before using them I measured from top to tip and it was 46 3/8"
the top of the forks hang on the 2x2 tube

this is how I kept the forks from bouncing up and down, but turned out to be a nightmare so I'm going to cut it off and redesign it with spring loaded mech.



I recently did (still doing) a major remodel on the entire first floor of my house so there was a stove I pulled out of the house I need to put in the garage. The stove in the garage I already moved out with the bucket.

I also picked up my 5 foot box blade with no issues. No pictures, only crappy video
After I was done moving things I remeasured and it was exactly the same as when I started

 

[teg]

Great job... And they look like they will get the job done...

 

[BKBoiss]

Nice. I love building my own attachments. The having the time thing is my problem. I've been planning to build a grapple for 7 years now since I had the little case DX25.

 

[jdom84]

I dont have the time either... I took a day off work to build these.

So after playing for most the day, I added wire sides to a 48x40 pallet and stacked wet firewood all the way up to 48" tall... loader wanted to lift it but couldnt :smiley_aafz: ... Ill build another pallet at 3 feet tall, fill it up and see if I can lift it. I need a easy way to store firewood and move it close to the house with out the vole problems I have now.

I then went and lifted my home made double acting log splitter to replace the tire and fix the leaking drain plug. The thing is pretty heavy and the loader lifted it but now one of my forks measures 46 3/4 instead of 46 3/8 :shocked:

I guess i should add more support to them :thumbsup:

 

[4570Man]

You'll want to add some method of holding them in place. Otherwise they slide around a lot and it's annoying. I'm tempted to weld my forks in place and they have a locking pin. Nice fabrication job though. I've got a forklift with a bent fork. That's another annoying problem. It's prone to hitting trucks.

 

[tomplum]

The firewood pallets were on my to do list for this summer, but won't make it until winter. You would do better cutting a pallet down and bringing the load in closer to the tractor for lift capacity. That is one lesson I learned about forks on a tractor. I went into this thinking I could subtract the SSQA and the forks (which themselves are 300#) from the lift capacity of the tractor. I can move a thirdish of a pallet of hardwood evenly stacked across the pallet OK. Not a half I'd bet. Lesson learned! Congrats on the build BTW. Turned out well! Figure out the weight of what you built and report back if you could.

 

[jdom84]

I wanted to keep it light as possible to get all I could of the 1270lbs lift cap. Ill get some weight measurements tonight. My guesses are the forks (very light) weigh 30lbs each and the frame weighs 90lbs but I think I added more steel then I actually needed to.

My helper seems to approve of my latest tractor attachment.

On Sunday I lifted my log splitter again but swapped the forks to see if I could get the other to "bend" the same... and they are now matching again. What I didnt realize when I lifted it the first time was all the weight was on the right fork. I thought the all the weight was closer to the rear of the splitter. Apparently there was no weight on the left fork at all (1/2 inch gap) and the splitter was only held up because of the hydro hoses, other wise i think it would have tipped off to the right.


Again I found the limit of the loader while moving some decorative landscape rocks. It was able to lift this pallet I loaded up but very slowly as if it was just at the point of almost being to heavy and the pressure relief valve was cracking open. It wouldn't go if I added even 1 more small rock :laughing:



I need to move some retaining wall blocks this week. Ill figure out how much each one weighs and then see how many I can move, this will give an idea of how much the thing will lift with a real working load.

 

[jdom84]

did some weighing and they weighed in at 32.2 lbs for each fork and 78 lbs for the frame

 

[4570Man]

Here's a firewood rack I've got that my tractor can just barley lift to full height with green oak. 3 basket full is 2 rick in that rack. Here's another rack I've got that holds 1 rick and surprisingly the tractor can lift it high enough to move around with green oak cut 16" long. My loader is supposed to lift 1130 pounds to full height at the pins but I'd be surprised if it's not doing a little better.

 

[jdom84]

Wow, those metal racks are nice! I was thinking of doing something like that with some stock panels and 1x1x1/8" square tube I have stockpiled but no time this year. I just ended up adding corners to a regular pallet and then added 2x4 wire fencing to the sides, leaving the front, back and top open for easy access.