Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Bob La Londe <none@none.com99>
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking
Subject: Re: metal WORKING today
Date: Mon, 19 May 2025 10:21:49 -0700
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On 5/18/2025 6:46 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
> "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:100dvck$18gr0$1@dont-email.me...
> 
> FYI:  Slip on bucket forks are really handy on a front loader.  If you
> only need them once in a while its no big deal to put them on and take
> them off, and they are pretty cheap.  They have a couple issues, but if
> you don't use them often you can live with it.
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> My younger neighbor has slip-on forks for his loader and tried to use 
> them to stack the logs the tree company left in a tangle in my yard. He 
> found they were useless for lifting all but the smallest logs, though he 
> could knock the larger logs around so he played with them for a while. 

Bucket forks or even a bucket swap fork are still limited to the 
capability rating of the tractor.  Typically for a compact, but real, 
working tractor that's 750-800 pounds.  Basically more than the weight 
of a bucket full of dirt.  There is a safety margin.  Having pushed mine 
to its limits I know it will lift around 1500 lbs through its range, and 
lift 2000lbs a few inches and stop.  This does not mean its inferior to 
your home made stack up.  It means it has design limits.  Your stacked 
up tool may be able to lift 4000lbs or even a lot more, but it might not 
be practical for "knocking around" an 8500 lb container.  You bump an 
8500 pound container with a 6000+lb tractor and the container is going 
to move.  Bumping around is a legitimate way of moving things.  LOL.

The home made stackup might not be so good at lifting pallets off of a 
truck.  That can a new compressor out of my pickup bed for the shop, and 
placing it right where I want it a couple hundred feet around back by 
the door where its going.  It could be a pallet of salt for a water 
softner, or the better fork attachment that will replace it.  Sure you 
"can" unload things with non optimal tools.  I once unloaded a welder 
from a semi truck with a cherry picker, by running a pair of lifting 
slings through the pallet.  The tractor forks with its paltry 750lb 
"rated" lifting limit would still be the better tool for the job.

I recently lifted/dragged a boat off a trailer and set it on the ground 
in order to repair the trailer.  Sure I could have done that with a home 
made stack up, but it was much easier and faster to do it with the 
tractor.  When I pull the engine on the Bronco I'm considering making 
road worthy again I may use the tractor, I may use a chain fall and an 
A-from, or I might use the cherry picker.  Its going to depend on what 
is most convenient at the time.  A the moment there is an outboard 
hanging from my cherry picker, so it would be the least convenient.

> I 
> weighed one he could barely lift at the specified capacity of his 
> tractor, proving its hydraulics were still in good internal condition, 
> if not so pretty externally.

They can generally lift twice their rated capacity if you have a counter 
weight on the rear to prevent nose diving, and air up all the tires to 
prevent 3 wheeling.

> Then I set up my manual hoists and neatly stacked all of them on blocks 
> to cover for winter, including two at ~25' long and over 4000 Lbs each.

Sounds like a good tool.



-- 
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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