Need forklift advice

For moving things around with forks, a skid steer loader would be much more flexible than a tractor. They will turn on a dime and can pick up a lot more than tractor forks. As Strantor said though, they ain't cheap. Plus, they are more maintenance intensive than a tractor. That said, I wouldn't trade mine for anything except maybe a larger 'dozer.
 
I have a Branson 3510 tractor with a front loader that I made a fork lift attachment that replaces the bucket. The fork lift or bucket goes in an arc so the lifting capabilities decrease near ground level. With 4 wheel drive it will go most places which can be troublesome on really rough ground, things fall off the pallet. It is relatively maneuverable but requires concentration on the work at hand. I like the convenience of having an excavator or fork lift.
Have a good day
Ray
 
strantor said:
I want a bobcat SO bad, but the prices are outrageous.
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They can also be tricky to drive, or at least they were 30-40+ years ago, not hydraulic. I still remember one of our mechanics trying to move one without any previous training or experience. He immediately ran into the wall, hard, and the recoil from that made him pull the handles, and the acceleration made him go forward again to bounce off the wall again. And again, and quite a few more times. We were all screaming at him "LET GO". But he couldn't hear us over the engine. He finally figured it out and let go. He was WIDE awake. We couldn't stop laughing all day. I am glad I learned how to drive one AFTER watching that spectacle. I was VERY careful...

First rule of Bobcats for me -- when in doubt or trouble, let go of the controls.
 
I'm not real big on "skid steer" loaders. I prefer several attachments for my Cat. 1 three point. If there is room, the front bucket will reach on the roof of an old house with bolt-on forks. When things are tight, or the load real heavy, the three point has several attachments from a "skimmer" bucket to a fairly long reach pole. Any and all of them have shackles for a chain or come-along to budge stuff.

My tractor is old, and two wheel drive, but I never had it stuck. Slipped a few times when I hooked on to a tree stump that was tighter than the tractor was heavy. My bad judgement there. A home-made explosive device broke the stump loose. Another story, though. Tractor tires are cheap compared to other machines, too. The hydraulics usually have a way to tap into, even for cheaper or smaller tractors. Some stuff is bought, some is "imagineered", with regards to Disney for instituting a useful word.

With a more modern 4 wheel drive tractor, front bucket, and some thought, you will find not only a solution to your existing problems, but an easier way to handle things that usually are done manually. My input only, but I would vote for a small farm tractor any day over a more specialized machine. I live in the older city by the way, not out in the country. Although I do have a place out there, most of my work is local.
Bill Hudson​
 
Bi11Hudson said:
I'm not real big on "skid steer" loaders. I prefer several attachments for my Cat. 1 three point. If there is room, the front bucket will reach on the roof of an old house with bolt-on forks. When things are tight, or the load real heavy, the three point has several attachments from a "skimmer" bucket to a fairly long reach pole. Any and all of them have shackles for a chain or come-along to budge stuff.

My tractor is old, and two wheel drive, but I never had it stuck. Slipped a few times when I hooked on to a tree stump that was tighter than the tractor was heavy. My bad judgement there. A home-made explosive device broke the stump loose. Another story, though. Tractor tires are cheap compared to other machines, too. The hydraulics usually have a way to tap into, even for cheaper or smaller tractors. Some stuff is bought, some is "imagineered", with regards to Disney for instituting a useful word.

With a more modern 4 wheel drive tractor, front bucket, and some thought, you will find not only a solution to your existing problems, but an easier way to handle things that usually are done manually. My input only, but I would vote for a small farm tractor any day over a more specialized machine. I live in the older city by the way, not out in the country. Although I do have a place out there, most of my work is local.
Bill Hudson​
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Yes, the small farm tractor is the direction I'm leaning. Next week I'll waste some people's time at the nearby mahindra and Kubota dealerships and figuring out what size tractor I need and what features. Then I'll probably go buy a used one.

Maybe you can help out a stranger tractor salesman and answer me this: how big if a tractor do I need to lift a 1000lb pallet and put it on a 9' high pallet rack?
 
strantor said:
I got a great deal on a forklift through one of my customers. I don't know much about forklifts and I think I might have gotten something unsuitable for my needs. My plans for this thing were to bring heavy stuff to/from the yard and the shop. This forklift won't drive 3ft across dry dirt or grass before it gets "stuck."

The first and most obvious problem is the tiny and smooth warehouse tires. They suck so bad that I swear I saw them lose traction sitting on dry level pavement with the forklift turned off.

The other problem is the forklift has a differential which isn't of the "limited slip" variety, and no suspension. So any time it gets on a surface of unspecified flatness, one wheel comes of the ground, and that wheel is invariably a drive wheel, and the drive wheel just spins in the air. "Stuck"

Do I need to send this forklift back? Trade it in? Is the problem with the forklift or the operator (me)? Is there anything I can do to make this forklift work for me?

Note: the forklift is "stuck" in all attached pictures. It got "stuck" 5 times on the trip from the street to the shop on the temporary wooden driveway.
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Yup, that's a warehouse forklift, but looks like a nice one. Not good at all for off road. Mine works fine on my hard pack gravel drive, but definitely will not work off of the hard pack gravel, it will get stuck in the loose gravel at the drive edges. There is a reason I have two forklifts, one for use in the shop and drive, the other is a 4WD all terrain machine.

Nothing you can do to make it work off of the drive. If you want to run across the grass, you have going to need a forklift designed for that purpose.
 
I have 1958 Farmall Cub with a loader. It has assisted me with countless cords of fire wood, lifted many engines that range from a big block Chevy to complete v6 outboard motors. Other tasks are snow removal, and mowing the lawn. I find that if it cannot lift an object, I can push or roll it. I pushed my 3000lb mill across my garage floor. I couldn't imagine life around here without it.
 
Answering your "How big" questions can lead to bad results, but I believe the dealers have that type of specifications. They also sell used equipment. Perhaps that information is on the internet too. A safety margin of 10% popped into my mind, no real basis for that however. I don't believe my Branson 3510 will lift 1000 pounds from the ground. One experience I had involved lifting a box of tools out of the rear end of a freight truck but when lowering it to the ground the rear wheels of the tractor came off the ground. If the dealers sell front loaders they will probably tell you the capacity of the bucket (which is a good thing to know), from that you can calculate the approximate lifting capability. One table in the Caterpillar hand book list dry loose sand at 2400 Lbs. per cubic yard, damp sand at 2850Lbs. per cubic yard and wet sand at 3100 bs. per cubic yard. Wet clay is 2800 Lbs. per cubic yard. I would use the lessor of these weights to calculate the lifting capacity. Some unknown reason now tells me to use 2100 Lbs. per cubic yard in order to allow for the weight of the lifting frame. If I have confused you PM me.
Have a good day
Ray
 
I am still considering the tractor (especially all of its added utility) but reading the lift capacities on these buckets has me leaning once again toward a forklift. In order to match the 5,000lb lifting capacity of this little forklift, I would need a tractor of probably 90hp, which wouldn't even probably fit in my shop and I would have to sell one of my kids to afford it.

So what do you gents think of this forklift? The seller assures me that it will drive across dry ground, and its appearance does suggest a higher aptitude for off-the-pavement operation than my little warehouse forklift, but it still isn't an "off road forklift."
 
A tractor will not have as much maneuverability in your shop as some of the other options if it is at all tight in there, most of our shops are jam packed with machines and stuff.
 
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