Forks Should I invest in a set of Pallet Forks?

[3boys865]

Just ordered a new MX5100 HST with a grapple and box blade. Been trying to decide if I should go ahead and invest in a set of 48" pallet forks. I don't have any real need to move pallets around, and with the grapple, I won't need to use them on brush or trees. My tractor use is primarily land and fence maintenance on 26 acres along with a lot tree cutting, brush handling and processing firewood.

Since I have a grapple, do you think the pallet forks would still be a good investment?

What creative ways are you using your pallet forks that I may not be thinking of?

 

[dusty3030]

I use mine quite a bit.
Big boxes. Appliances. Lumber. You name it. If it is too heavy for me to move by myself, I am probably moving it with my pallet forks.
I have tall pallet racking we store stuff on as well and I use them to get heavy items up to the top shelves.

 

[oldballs]

I suppose it depends on what you routinely do. The grapple or a bucket with hooks could do many such things. But some things only the forks will do. The width could complicate loading things on/off a truck. Of course, anything on or like a pallet would best be served by forks . For example in reverse, I don't have a grapple because the need isn't routinely there. When moving downed pine trees and brush I use my pallet forks with chains.....but a grapple would probably work better.

 

[TripleR]

Tough call for me as I don't have a grapple, but I use mine a lot just to move equipment and miscellaneous stuff around among sheds etc. Looks to me for you it would fall into the "nice to have" rather than "need to have".

 

[JJZ 109]

If you get forks, you'll find uses for them that may not spring to mind immediately. Other than palletized stuff, I've used them to move furniture, appliances, items up into a loft in my storage barn, etc. One time I used them to keep a pressure treated 2x10x16 in place against the house until I could get a lag bolt into it when I was building a deck by myself.

 

[Baby Grand]

I picked up a set and converted them to 3pt to move pallets of firewood from where it's cut & split out to the field where they will get plenty of sunshine and wind. When they're cured & ready for the stove I'll bring a pallet over to the house to reduce "toting time". I have grand plans to use them on my FEL to stack attachments 2 high on racks in the shed so everyone can be under cover. Another plan is to put sides on a pallet and keep all the drip irrigation gear in it, rather than letting it sprawl all over the garage in piles. Used them on the 3pt to lift up a 26" diameter maple trunk to get it off the ground for slice & dice with the saw & splitter. Like Todd says, new uses just keep popping up.

 

[PandDLong]

I picked up a set and converted them to 3pt ... I have grand plans to use them on my FEL ...

How did you convert them to your 3pt? And you can still use them on your FEL?

I recently got a set with SSQA on my FEL and have thought about how handy they would be to put on my 3pt from time-to-time for other tasks.

 

[EddieWalker]

I might only use my pallet forks once a year, but when I need them, NOTHING else works as well. Right now I'm about to put them on to lift OSB sheething onto the roof of the house I'm building. The last time I used them was to move stuff out of the way where the house is being build. Really nice to stack things on a pallet and then move the pallet where you want it. Especially if it's temporary and you will be moving it again. If you have the money, buy them. You wont regret it the first time you use them!!!

Eddie

 

[hosspuller]

No doubt ... if I had to choose, it would be pallet forks over a grapple for my use. The forks can be used to pick up brush piles, but a grapple can't reach into my car's hatchback to lift an a/c unit. (easy to put in with two men, but impossible to lift out by me alone)

I heat with wood. The wood is split and placed into pallet containers approx 4'x4'x4'. I put a container on the back porch when using the wood. Keeps the mess & bugs out of the house and is very easy. One caution, a 1/2 cord load of split oak is very heavy. It's the max limit of my FEL. Check your loader capacity before considering forks to handle firewood in this manner.

 

[3boys865]

No doubt ... if I had to choose, it would be pallet forks over a grapple for my use. The forks can be used to pick up brush piles, but a grapple can't reach into my car's hatchback to lift an a/c unit. (easy to put in with two men, but impossible to lift out by me alone)

I heat with wood. The wood is split and placed into pallet containers approx 4'x4'x4'. I put a container on the back porch when using the wood. Keeps the mess & bugs out of the house and is very easy. One caution, a 1/2 cord load of split oak is very heavy. It's the max limit of my FEL. Check your loader capacity before considering forks to handle firewood in this manner.

Handling the firewood on pallets like that is one use I could definitely take advantage of. What is the lift capacity of your FEL?

 

[bigtiller]

Yes, buy a pair of forks. They are cheaper than a hired hand and can lift more than the wife!

 

[/pine]

Another option is 3PH forks...They won't give the height lift ability that FEL bucket forks do but they won't distort the bucket pan like some clamp on forks will (under heavy loads)

3-Point Pallet Fork

 

[PhysAssist]

Yes, buy a pair of forks. They are cheaper than a hired hand and can lift more than the wife!

Too funny!

Though mostly she gets to use the FEL (and the forks...)

 

[bigtiller]

Another benefit of pallet forks; their back never hurts and they don't sass back when asked to lift something.

 

[PhysAssist]

Another benefit of pallet forks; their back never hurts and they don't sass back when asked to lift something.

Also no cold feet, but then no cookie baking either .

I think I'll keep "letting" her use the FEL and the chain-on bucket forks we have- she makes some AWESOME cookies!! :thumbsup:

To avoid making this a true thread highjacking, let me add that the forks were and are the single most useful add-on to our FEL that we have purchased to-date, even with the often-cited limitations of bucket-mounted forks:

1) Poor view of the forks- which issomewhat mitigated by using the 2-by upright roll-back guards as markers [and occasionally standing up to see the tips].

2) Limited weight capacity because of being so far from the fulcrum of lift [still WAY more than I care to try to move with my old corpus].

3) and [sarcasm mode on] the oh-so horrible 2-3 minute delay and manual labor involving in removing the forks to use the bucket.

The short list of things made easier by use of our forks includes: putting the snow plow on [and taking it off] the truck, moving a large variety of items [rocks, Franklin stove, scrap iron, a stack of wooden doors, cedar logs, lumber stacks, belly mowing deck, wood and brush piles to the burn pit, ...and more rocks] to get our place ready for our barn-raising, unloading our [palleted] log splitter from the bed of our pick-up truck, ditto our box blade, lifting me[on a pallet] to re-roof our old tool shed, and more [I'm sure I've forgotten some] with more to come, I'm sure.

YMMV
Thomas

 

[Katahdin]

Pallet forks make other people happy, like the delivery truck driver who dropped off my Mom's new snowblower (Xmas present) this week. It saved him from having to back-in his 26,000 GVWR box truck all the way up my 400 ft driveway.

 

[k0ua]

Should you get pallet forks?.. uh yeah!.. handier than a pocket on a shirt! Lots of uses.

James K0UA

 

[murphy1244]

Should you get pallet forks?.. uh yeah!.. handier than a pocket on a shirt! Lots of uses.

James K0UA

Especially if you don't smoke.

 

[hawkeye08]

Got em, love em.

 

[JoeBuyer]

Handy you but don't need to spend a lot of money on them IMHO. Besides the normal pallets, you can lift/move all kinds of stuff with them. Lately I have used mine when hanging tube gates and aligning the hinge pins. Also when moving corral panels. I use the 12' ones that are 100 lbs and it is a chore tossing them on and off a trailer by yourself. Much easier when you are by your lonesome to " hang" a load of them on the forks upright and drive to where you need them and start setting them up from the upright position.