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Homemade Attachments for Forklifts Skidsteers and Other Equipment

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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.

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The boom is strong enough to tip the machine over (raise the back wheels off the ground). Tested by putting the boom tip under a heavy trailer and lifted until the rear wheels were off the ground.

I'm able to pick up my truck so that the rear wheels of the truck are off the ground. I'm lifting the truck by a hitch in the truck's receiver. The distance from the skid steer's front wheel center to the lifting point is 10 1/2 feet. This is near the tipping point of the machine. The truck is 5800ish lbs, so I'm guessing that at the hitch I'm lifting 2500 or more lbs. I'm impressed.

Also pics of "recovery" setup. I'm going to make a tooth foot so I can jam the thing into the ice in winter to use as a tow truck to pull out stuck vehicles.

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Heres a boom i made for my "Yard Tractor". It has moved dozens of axles across town, and tons of engines and other heavy equipment. This pic is when we moved my buddies rockwell buggy project across town. The rock wells and 46" bajas were just heavy enough that we could push up on the rear of the buggy and lift the rear tires. It was just a light toyota buggy after all. My other buddie with a bronco wanted to use it so he welded some mounts to his axle also. Its just a 20' piece of seamed 1.75" .120 wall bent in a U.

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I'm going to break this back apart sooner or later, probably put a gin pole on a $300 truck versus having the capitol and monthly expense tied up in a truck I can't wheel with 700lbs on one side

also going to buy a skid steer or loader soon

this was good when I needed it

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I built this attachment using some scrap and a derelict cherry picker. I swapped the cylinder out for a pneumatic one. Controls for the cylinder and the hoist can be operated on the lift or on the ground.
 
Made a bosun's chair to change out a clothesline and a million other jobs. Seat is LVL beam. Version 2.0 will be a small standing manbasket, like 20x20 inches with a railing or a more comfortable seat with a strap so you can more easily do work using both hands.

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Copied from chit chat.

While we are on the tractor upgrades kick here's a few more of a receiver hitch mount and some forks. I made the hitch extension so that the ball mount would be parallel to the level indicator. You have to pat attention when moving trailers around on uneven ground so you don't get the ball mount to far out of parallel with the trailer and twist the coupler. The forks aren't the most heavy duty but serve my intended purpose and should be strong enough. The width aslo is not adjustable unless you add more mounting tabs but so far that's not been an issue.
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I welded some 2x2 onto an old cherry picker, so I could put it in my receiver. Works great for axles. A 6.2/6l80e is way to much though :laughing:​​​​​​

Anyone done a log splitter for a skid steer? I've seen them where you control from the cab, but looks too slow, I've thought about one that uses the machines hydraulics, but has an external lever like any wood splitter. I'm not 100% sure how you could get the hydraulics to free flow with no one in the cab, but I'm sure there is a way.
 
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I welded some 2x2 onto an old cherry picker, so I could put it in my receiver. Works great for axles. A 6.2/6l80e is way to much though :laughing:​​​​​​

Anyone done a log splitter for a skid steer? I've seen them where you control from the cab, but looks too slow, I've thought about one that uses the machines hydraulics, but has an external lever like any wood splitter. I'm not 100% sure how you could get the hydraulics to free flow with no one in the cab, but I'm sure there is a way.

Pretty sure they all do it, since that's a pretty standard thing to need when running a backhoe with it's own seat.

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I welded some 2x2 onto an old cherry picker, so I could put it in my receiver. Works great for axles. A 6.2/6l80e is way to much though :laughing:​​​​​​

Anyone done a log splitter for a skid steer? I've seen them where you control from the cab, but looks too slow, I've thought about one that uses the machines hydraulics, but has an external lever like any wood splitter. I'm not 100% sure how you could get the hydraulics to free flow with no one in the cab, but I'm sure there is a way.

Somebody here built one IIRC, and posted video, maybe it was u tube, I know fuckall about firewood, but it looked like the shit

attachment up, you have a 3 foot horizontal pipe, maybe 3'

Fold the attachment down, now you scoop a log up into it, and tilt back, picking the log up

now there's a shear at 20" and a slug drops into the next stage, a splitter, and the log drops another 20 inches down to get sheared again, the splitter splits and kicks the wood out the side

with the ability to do that, using one just for hydro power would be a huge waste IMO
 
Somebody here built one IIRC, and posted video, maybe it was u tube, I know fuckall about firewood, but it looked like the shit

attachment up, you have a 3 foot horizontal pipe, maybe 3'

Fold the attachment down, now you scoop a log up into it, and tilt back, picking the log up

now there's a shear at 20" and a slug drops into the next stage, a splitter, and the log drops another 20 inches down to get sheared again, the splitter splits and kicks the wood out the side

with the ability to do that, using one just for hydro power would be a huge waste IMO

That would be a firewood processor. They are awesome when all your trees are straight and under ~20" dia. We burn oak here, which are never straight and often much larger than 20". All time you save would get eaten up quick when a notty piece gets jammed up.

Also, the cost of all that would be hard to justify. What I'm talking about, could probably be thrown together for a few hundred.
 
