Pallet fork / frame compatibility

[WinterDeere]

I suspect not all forks have the same strength too, I know you will check the ratings.

Oh, we could go down a rabbit hole here, Scootr! I've spent the last few evenings running my present 3-point pallet fork assembly through a full FEA modeling package (CST = $50k per seat), looking at it's various weak points and displacements, while considering just welding JDQA brackets onto that, rather than buying a new fork assembly. Ultimately, the thing pushing me toward a new set is that the old set cannot go narrow enough to grab a lot of the pallets I use, and also the old set is only rated by the manufacturer at 1500 lb.

In any case, the new frame appears to be rated at 3000# by the few sellers who are stamping that particular model with a rating, and the forks are rated 4000#. The boom break-out force on my loader is 2417 lb. at 20" off the pivots, or 3327 lb. at the pivots. The lift is only 1650 and 2125 lb., at the same locations.

If I get the spare time, I might actually model up the new frame, throw it into the simulator, and see how it looks. I was able to find some really simple mods to make the old frame vastly stronger, as these manufacturers just can't afford the software to do this type of analysis, and they always over-build some areas while ignoring other critical weld points. But it takes several days of work to model, simulate, analyze, improve... it's a computationally-heavy process.