Forklift Mast Mounts On Deere Tractor

Forklift Mast Mounts On Deere Tractor TRACTORS Loaders 34-4-43 "It's a real back saver, and I spent less than $200 to build it," says Dallas Shearer, Stapleton, Neb., about the forklift mast he mounted on the front-end loader on his Deere 3020 tractor. Shearer went to the local scrap yard and bought an old electrical warehouse forklift for $200. He removed the fork head from the mast and welded 4 metal brackets to it, allowing him to pin the forklift to his loader with the bucket removed. He used rectangular tubing to make an upper bracket that pins onto the loader's bucket cylinders, and sq. tubing to make a lower bracket that pins onto the loader arms, allowing the forklift to be tilted up or down. "It really comes in handy," says Shearer. "The forks are rated at 3,000 lbs. and work great for lifting big round bales, as the forks slide under the flat side of the bale with ease. Commercial forklifts of comparable capacity sell for $1,600 or more and are rated at only 2,000 lbs. Also, they don't have a guard to protect the operator like my forklift does. My tractor loader has a high reach so someone standing on a platform can use it to change light bulbs in yard lights, do roofing work, etc. "Another advantage is that the forklift is only 4 ft. wide, so I can use it to load and unload anything on a pallet from the bed of my pickup. It's narrow enough that I can get the forklift clear over the pickup's axle and balance the weight of whatever I load into the back of the pickup. Some commercial models are so wide you can't even get the forklift past the pickup's tailgate." The forklift is well balanced, says Shearer. "I can set the forklift on top of a pallet, remove 4 pins from the mounting brackets, and back away with no problem," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dallas Shearer, 2699 N. Hwy. 83, North Platte, Neb. 69101 (ph 308 530-2481; movinonup1@peoplepc.com).

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