Homemade Attachments for Forklifts Skidsteers and Other Equipment

[Muckin_Slusher]

I do care about the trees. Mostly taking branches off that over hang the driveway and are hitting vehicles. Figure making something that bolts onto the thumb and shears past the bucket side may work. I have an old, non repairable sickle mower that I could steal some teeth from, or I could shape a piece of steel into a paper-shear style solution .

The idea of that trailer is cool, but I’m on ravines, so it won’t work at all.

I wasn't suggesting the whole trailer, just the sharpened V to rip limbs. You could attach one or two on the bucket (one on each side) and would probably be able to rip limbs off. It would be more for road maintenance than landscaping, and would also be the simpler solution rather than hydraulics and close tolerances.

I think you should think about whether you would want a bypass cutter (like paper scissors) or an anvil type (where the sharpened cutter bumps into a large flat surface, possibly rubberized---conveyor belting?).

The bypass cutter would need lots of rigidity and accuracy and would be finnicky and fragile. The anvil type cutter could be much more substantial (heavy) and wouldn't need much accuracy.

Looking forward to seeing what you make.

 

[rockota]

I wasn't suggesting the whole trailer, just the sharpened V to rip limbs. You could attach one or two on the bucket (one on each side) and would probably be able to rip limbs off. It would be more for road maintenance than landscaping, and would also be the simpler solution rather than hydraulics and close tolerances.

I think you should think about whether you would want a bypass cutter (like paper scissors) or an anvil type (where the sharpened cutter bumps into a large flat surface, possibly rubberized---conveyor belting?).

The bypass cutter would need lots of rigidity and accuracy and would be finnicky and fragile. The anvil type cutter could be much more substantial (heavy) and wouldn't need much accuracy.

Looking forward to seeing what you make.

Very good points!

The anvil cutter would also be much more forgiving in the accuracy of the fab work. And also wouldn’t need to be sharp.

Will fart around with it this weekend. I have a bunch of trees that need trimming next to the house… and the pole saw won’t get me high enough/far enough over the ravine.

 

[Steve300xcw]

We always just used the side of the bucket for brushing a road, if we didnt have a flail handy.

 

[AlxJ64]

Very good points!

The anvil cutter would also be much more forgiving in the accuracy of the fab work. And also wouldn’t need to be sharp.

Will fart around with it this weekend. I have a bunch of trees that need trimming next to the house… and the pole saw won’t get me high enough/far enough over the ravine.

I'm interested to see where this goes. I maintain a whole bunch of camp trails through the woods and get tired of the pruning game / I can't walk as far as I used to. In my younger days it would be a nice afternoon to just walk with the loppers and a backpack of beer and hack away... now, I can't really pull that off.

I was trying to think of some sort of sickle bar tree shear / heavy hedge shear that I can run on my skidsteer. It can traverse most of the trails where the limbing work needs to occur. I bought an old sickle mower to hack up but it was evidently something rare so I sold it.

I have seen some pics of commercial hedge row trimming machinery used in Europe and it is shearing bar based. However, the mention of the anvil above makes me think about some sort of series of rollers and discblades that have springs holding them against another anvil roller. Then you can just capture some limbs and "can-opener" cut them. Hrmm.

 

[WoodburyZuk]

Been using the mini-ex thumb to break some branches off of trees, pull vines, etc.

Started thinking that a bolt on attachment to the thumb that creates a shear action against the bucket side might be a great idea to make trimming trees, etc easier.

Search on interwebs for something hasn’t turned up anything commercial yet, though my googleFu May suck.

This only needs to cut 3” max branches, so a forestry attachment is off the table.

Ideas? Thoughts?

I think something like this does exist. I have seen it down the YouTube rabbit hole. I’ve seen guys modify a thumb to make a log splitter, essentially a big knife.

Lemme do some digging and report back.

 

[rockota]

farted around with this today. had a piece of 4x2x.188 tubing, a set of ready-lift Tacoma U-bolts (these are horrible, BTW... ) and an old lawnmower blade. Put maybe 40 minutes into it...

Net/net. kind of works. Does not work well on small branches. works better on larger.

I'm going to redo it and build a curved blade that helps keep the branch in place and also sits closer to the bucket edge.

 

[Ravenbar]

Post your homemade attachments.

Built a crane for my skid steer. Machine is rated around 2500 lbs load, 5000 lbs tipping. Mast is three stage telescopic. Has a lifting eye at the tip for slings, or can be used with a winch with the pulley at the tip. Using the winch would allow me to keep the boom vertical while lifting, thus avoiding having a heavy load very far in front of the machine (and tipping over...).

Here's a lift at full extension. With the boom like this it measures 19 feet from the sheave wheel to the quick attach plate. I'm lifting a core of concrete that was drilled to gain access to a bank vault that had it's lock mechanism malfunction. By volume the core weighs 375 lbs.

