Just Joined the Forklift Club :smokin:

[Muckin_Slusher]

Built a hitch for the reach truck.

Low ball and a round socket from my scrapped trolley jack. I can either put a trailer ball in the vertical round socket, or a trolley jack pad. Height is adjustable too for clearance.

The trolley pad is able to rotate. Quite often I need to pick up the ass end of a vehicle or trailer and scoot it sideways when I'm packing the warehouse for the winter, so rotating is needed (just like a floor jack).

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Slide the hitch to the center of the front wheels and I can orbit around the ball.
I'm gonna install a prox switch and a light to tell me when the drive wheel is perpendicular to the trailer ball at this location.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

 

[JayMcJay]

That’s pretty cool.
The exact opposite of what I have when I try to move a trailer with my telehandler. The ball is miles away from the axle and it’s about worthless for control.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

I made sure it'll never pass OSHA inspection ever again (drilled and tapped 5/16-18 holes in the mast).

Now I can winch out of mud holes.

(still have to hot tap into 12 volts of the battery pack and finger out how to route the wires...)

 

[Bacho]

I got my press somewhat fixed and put it in there. At 75 tons, it indicated straight with my Amazon angle finde. I worked closer to the heel of the fork in a couple spots with 100 tons and now it indicates back to normal.

Of course, the forklift battery was dead when I went to go get it for the comparison picture.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

That looks perfect, (I see the sticker, did you cheat and buy new?).

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

I found this website recently, and the page has some good info explaining the types of forks available.

I think my Raymond forks are the full taper, and they might even be top bevel (or bent down). Not sure why you would ever want top bevel, seems like the fork comes pre-fucked up since that's what they'd look like after being bent down some.


I like the standard taper better (beefier so better suited to fucking around).

Understanding Forklift Forks

Forklift Forks can be a challenge to understand, but at Forklift America, we want to help ensure you have the best information!

www.forkliftamerica.com

 

[Bacho]

That looks perfect, (I see the sticker, did you cheat and buy new?).

No cheating!

 

[IUsedtoBendCars]

How are you holding the hitch on the forks? To me it looks like it would slide on and off too easy to be useful on anything except smooth concrete. Which I know you have but not everyone is indoors.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

How are you holding the hitch on the forks? To me it looks like it would slide on and off too easy to be useful on anything except smooth concrete. Which I know you have but not everyone is indoors.

Yeah, needs to be locked down, even on smooth concrete.

I used 3/4 inch set screws from underneath because I wanted to top to sit flat on the forks.

If I only wanted the ball on the tip of the forks, I might have just used a capped tubing and secured to the mast with a chain (done that in the past with great success).

 

[AKnate]

I found this website recently, and the page has some good info explaining the types of forks available.

I think my Raymond forks are the full taper, and they might even be top bevel (or bent down). Not sure why you would ever want top bevel, seems like the fork comes pre-fucked up since that's what they'd look like after being bent down some.


I like the standard taper better (beefier so better suited to fucking around).

Understanding Forklift Forks

Forklift Forks can be a challenge to understand, but at Forklift America, we want to help ensure you have the best information!

www.forkliftamerica.com

Huh, we always call them tines, not blades.

 

[AKnate]

Since this is about forklifts... propane power....

90s Mitsubishi with a 4G52, was gas, converted to propane well before my ownership.

Idle is all over the place. When it's cold, it'll barely stay running (like winter cold) Somewhat warmed up it's fine.
As it comes to operating temp it keeps reving more and more, to the point it's probably around 1000-1200 rpm.
Works fine, just annoying as shit trying to be precise with a forklift at near half throttle.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Since this is about forklifts... propane power....

90s Mitsubishi with a 4G52, was gas, converted to propane well before my ownership.

Idle is all over the place. When it's cold, it'll barely stay running (like winter cold) Somewhat warmed up it's fine.
As it comes to operating temp it keeps reving more and more, to the point it's probably around 1000-1200 rpm.
Works fine, just annoying as shit trying to be precise with a forklift at near half throttle.

They usually have coolant running through a heat exchanger to boil the liquid propane, might be an issue with that.
Also there's a regulator you can take apart, I found mine to be full of black tarry stuff. Clean it with something that won't hurt rubber components.

 

[Bacho]

If I recall correctly, rebuild kits for all those propane components are pretty cheap. I rebuilt everything when I did my jeep conversion years ago. It wasn’t very hard.

 

[D Nelly]

Is this the forklift help line now? We have an old Yale unit that gets used a few times a year and has a weird brake problem. When you drive forward you have normal brakes. When you're going backwards you have no brakes at all, but if you push the pedal hard enough (like two footing it with all you have) it'll click/snap down maybe an eighth inch past it's end of travel and lock the brakes up. I might be mixing up which direction does what but the points the same.

