BCS Forklift

[NibbanaFarm]

Here's a light duty forklift I made to go on the front of my BCS walk behind tractor. I specifically made this to go under a truck or trailer. And to lift narrow objects. But the wheels could be set all the way back like a conventional forklift. The design could be easily modified for other purposes.


I made this basket which hangs off the elevator to hold 25 gallon propane tanks. But I would also like to make forks and a cherry picker arm to go on it. There are probably a lot of good ideas that could hang off the elevator just limited by the imagination and necessity.


Here's some details of the bearings for the elevator. It took a few iterations to get these right. I finally settled on 3 inch by 1/4 inch thick angle for the uprights.


Those are Chinese electric motor bearings. $2.56 each from Fastenal. The pully, cable, and hardware I also bought new. Everthing else was courtesy John's Scrap Yard. Total cost, just under $75.


Here it is mounted up to the tractor.


I made a rack to hold propane tanks on my trailer, but two people can muscle them up into the truck without too much trouble. I'm not sure I'll be doing that at 70 though.


Out they come.


Lower it down.


It steers very easily. The 8 inch wheels worked perfectly for rough terrain.


These two wheel tractors sure are useful.

 

[roadhunter]

Wow. Nice work.

 

[cmyoung2]

Very cool. Oh well, another project for this winter. It is not quite a front end loader, but I think I can come up with some uses, my truck bed is a little high, flat bed, and I just have learned better than to try to lift a lot of things that high.
Thanks for the great idea.

 

[farmerboybill]

Hey, nice work! It'd also be a good way to lift attachments onto shelving for winter storage. Each attachment on it's own specialized pallet on pallet racking would be great. Did you look into putting a small hydraulic pump on the PTO and using a cylinder? You might be able to find an acceptable pump on a combine at that junkyard.

 

[joecoin]

Looks good. Now to find a way to power it off the pto.

I've owned an Escalara brand hand crank fork lift for years. They also make a battery powered model:



Escalera StairCat Stair Climbing Hand Trucks and Forklifts - Home Page

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Thanks all. Yea, this thing worked out really well and cost next to nothing. It's not an FEL (which I would love to have too) but it's still pretty useful for what it does. It would work excellently for lifting attachments.

I very much thought about making it hydraulic, or even running a small pto generator and powering an electric winch. Hydraulic would be great. But I was strapped for time. Winter was closing in and I needed to be able to move propane tanks to heat my shop.

Those Escaleras are very nice. But it doesn't look like they're powered to move on the level. And they're not going to move on rough terrain. As long as you put nice big wheels on the front, this BCS forklift will go just about anywhere.

 

[Billrog]

Nice project great job of building it looks very useful.

 

[Ford850]

What's the wheel for that's attached to the engine bumper? Does it swivel down to balance the tractor when you don't have an attachment on it? You're giving me some good ideas.

 

[NibbanaFarm]

Yes, it's a transport wheel. I originally made it so I could use the tractor for dragging stuff. A pin holds it in position up or down. You can get a good look at it in these pictures.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/2-wheeled-tractors/325679-pullin-time.html?highlight=
If you frequently change implements it's real nice to have.

For the mounting bracket, I just split a piece of pipe lengthwise (I think it was 1 1/4) and clamped those pieces to the tractor frame. Then welded a flat plate between them to make it fit up perfectly to the tractor frame.

 

[Byrdnyrd]

That's pretty cool!! I had a bunch of Gravelys and attachments before I bought my Tractor. They are unbelievable machines! I just got tired of wrestling a 600 pound machine around my property. My tractor has a reclining seat!!!
Cheers,
BN