You can see there's not too much deflection in the boom. This is a worst case scenario with the boom fully horizontal. I drove back and forth with this load and slammed on the brakes. With this load I'm not even close to tipping or being unstable.

By centering the sheave wheel in the tubing I can use the full range of motion (boom horizontal and boom fully vertical) without fear of binding the rope up.

As a full time skidsteer operator(Cat 262D primarily, some in a 225B), double check the limits of your machine.

The rated weights are at the hinge. The leverage of an extended boom likely far exceeds the lifting capacity of the machine a lot lower than your'd expect. I know on 262D rated lift capacity is 2700lbs without counterweight, 2950 with counterweight, tipover load of 5400lbs. As I've only run Cat machines, that's all I'm familiar with.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Here’s one for you guys. I didn’t make it. Borrowed it from my Captain at the firehouse. A home made 3 point ripper tooth for the back of a tractor.

Thing is heavy as shit! Couple chunks of I beam and some heavy plate all welded together. It’s rusty cause it’s been sitting in his side yard for two years since he used it last. I mentioned I had to do some trenching for electrical for our upcoming solar install and I was fixing to rent a mini excavator to do the job. Captain said he had this behemoth sitting in his yard and I was welcome to borrow it. Said it works great for tench work cause it breaks it all up and makes it easy to just scoop out with a shovel afterwards. Should save me a good chunk of change so I’ll give it a go. Hopefully get to it this week in which case I’ll post pics of it in use when I do.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Looks like something people use in ground that doesnt have rock in it

 

[92 Green YJ]

I’ll find out in a few days. Need to tear up a 35 or so foot run between my carport and my pole barn across my gravel parking area. They need the trench to run the lines from the so,ar panels to where they are planning to put the inverters in the pole barn. Will also run 2 runs of Cat 6. One for the so,ar monitoring and the second one just because I may as well while I’m in there. May put a mesh node out there for shits and giggles someday. And I’m gonna replace the current dead power run to the pole barn while I’m at it so I can put battery tenders back on the quads and the mower

 

[Steve300xcw]

Keep in mind that that thing is stuck in the ground if you need to turn. Its already been broke once

 

[aczlan]

I’ll find out in a few days. Need to tear up a 35 or so foot run between my carport and my pole barn across my gravel parking area. They need the trench to run the lines from the so,ar panels to where they are planning to put the inverters in the pole barn. Will also run 2 runs of Cat 6. One for the so,ar monitoring and the second one just because I may as well while I’m in there. May put a mesh node out there for shits and giggles someday. And I’m gonna replace the current dead power run to the pole barn while I’m at it so I can put battery tenders back on the quads and the mower

Is it being inspected? Will your inspector care if they don't see the conduit?
If not, put a chain on it after you chew through the trench a couple times and knife your conduit right into the trench.
If it is, you could use it for your low voltage conduits at least.

I used this to put in 3/4 inch PVC conduit last week, cut a slit in the end of the conduit and drilled a hole through it so I could stick the chain in and put the bolt through, then used the tractor to pull it in:

Aaron Z

 

[AKnate]

Keep in mind that that thing is stuck in the ground if you need to turn. Its already been broke once

Saw one broke off on a D10N from someone doing that on a cold day.

 

[Steve300xcw]

Rippers are going to break, thats just what they do. But that ones what, 3/4" at most?

 

[Cheapzuk]

Ripper I made for my skid steer. Mainly used to pull up rocks and soften up dirt bike tracks after it rains. $35 agri supply shanks have pulled up some 2-3’ rocks and still surviving.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Single blade ripper won't make a trench, but like aczlan said, that's basically how low voltage or no voltage utilities are put underground. Similar to how fiber is ran to houses in the last stretch.

Cheapzuk how well does that skid ripper work? Seems like the teeth are thin, and the machine light, for that kind of work. That being said, I'm not a farm boy, so I have no real world experience with such things, lol.

 

[aczlan]

Single blade ripper won't make a trench, but like aczlan said, that's basically how low voltage or no voltage utilities are put underground. Similar to how fiber is ran to houses in the last stretch

Yep, I've seen a fair number of people put a piece of conduit with a 90 in it on the back to direct bury wire (or something like sprinkler pipe to run low voltage wires in), usually ends up looking something like this:

Can the Brotek Ripper be used efficiently to dig trench for low voltage wire?

I am installing a gate opener and I have to dig a trench to bury power cable. Using the backhoe bucket seems an overkill and will ruin my lawn.

www.tractorbynet.com

Aaron Z

 

[92 Green YJ]

Yep, I've seen a fair number of people put a piece of conduit with a 90 in it on the back to direct bury wire (or something like sprinkler pipe to run low voltage wires in), usually ends up looking something like this:

Can the Brotek Ripper be used efficiently to dig trench for low voltage wire?