I've done no diagnostics at all on this and want to be spoon fed an easy answer

 

[[486]]

I've done no diagnostics at all on this and want to be spoon fed an easy answer

you gotta buy a new fork lift that one's broken

 

[tracyb]

Aknate has asked about his forklift problem a few times just to complain and hasn't done shit for the problem. askhole

Dnelly, I know that my hyster has a linkage that takes it out of 'gear' when the brake in pressed. in its condition it made gentle movements harder so I bypassed that. but anyway i'd bet it is a simple fix when it irritates enough to look into it.



and on another note. my Raymond reach forks battery is done... long past due but I was limping it along for the last few years. I wasn't about to drop $4-6k for a legit replacement, and I didn't do any math to be sure it would work out. but I went with the cheapest lipo batteries I could find on Amazon. 4ea 12v 100ah. wired to 24v, and read that may cause problems with charging. but so far its very good!

I get a days worth of my use out of a charge, probably 2-3hrs of on time. I plug it in after I use it anytime for more than an hour or so and have never felt the battery was getting low.

the issue I haven't addressed yet is replacing the weight from the original battery. it weighed 1780# and the new batts are very lightweight. i've got some old wear plates sitting here I plan to cut up and and throw in there for more weight. so far have no weight hasn't been an issue with lifting or being tippy. it does seam to jar the lift a little more when I go over the driveway expansion joints. and the drive wheel lifts in more situations. not worried more about having to replace the wheel from burning it off than I am about the loss of traction.

i'm going to shoot for about 1000# of ballest weight. a bit less than it calls for (at minimum 1600#) but being I don't miss it now I think it will be fine. and no i dont ever lift to a full 17ft and hardly ever reach the forks out above 4-6ft. I do have some material at 10ft height that might be interesting. cross that bridge when I need to.

the batteries-

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

charger-

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

I like having the room in the battery tray for hammers, bars, wedges etc...

about $700 for the new batts and charger. scrap gave me about $200 for the old battery. I'm not sure this is the best/ most cost effective way to have done it, but it's damn nice not thinking about the battery anymore. I had the batts and charger sitting on the shelf for 4mo before I took the time to swap everything, I wish I had gotten to it sooner.

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

Aknate has asked about his forklift problem a few times just to complain and hasn't done shit for the problem. askhole

Dnelly, I know that my hyster has a linkage that takes it out of 'gear' when the brake in pressed. in its condition it made gentle movements harder so I bypassed that. but anyway i'd bet it is a simple fix when it irritates enough to look into it.



and on another note. my Raymond reach forks battery is done... long past due but I was limping it along for the last few years. I wasn't about to drop $4-6k for a legit replacement, and I didn't do any math to be sure it would work out. but I went with the cheapest lipo batteries I could find on Amazon. 4ea 12v 100ah. wired to 24v, and read that may cause problems with charging. but so far its very good!

I get a days worth of my use out of a charge, probably 2-3hrs of on time. I plug it in after I use it anytime for more than an hour or so and have never felt the battery was getting low.

the issue I haven't addressed yet is replacing the weight from the original battery. it weighed 1780# and the new batts are very lightweight. i've got some old wear plates sitting here I plan to cut up and and throw in there for more weight. so far have no weight hasn't been an issue with lifting or being tippy. it does seam to jar the lift a little more when I go over the driveway expansion joints. and the drive wheel lifts in more situations. not worried more about having to replace the wheel from burning it off than I am about the loss of traction.

i'm going to shoot for about 1000# of ballest weight. a bit less than it calls for (at minimum 1600#) but being I don't miss it now I think it will be fine. and no i dont ever lift to a full 17ft and hardly ever reach the forks out above 4-6ft. I do have some material at 10ft height that might be interesting. cross that bridge when I need to.

the batteries-

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

charger-

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

I like having the room in the battery tray for hammers, bars, wedges etc...

about $700 for the new batts and charger. scrap gave me about $200 for the old battery. I'm not sure this is the best/ most cost effective way to have done it, but it's damn nice not thinking about the battery anymore. I had the batts and charger sitting on the shelf for 4mo before I took the time to swap everything, I wish I had gotten to it sooner.

Should have mounted that shit under the FOPS (or on top if you've the clearance) and kept the old ballast!

I've been looking into salvaged tesla S model batteries. Can get one that is 90+ % good for $700 CDN. From the numbers I would need two to be in the ballpark for "max amp draw" but I think 1 would probably work.

So, are those the batteries that like to spontaneously explode? Maybe it's good they're not above your head!

Do they have built in protections (over temp over charge and whatever else they're supposed to have) ? EDIT: yes, says it does.

Thanks for posting what worked for you. Mine's not quite done yet, but it'll be soon.