That would be a firewood processor. They are awesome when all your trees are straight and under ~20" dia. We burn oak here, which are never straight and often much larger than 20". All time you save would get eaten up quick when a notty piece gets jammed up.

Also, the cost of all that would be hard to justify. What I'm talking about, could probably be thrown together for a few hundred.

10 4

somebody else around here built a skid steer mounted splitter that had a spring loaded point, from the cab they could pick up the blank, hold it with the point, pick it up over their pile, bin, trailer, whatever, split it and go back for another, also pretty efficient

but, like I said, I'm in the desert and just close the window if it gets chilly:laughing:
 
I welded some 2x2 onto an old cherry picker, so I could put it in my receiver. Works great for axles. A 6.2/6l80e is way to much though :laughing:​​​​​​

Anyone done a log splitter for a skid steer? I've seen them where you control from the cab, but looks too slow, I've thought about one that uses the machines hydraulics, but has an external lever like any wood splitter. I'm not 100% sure how you could get the hydraulics to free flow with no one in the cab, but I'm sure there is a way.

We made one for our cat 257b, there’s a sequence of button inputs to get continuous aux flow that I forget and have to look up every damn time :homer:.

I’ll snag a picture of the splitter next time I’m at the cabin. It’s nothing special, built around an I beam with wheels and a tongue to drag it around.
 
We made one for our cat 257b, there’s a sequence of button inputs to get continuous aux flow that I forget and have to look up every damn time :homer:.

I’ll snag a picture of the splitter next time I’m at the cabin. It’s nothing special, built around an I beam with wheels and a tongue to drag it around.

Gotcha, so it's just a normal wood splitter with a skid steer for a pump? I had pictured using it as an attachment, but I guess it would be better to be able to still have your grapples on and only have to switch lines.
 
Gotcha, so it's just a normal wood splitter with a skid steer for a pump? I had pictured using it as an attachment, but I guess it would be better to be able to still have your grapples on and only have to switch lines.

Ah, I missed that part. Yes, it’s a big normal style splitter with components sized around how much flow that the machine can put out. I’m usually splitting about a mile from where the wood is stacked so I like having the bucket on so that I can fill it up then dump it in the dump truck. With long hoses routed up to the roof and over to a stand thing I made I don’t have to disconnect to dump so it goes really quick. One trip and I’m done for the year or better.
 
Everybody has some variation to put a trailer ball on the end of a fork but years ago I had to move a very large trailer in a small crowded warehouse. I took the forks off the forklift and built a bracket that indexed on the mast like the forks and mounted a trailer ball on it. If I was to do it again I would mount a piece of receiver tube. Most amazing rig ever to put trailers in impossible spots......on level firm ground of course.
 
Somebody here built one IIRC, and posted video, maybe it was u tube, I know fuckall about firewood, but it looked like the shit
attachment up, you have a 3 foot horizontal pipe, maybe 3'
Fold the attachment down, now you scoop a log up into it, and tilt back, picking the log up
now there's a shear at 20" and a slug drops into the next stage, a splitter, and the log drops another 20 inches down to get sheared again, the splitter splits and kicks the wood out the side
with the ability to do that, using one just for hydro power would be a huge waste IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldKYnctaTmg
 
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Never get's old watching that. I noticed a detail for Panzer if he ever gets around to building his, the part that cuts is shaped like my patato-CAD drawing below. Centers the log on the splitter and must take less force than a straight cutter. Might tend to deflect less when cutting as well.

ThePanzerFuhrer ........we're waiting.:D



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Never get's old watching that. I noticed a detail for Panzer if he ever gets around to building his, the part that cuts is shaped like my patato-CAD drawing below. Centers the log on the splitter and must take less force than a straight cutter. Might tend to deflect less when cutting as well.

ThePanzerFuhrer ........we're waiting.:D

Apparently ten years ago you could buy that thing from a manufacturer. Might be able to get specs for that cylinder size...

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Might be able to get specs for that cylinder size...

yeah, it's "well that one from the pile looks about right"

then when you realize its real slow you try a smaller one and then it won't split anything so you go back to the original one :flipoff2:
 
It's been a long process but I'm slowly learning to not wreck my back every weekend lifting and pulling stuff I shouldn't be, so.......

I used the metal glue gun to add a 1700 lbs winch to my forklift attachment. I do a lot of stuff alone and it's nice to be able to have a helping hand. Example is loading non-running snowmobiles onto my platform. I'll be able to lift the skis while the winch pulls.

Wanted it to be behind the fork heels for obvious reasons, so the backwards hitch thing made sense. Also wanted it as high as practical. Used this goofy 2 inch receiver thing that was on a 4 wheeler I bought.


For power, I'm just gonna set up a plug on the roof. I don't think it's worth it to route 25 feet of wires along the boom. Winch has the plug in hand remote which will be nice to operate from anywhere.

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Added triangulation so the upright bars don't get bent again (previous owner bent them the first time).

Decided just to mount a dedicated battery for the winch. Tried it in a bunch of spots and it happened to fit just right on the gussets. Used a gear clamp to secure it for now. It was the best spot for not obstructing my view and to not get in the way of the forks.

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This thing comes in handy. Easy to move trailers, can pick up the back of my 97 dually. Can convert to bale spear.

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