Homemade pallet forks

[deanwerden]

I set out to make some forks that were correctly proportioned to my tractor and not take up half of the load capacity. Just a couple pictures for now I have to finish welding everything and my mounting bracket should be done tommorow hopefully. I have right around 100 bucks in material in it

 

[deanwerden]

 

[deerseeker001]

She is looking nice.

 

[qed-cat225]

when you are done let me know how much you want to sell them for

 

[Wolfy]

Will those be quick mount? My next tractor will have the fancy skid steer system.

 

[deanwerden]

No it won't be quick attach but my bucket is 3 pins with 1/4 bolts holding in the pins. I'm going to replace the bolts with spring pins, can't see it taking any longer than 2 minutes to change

 

[deanwerden]

All finished up finally







And here's an old kubota blade I picked up for 100 bucks without realizing it was cat 0. ended up widening 4 inches as well and painted over the orange of course





This splitter is a heavy ***** it will only pick it about 8 inches

 

[pat32rf]

How did you get such nice welds using that little propane bottle? ;-)

 

[deanwerden]

a little thing called patience my friend

 

[RBA50]

Very nice forks. Do you have an estimate on how much the whole setup weighs? It looks nice and light for the smaller tractors. Would you mind sharing a few details, such as tubing sizes/wall thickness, etc? Trying to design one for my Kubota without killing the loader capacity. Looking at designs like this helps get an idea what works.

 

[deanwerden]

Before I built them I looked up the weights and figured it was going to be 120 pounds. I would guess it is close to that maybe 150 tops. The cage is 3/16×2 flatbed. The top and bottom rails for the forks are 2" angle 5/16 thick. The vertical supports where the brackets to attach to the tractor are 2x4×1/8 as well as the forks. I believe the width is 42 or 44 and the forks are 40 long if I remember correctly. I copied the brackets on the bucket and had them plasma cut for 60 bucks. I have under 200 into these, and probably 20 hours of my life

 

[RBA50]

Thanks for the reply. I just saw it as I haven't been on this forum regularly for a while, got sidetracked with other things. Planning to get back to this soon. Your design is about right for my uses, just need to adapt it to my Kubota.

 

[Jaeger]

Great looking project and handy!

No problems with the forks bending? They look a little thin, but maybe the weight to bend doesn't exceed loader lift limit?

 

[deanwerden]

Yes they have bent about 1/4 inch from lifting with the tips. If I were do it again I would use channel, cut the angle and weld flat bar on the bottom. even 3/16 tube would probably be ok but by time you cut them and angle them the channel would be easier and stronger

 

[FTG-05]

How did you get such nice welds using that little propane bottle? ;-)

120 VAC propane bottle - duh!

 

[deanwerden]

Overall I am very happy with them. They don't seem to be bending more but if they do I'll zip them off and weld on new forks

 

[deanwerden]

 

[deanwerden]

 

[mhinch]

Very nice, well executed project!

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Before I built them I looked up the weights and figured it was going to be 120 pounds. I would guess it is close to that maybe 150 tops. The cage is 3/16×2 flatbed. The top and bottom rails for the forks are 2" angle 5/16 thick. The vertical supports where the brackets to attach to the tractor are 2x4×1/8 as well as the forks. I believe the width is 42 or 44 and the forks are 40 long if I remember correctly. I copied the brackets on the bucket and had them plasma cut for 60 bucks. I have under 200 into these, and probably 20 hours of my life

I had similar thoughts with my B3300, didn't want a 500lbs set of forks. Made my set out of 1.5 x 3 x .125 wall rectangle I had laying around. Bent one early on lifting a silo blower with the tip but that was my fault for pushing my luck. They've lifted everything I've tired and maxed out the hyd capacity attempting. I don't think my set weighs 50 lbs -- I can lift them easily with 1 hand.

Nice job on your set.