I am installing a gate opener and I have to dig a trench to bury power cable. Using the backhoe bucket seems an overkill and will ruin my lawn.

www.tractorbynet.com

Aaron Z

Now that’s a great idea! And I did buy direct burial Cat6

 

[aczlan]

Now that’s a great idea! And I did buy direct burial Cat6

I would run it in something (PEX, poly, something) so there is some protection from rocks.

Aaron Z

 

[Cheapzuk]

Single blade ripper won't make a trench, but like aczlan said, that's basically how low voltage or no voltage utilities are put underground. Similar to how fiber is ran to houses in the last stretch.

Cheapzuk how well does that skid ripper work? Seems like the teeth are thin, and the machine light, for that kind of work. That being said, I'm not a farm boy, so I have no real world experience with such things, lol.

It works really good. I have rocky soil, and i go slow to avoid bending the scarifiers. My skid steer weighs about 8000lbs. When I bend one I will gladly pay another 35 bucks for a new shank.

 

[Gregj50!!!!!]

Is it possible to pull conduit through the dirt like that???? That way you’re not possibly ruining your wire!!!! Just pull conduit and then run your wire in the conduit with almost no chance of damage!!!!

 

[aczlan]

Is it possible to pull conduit through the dirt like that???? That way you’re not possibly ruining your wire!!!! Just pull conduit and then run your wire in the conduit with almost no chance of damage!!!!

I ran about 40 feet of 3/4" PVC conduit to the pool chained to the single tooth ripper like that, have run more, but it depends on the conduit size.
Little Kubota B7500 in low range pulled it fine as long as the lump of sod it was pushing didn't jam the ripper up.

Aaron Z

 

[72Pstroke]

The local sprinkler guys use a vibrating plow real similar to what you have, and they pull all their sprinkler line in with it.
I don't know why it wouldn't work with conduit.

 

[aczlan]

The local sprinkler guys use a vibrating plow real similar to what you have, and they pull all their sprinkler line in with it.
I don't know why it wouldn't work with conduit.

The only issue with pulling in conduit is that with PVC conduit you will have to pull it down the entire length of the trench, something like sprinkler pipe will let you feed off of the roll at the tractor and the whole thing does not have to slide through the trench.

Aaron Z

 

[arse_sidewards]

The only issue with pulling in conduit is that with PVC conduit you will have to pull it down the entire length of the trench, something like sprinkler pipe will let you feed off of the roll at the tractor and the whole thing does not have to slide through the trench.

Aaron Z

So weld a elegantly bent steel pipe to the ripper and feed the conduit into that? Basically a bigger version of the wire being fed using conduit pictured above.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

The only issue with pulling in conduit is that with PVC conduit you will have to pull it down the entire length of the trench, something like sprinkler pipe will let you feed off of the roll at the tractor and the whole thing does not have to slide through the trench.

Aaron Z

Flexible conduit ftw.

 

[aczlan]

So weld a elegantly bent steel pipe to the ripper and feed the conduit into that? Basically a bigger version of the wire being fed using conduit pictured above.

A piece of 2" with segmented bends (or three 30º bends in close succession) would probably work for that.
Just have to use bell conduit and feed it in the correct direction (or make a flare at the inlet of the 2" so the shoulder of the bell can't snag).

Flexible conduit ftw.

That would work.
For a short run (under 50'?) pulling 3/4" or 1" PVC conduit in should work as long as you rip the trench once or twice first to loosen things up.

Aaron Z

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well I got it on the tractor and started messing around. Drove right in and dragged well even with some large rocks buried under the gravel. I went back and forth about 5 times to break it all up nicely. Bought some 2” conduit so not really sure the drag method would work without just packing the conduit up. Shovels out nice and easy though after running the ripper thru a few times.

It’s about a 70’ run from the garage out to the pole barn. Unfortunately it’s about 85 degrees here today so I’m not sure how much I’m gonna get done. I shoveled out about 5’ and I’m already sweating like crazy.

 

[aczlan]

Well I got it on the tractor and started messing around. Drove right in and dragged well even with some large rocks buried under the gravel. I went back and forth about 5 times to break it all up nicely. Bought some 2” conduit so not really sure the drag method would work without just packing the conduit up. Shovels out nice and easy though after running the ripper thru a few times.

It’s about a 70’ run from the garage out to the pole barn. Unfortunately it’s about 85 degrees here today so I’m not sure how much I’m gonna get done. I shoveled out about 5’ and I’m already sweating like crazy.

I forgot you had that big of a tractor, glue it together, drill 2 holes 6" apart in the male end, stick a chain in, bolt it in, then heat the front with a torch to make it into a point wrapped around the chain, I bet it will go in just fine.

Aaron Z

 

[72Pstroke]

The only issue with pulling in conduit is that with PVC conduit you will have to pull it down the entire length of the trench, something like sprinkler pipe will let you feed off of the roll at the tractor and the whole thing does not have to slide through the trench.

Aaron Z

When they pull the sprinkler line in, they attach the end of the line to the puller and drag the full length of the pipe through the dirt.