Cub Cadet Turned Into Walk-Behind "Mini Forklift"

Cub Cadet Turned Into Walk-Behind "Mini Forklift" MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Forklifts 29-3-4 Want to get everything you can out of your Cub Cadet? Then take a look at what Dwayne Lowe did. He turned a 1982 model 1582 hydrostatic Cub Cadet into a mini forklift that's a cross between a loader tractor and a utility cart. Instead of a seat, it has a 30 by 48-in. dump bed fitted with forks. A pair of hydraulic cylinders tilts the bed up or down. The rig can haul loads up to 1,000 lbs. He bought the tractor, minus an engine, at a mower salvage yard for $300. He removed the seat and shortened the hood, equipping it with a pull-start Briggs & Stratton 8 hp engine. He unbolted the steering wheel and re-mounted it on front of the tractor, re-connecting it to a pair of rebuilt tie rods. He also repositioned the hydrostat control lever next to the steering wheel, inverting the lever to reverse the gears. The dump bed is built from angle iron and expanded metal. Its cylinders are powered by a booster pump driven off the tractor's hydrostatic transmission. The lever that was originally used to lift the tractor's mower deck up and down, is now used to control the forks and dump bed. Lowe can walk behind the tractor when operating it or he can stand on a small platform which helps counterbalance large loads. "It gets a lot of different reactions from people. I hear everything from, æyou ruined a perfectly good Cub,' to æthat's pretty cool,'" says Lowe. "I spent a total of about $500 to build it." Lowe has a small amusement ride business and uses the mini forklift to load equipment onto trailers. The bags roll up like a big tarp and weigh up to 1,000 lbs. "If I want, I can replace the forks with a dump box to haul dirt, rocks, plants, small bales, and so forth. Lowe had to make some other modifications to the tractor to convert it into a mini forklift. "I bumped the hydraulic line pressure up from 500 to 1,500 psi, which provided enough hydraulic pressure to operate the cylinders. I also had to reverse the output of the engine in order to operate the hydrostatic transmission. The throttle is still on the dash. I grab the hydraulic deck arm on one side of the steering column and push on it to dump the load. Pulling back on the lever brings the deck back down to the horizontal position." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dwayne Lowe, 88 400th St., Chanute, Kansas 66720 (ph 620 433-1559).

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