Forklift Ideas

[HzEmall]

Post your pictures of different things and different attachments you have made for your forklifts to use them for things other then lifting pallets etc.

Wanted to figure out a way to use mine for moving my trailer in and out of the shop each day so it's secured at night.

Anything else you use them for?

 

[930dreamer]

Re: Forklift Idea's

I have an industrial storage rack with a lift base, it has three side with rails and I use it for changing lights bulbs, installing ceiling fan etc. Some forks have a hole for a trailer ball.

 

[bimmer1980]

I built a spreader beam from two pieces of angle iron. I used the spreader on my forklift for lifting and setting all of my 28' attic trusses for my garage.

I also used it for lifting and setting the various dormer walls and gable end walls.

The forklift is one of my best purchases.....

 

[HzEmall]

what kind of trailer?
i grew-up with a forklift, it had holes in end of the fork prongs to simple hand-tighten a 2" ball through it.. we moved things for over 30 years with the forks, the holes never made a weakspot in the fork. (the holse were torched-in to the fork).
Today, I cannot say what the dimensions were on those forks, though.

Just a 20' flat deck trailer

 

[Joe69]

Here's a pic of the hitch I made for the forks on my baby Bobcat. We have a similar hitch on our John Deere 482 forklift at work. We use it to move trailers, and it can be used for lifting. A hole through a fork, and the rectangular tubing allows a pin to be dropped in for quick and easy attachment. I can install and remove it in seconds.

Joe

 

[bobadame]

Here's a Big Joe in the back of my old Ford. The attachment is a Harbor Freight pickup bed hoist mounted to a reciever that slides onto the forks. Makes a handy little crane.

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

............

 

[Bobf]

I have an old Toyota which only goes up 10' but it still comes in very handy. There is a hole in the right side fork where I bolt a ball for pulling trailers around (tear drop & and small utility)
I welded up some lg rectangular steel and some smaller stuff and made a small slip on crane for lifting stuff, such as taking a body off the frame, picking up rear ends, motors etc.
My latest is a small cage (32"X48") deck plate with 42" high railing I use to get me up 10' to use my long poles ( 10 -16')for tree trimming around the yard.

 

[IndyGarage]

Forklift is great for moving trailers - you can put them right where you want them.

I have a device I made - copied from a guy I bought one of my forklifts from; my forklift has 42 inch forks. I have a 42 inch long piece of channel steel that drops onto the top of one of the forks. I boxed the end of it so it can't lift off the tip of the fork and put a loop of 1/2 rebar on the other end which slides under the fork, so it won't tip off with a bunch of cantilever weight.

On the topside of the tip end, I welded a trailer hitch receiver - HF model with a pretty big step plate plus slots for the safety chains. I usually hood a small motorcycle strap through one of the safety chain hooks and run it back to the forklift load apron. I normally leave a 2 inch ball drawbar in it, but I also have a tow hook I can use as a cherry picker and a 2 5/16 ball if I need it.

I can slide it on the fork in about 10 seconds pull the strap tight, and run over and pick up a trailer and maneuver it wherever I want. I often use it to lift heavy objects in "cherry picker" mode. I recently bought a car hauler trailer which was rusty and I used this thing to pick one end of the trailer 6 feet off the ground so I could how rusty it was on the underside - (I did use safety jacks)

That thing is indispensable.

 

[Bobf]

Here's some pix showing the two attachments I made for my little Toyota 2F13.
The small cage has two 5X2.5" rect welded on the bottom for the forks to slide thru, and a hole in the right fork lines up with the bottom plate to secure it in position.