Storing Bobcat Attachments on Shelves?

[Gadgetnut]

Last year I built an addition on the end of my shop for attachments and I'm running short of floor space. I'm considering getting some heavy duty warehouse shelves, like six feet high by twelve or eighteen feet wide... something like this... any thoughts or ideas where you'd get shelves like this? Thanks.

 

[radman1]

Those are pallet rack shelves. Used in lots of businesses and warehouses. You can buy them new or if you keep watch they are on auctions. I have several of them. Mine are 10 and 8' lengths and 8' high. They can get 16-20 high. Most are 4' deep and some are 3' deep. They can have different weight ratings. I use them for shelving and for storage or equipment. Buckets and grapples fit on them great. I also put my aerator, snow blower and auger bits on them. I try to stay under 1000 lbs on each shelf. I leave the bottom open without any shelf and just use the ground for the heavy and more bulky attachments. Next shelf is about 3 ft high and top shelf around 6-7 feet on my 8' tall racks. On those items that don't have a skid steer attachment plate, I will put the attachment on a pallet and then use my forks to place the pallet on the rack. I use 2x4s or 2x6s for the bottom of the shelf with 4x8'x1/2" OSB for the bottom of each rack. The OSB keeps small items from falling through. Sometimes, I will screw the OSB to the 2x4s to keep them from shifting.

You won't find many 12-18' wide. Just too long to support much weight. Also the longer length is more prone to spread the shelves apart.

 

[Mtngrancher]

I just ordered from the following firm. I got the 4' deep, 8' high uprights with 8' beams. I'm planning on using 4X8 foot plywood, 2 sheets screwed together, exterior grade, as the shelving material. Hopefully my stuff will arrive this week. Less than $800 for the material.

PayLessKC.com Pallet Racking & Supplies.

 

[aczlan]

Look in the Buisness section of your local Craigslist site, I see 2-3 sets of pallet racks go through mine every month

Aaron Z

 

[radman1]

I just ordered from the following firm. I got the 4' deep, 8' high uprights with 8' beams. I'm planning on using 4X8 foot plywood, 2 sheets screwed together, exterior grade, as the shelving material. Hopefully my stuff will arrive this week. Less than $800 for the material.

PayLessKC.com Pallet Racking & Supplies.

I would urge you to use several 2X's for the bottom and not just plywood jif you are planning to have any significant weight on the shelves. The plywood will bow with time under the weight and fall through the supports. Even 2 sheets of plywood will bow with time. With the 2X's, you will only need one sheet of plywood or even OSB. Find some scrap 2x's if possible and cut to lenghth.

 

[Gadgetnut]

Thanks, everyone, great suggestions and discussion. I checked my local Craigslist and found several pallet rack options for sale locally. The four foot depth sounds most useful. The rack sections appear to be about eight feet wide and I was going to get two or three 8' wide sections, with two shelves on each. As radman suggests, leave heaviest tools on the concrete floor beneath the first shelf. Looks like a very useful solution for me. Thanks again.

 

[BarryinMN]

I ringed the pole barn 40x60x12 back in '02. Mixed uprights & beam lengths. Palletized (used pallets) all materials & bought a small gas forklift.
Layout includes shelf heights to accommodate cargo trailer, wood chipper & other things to go against the back wall. All uprights are 42" and all shelves are wire decked. Wire decking has the strength & no place for dust, dirt or critters to nest.

Have such things as a dozer engine on a bottom shelf and a snowmobile on a top 8' high shelf. The racking parts are stamped with a load rating.

Outside on the back wall I added 16' uprights and 14'+12'+8'+ beams. Wire decking again has no weather issues.

 

[Gadgetnut]

Sounds great, Barry. Do you have any photos at all of your installation that you could link us to online? In the area I am considering installing pallet racks, I have an extremely high roof, and now I'm thinking about putting in 12, 16, or 18 foot high racks...

 

[DEWFPO]

This where I've been looking.

http://www.shelving-direct.com/family/bulk_rack_units_with_steel_decking/316.htm

DEWFPO

 

[BarryinMN]

No direct photo's. Here is a JD A being fixed; on left is a rack with 4 shelves, top is the snowmobile rt front spring/ski is visible...

My layout is all materials palletized & racked including lumber 20' feet long. Bottom shelves are min 6" above the floor around perimeter.

Ended up with most shelf spacing 4' for furniture etc. So have a skid of extra 8' beams and decking from my original paper layout.

Everything else is on wheels. tool boxes, eq, work benches, carts. Makes for fast maintenance, no hiden corners. Acquired a 4hp gas powered floor sweeper with hepa filters.

Some caveats: 8' span fits 2 #2 48x40 skids - ok if nothing hangs over!! The higher you go the worse the visibility. Stepladders are dangerous, I acquired wheeled stairs to access small stuff overhead. Also have a boomlift to fly sideways say over a parked dumptruck to pick some copper pipe.

Wanna buy some ladders?

 

[radman1]

Those high racks are going to require a forklift to reach the top. Do you have one?

 

[Gadgetnut]

I have a lot of uses for a forklift but don't have one yet. I would plan to use the higher reaches of my new racks for long term storage, not things I would need to bring down very often. For example I have a stack of lumber down at the other end of the garage about this same footprint that I would like to get off the floor and I might put the long lumber pieces up on top of the new pallet racks.

 

[radman1]

A friend of mine modified a 3 pt forklift for the front of his skid steer by adding a skid steer attachment plate. He uses it for lifting light loads at construction sites and on his pallet racks. You could consider that for your toolcat.

 

[Gadgetnut]

Do you simply mean fork lift "forks" attaching to the ToolCat's BobTatch (skidsteer) attachment plate or something different? I have the Bobcat "forklift" attachment, which doesn't go up and down like a forklift, it's just two sideways adjustable forks that travel with the ToolCat's front arm. The problem with this is that the forklift's maximum height is only about six and a half feet above the floor, which is too low for a lot of my needs.

 

[radman1]

No, it was more like a true fork lift but his were designed for 3pt tractor. When finished it looked something like this -

Buy Skidsteer Tele-Fork System from your online best source. We are Skid Steer Solutions and we are your #1 choice for Skidsteer Tele-Fork System. Save time and money by shopping online.

Or you could buy something like the above picture. His would lift near 16-20' including the lift of the boom.

 

[Rolando]

Or you could get something like this!

 

[Gadgetnut]

Interesting. I like the idea of the outrigger tires that would help stabilize the high load side to side. Another photo of the same load up high:

 

[radman1]

Or you could get something like this!

That is a cool idea for people who need real height and good stability.

 

[Rara Avis]

This is the company's site... Forkster.com - All Terrain Forklift Attachment for Skid / Mini Skid Loaders

 

[mdl6]

I put these pallet rack shelves in last week. I had thought about them for awhile and had had the stuff on small dollies. The dollies worked fine but i was running out of floor space.
I got these racks locally from a material handling place. They are technically "used" but I think they were purchased but not put up. The uprights are 10' high and 42" deep. The beams are tear-drop style and 96". The wire rack shelves were new. I got 'em all for $625 tax included.
For reference, the bucket is 68", plow blade 90", sprayer 60 gallons, aerator 72".
The second shelf is 72" off the ground and the 5610 worked fine for that height.
Mike