 

[Bacho]

Dnelly, I know that my hyster has a linkage that takes it out of 'gear' when the brake in pressed. in its condition it made gentle movements harder so I bypassed that. but anyway i'd bet it is a simple fix when it irritates enough to look into it,

My Hyster has the same thing. I recently adjusted it so the brakes engage much sooner which helped. Coincidentally last week I ran a lift the same as mine. It was much much smoother in operation to where I didn’t notice that feature at all. I haven’t been able to figure out yet, but I’m assuming it can be adjusted better.

 

[tracyb]

Should have mounted that shit under the FOPS (or on top if you've the clearance) and kept the old ballast!

I've been looking into salvaged tesla S model batteries. Can get one that is 90+ % good for $700 CDN. From the numbers I would need two to be in the ballpark for "max amp draw" but I think 1 would probably work.

So, are those the batteries that like to spontaneously explode? Maybe it's good they're not above your head!

Do they have built in protections (over temp over charge and whatever else they're supposed to have) ? EDIT: yes, says it does.

Thanks for posting what worked for you. Mine's not quite done yet, but it'll be soon.

yeah I didn't really think about the explodey thing. i'm not sure if these are at risk? it makes me a little nervous, I only charge it when i'm here and its disconnected when not in use. so hopefully i'm good?

if anyone thinks it may cause trouble I hope they let me know... I've had half a thought to put these batteries in my camper and use something different but so far that's still just a thought.


my biggest initial worry was the max amp draw, but I haven't had any issues with usability. the old battery would read 17-18volts when lifting, these keep it above 24v

 

[Muckin_Slusher]

tracyb

You wouldn't have any literature on that thing?

Not much online like wiring diagram or maintenance manual.

 

[Gbkeith]

Picked this one up this morning.

 

[D Nelly]

Dnelly, I know that my hyster has a linkage that takes it out of 'gear' when the brake in pressed. in its condition it made gentle movements harder so I bypassed that. but anyway i'd bet it is a simple fix when it irritates enough to look into it.

I'll have to actually look into it one day. My biggest problem with fixing it is that it's not somewhere I see it daily or even monthly sometimes, but when I'm there it's for a reason and I need to get things done. It also doesn't help that everything there's pretty much level concrete so it's been easy enough to ignore

 

[Pocahontas]

Picked this one up this morning.

What did you pay? I’ve been toying around with getting one we usually rent one once or twice a year. They are handy as hell but whenever I see them they are 20k plus and need work.

 

[bgaidan]

What did you pay? I’ve been toying around with getting one we usually rent one once or twice a year. They are handy as hell but whenever I see them they are 20k plus and need work.

Prices have been falling drastically in the past few months. I got my clapped out JCB for under $9k, delivered....and granted, it needed (needs) a good bit of work, but a year ago it still would have been 20k. I've recently seen several machines on FB under 20 that would have been in the 30's a year or so ago. For $20k or a little under, you should be able to find a decent, non-leaking but relatively high hour machine that would be perfect for occasional use.

 

[bgaidan]

Question for the yard lift gurus.

I have my old 5k Komatsu that I probably haven't used in over a year. The 6k was tied up holding the boom on the JCB so I had to pull out the backup the other day.

It seems like the brakes are stuck when in reverse, but it rolls fine going forward. At first I thought the trans was fucked but I could feel it trying to move, just didn't have enough power to overcome the brakes. (Trans is probably fucked too, but it works good enough.) I tried to neutral drop it and could get it to go, but it was obviously fighting.

Ring any bells of anything specific I should look at before I just start tearing it apart corner by corner?

 

[Dethmachinefab]

Question for the yard lift gurus.

I have my old 5k Komatsu that I probably haven't used in over a year. The 6k was tied up holding the boom on the JCB so I had to pull out the backup the other day.

It seems like the brakes are stuck when in reverse, but it rolls fine going forward. At first I thought the trans was fucked but I could feel it trying to move, just didn't have enough power to overcome the brakes. (Trans is probably fucked too, but it works good enough.) I tried to neutral drop it and could get it to go, but it was obviously fighting.

Ring any bells of anything specific I should look at before I just start tearing it apart corner by corner?

My tcm does this. Something is broken like a brake shoe spring so they are self energizing in reverse. You can fix it or spray a bit of oil on the drum so it ain’t so grabby. .

 

[bgaidan]

My tcm does this. Something is broken like a brake shoe spring so they are self energizing in reverse. You can fix it or spray a bit of oil on the drum so it ain’t so grabby. .

I had to read this 3 times before I realized it's your TCM forklift, not the transmission control module in your forklift.

I didn't think these had anything electronic to actuate the brakes. I need to go look, but fairly certain there's a master cylinder/reservoir under one of the dash panels.

I was thinking it might be something to do with the trans/neutral thing connected on the left brake pedal, but after playing with it yesterday, it really does just feel like a shoe locking up.