Making Fork Extensions, Box or channel section?

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Would guess the op feels it’s much nicer and easier and safer to move containers with the forks underneath with the boom right down and fully retracted than having the boom in the air half way extended with a box hanging and swinging on chains though.

Most fork extensions I’ve seen and used have been cold rolled channel with extra 12mm flat bars welded inside to strengthen the channel along its length with the front tappered as mentioned above.

Ha ha I’ve get a few sets of really good lifting chains I got given, problem is by time there on as tight as I can get them and go to boom it up it’s barely off the floor with boom fully out or it on front tyres of teleported ?
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Would need to be 100% safe as would probably be left in a situation where general public walk dogs a lot of the time. Hadn’t really thought of a way to leave it in situ but could be an option.
We used to have and area with a girder at back to hold back of box, you reveresed in then we had 2hydralic rams for near front of box and a little hydraulic hand pump to lift rams up to get box up just off wagon, worked really well and was stable too

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Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
If you are making your own keep them out of sight during a Loler inspection 'coz they wont be certified.
I believe you can self certify but specking the steel making a plan or something and putting safe working load marking on them. That was advice from a loler inSpector rightly or wrongly no doubt some keyboard warrior will be along to tell me it’s all wrong ?
 
mine are 120x60 box with a 50x10 flat stiched down one side of each and have never bend and have had a lot of weight on them beating the cap of the machines they been on ,,, as for testing was told to test them they will have to be machine persific as to match lifting cap and load center of machine they are on ?
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Struggling to find some extensions that are 9ft long to remove a Stewart livestock box from the trailer with out needing 3 vehicles (2 lifting and 1 driving out). What’s everyone done for similar?

I've a pair of fork extenders I made out of 150x75 pfc,I pick my box up with the loadall and sit it straight on the deck,leaving the extenders in the box for when it goes back on.

Biggest problem with the extenders is borrowers not fetching them back.(n)
 

Little squeak

Member
Location
Lancashire
I used to use Acrojacks as detailed by Highland Mule to lift my cattle container on and off the wagon they were great when I was in my twenties but would be very hard work now, the ground also had to be level preferably concrete. One day I backed the telescopic into them and knocked the whole thing on the ground. I had to buy a pair of fork extensions to lift it up. These were 2nd hand and made from 150mm by 75mm channel 2m long. When I saw how physically easier it was to use a telescopic I went over to using that all the time. Initially after unbolting the cattle container I put the forks through the open air vents to lift the container to place blocks of wood underneath at each side then lift it up with the forks under the container. Being only 2m long hasn’t been a problem for the extensions the thing to watch out for is getting the balance point in the middle as even with the forks set to maximum width it isn’t a good idea to drive it too far. It does all seem safer stored on the ground rather than on acrojacks and it does give you the opportunity to put it on vehicles of a different height. My telescopic will lift 2.7 tonnes and the box is 18ft long aluminium I don’t think it would lift one much longer as its the weight dynamics of it being so much forward in front of you. The extensions have never bent and even if you tried to pick something heavy up with just the tips I feel the machine would just say no.
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
well i made a pair from high strength s355jr channel 125/65 snug fit on my tines but literally fit like a glove so pretty good. If you had bigger tine def go 150.

made them just over 8 ft and cut slots so the brace down side of forks and welded 10m under channel near this end to create pockets.

go under container sweet but the damb jcb wont lift it! will get it up tiny bit but then crowds

not quite enough beef to crowd it properly, as you lift it tilts the crowd ram...

still fork extensions work a treat, every cloud and all...
 

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