2018 - Volume #42, Issue #3, Page #18
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Garden Tractor Forklift
“I can’t do heavy lifting any more, so I made a forklift for my model 318 Deere garden tractor,” says Carey. “Now I load stuff on a pallet and then move the pallets with the tractor.”
The forklift does a lot more than just move pallets, thanks to the modified snow blade lift and multi-function forks. Carey retained the snow blade’s hydraulic cylinder and mounting bracket attached to the tractor frame. He used scrap steel to build a triangular base with side plates on the wide end that pin to the bracket.
He removed the clevis-like plates the hydraulic ram was pinned to on the snow blade and welded them to the front end of the triangular plate. With the ram pinned in place, retracting or extending it pivots the plate on the bracket.
Carey’s forklift consists of forks welded to the bottoms of two 1 1/4-in. square, vertical legs. They in turn are welded to a 3 1/2 by 1 1/4-in. wide crossbar with a snout that fits over the tip of the triangular base.
“If I want to detach the forklift, I just remove two bolts and back away,” says Carey.
Each fork consists of 2 lengths of 3/8-in. thick and 1 1/4-in. wide steel with filler plate at either end to reinforce the forks. Holes drilled in the ends of the forks let Carey attach a long narrow steel plate with a hitch ball.
“If I want to move equipment, I drop bolts through holes in the cross plate and the holes in forks,” says Carey.
Carey uses the fork holes to attach other components such as a lawn rake and a potato lifter. The lawn rake is 4 ft. wide.
“I used hay baler pickup tines for the rake,”says Carey.
If using the forklift for pallets or other materials, he can chain them down using steel rings mounted to the top of the vertical legs. Chains running through the rings can be hooked to a ring attached to the crossplate on the legs.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dale Carey, 22838 140th Ave., Davenport, Iowa 52806 (ph 563 285-9713).
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