$nowball tractor gets forked

[Alan]

I've been working on a set of forks for the little tractor, so far so good. Eventually there will be a grapple to let me grab brush or short tree sections.

[Chuck Smith]

Nice!

~Chuck

[Fastjohnny]

Looks nice!

Alan, what do you think would be the weight rating on the forks?

[Alan]

Alan, what do you think would be the weight rating on the forks?

No idea on what they are good for. The loader is only rated for 600 lbs and I'm confident that the forks will hold that. I will try to avoid hooking just one tine tip and reefing on it, might be able tobend one that way.

[Pelican]

Nice job Alan!!

[Tileman]

Great job Alan. You just keep building cool toys. :rockon :rockon



Alan remember the Do-All Himmy built for his 4-H project. Well he finaly got to put it on enough tractor to try it out. He came home all smiles this evening he said it did great. You will have to talk to him this weekend.

[MDsnowPRO]

good looking set of forks Alan, just another way to generate income for that old tractor of yours

[Pickering Snow]

Looks Great Alan and soon there will be a 23hp PMS powerplant for her.


Use this has a update i resized the Rods and reconned them , one new piston, and rings the cylinder bore taper was mim . The Bonus in this little find is at one point the 23 hp was bored 10 over and the rods were stamped with the updated Kohler Rods so you got a gem in that deal.

The knock the guy was desicribing in the ebay listing was the crank end bearing which when it was rebuilt last they didnt have the bearing seated correctly, With all the parts you have sent ill beable to fire it on a test stand and get it dialed in for you so it will be a plug and play.

She had both exhust vavles not seating but had harden seats so i was able to do a three angle V job and i did some minor porting work so she has a little more hitch in the giddy. Figure she will push around 23.5 hp and probley close to 20 pto so should make her a little more stout than the 20hp you have now. If time allows ill run it down to Backwoods racing and set her up on there engine dyno and get you a spec card.

[atgreene]

Nice job Alan! Forks are some handy, although you may want to swap them out for the bucket for the next day or so.:mad:

[Mark Oomkes]

Looks great Alan, almost looks perfhushanel like and all.

Downside is, now you're going to have to find room in the truck for an extra fork and frame. :grinz

[urethane dino]

Alan just get a 40' flat bed. That should allow ample room for tools, parts , and attachments. Could be a bear to back up with, but think of the piece of mind having everything on board to repair with and attachments to get r done.

[Alan]

Downside is, now you're going to have to find room in the truck for an extra fork and frame. :grinz

Thanks, Mark.

Nah, if I bend/break it I'll just say "Fork it!" and go home.

[Alan]

Looks Great Alan and soon there will be a 23hp PMS powerplant for her.

Sounds great, Fred! Tell ya what, you get a dyno card for it and I'll frame that sucker, along with the famous Fred In His Mad Bomber Hat picture, and hang it on the wall.

[Garagekeeper]

Nice "Forkin" job Alan... What's next?
:rolleyes: John...

[snowjoker]

Nice job Alan :D nice to have the quick attach on it to swap in the bucket. BTW when are you going to post the Forking pictures of it in use :wink

[John Banks]

No idea on what they are good for. The loader is only rated for 600 lbs and I'm confident that the forks will hold that. I will try to avoid hooking just one tine tip and reefing on it, might be able tobend one that way.

Looks great Alan, well built. Looks like you should have at least 3-4 lbs of lift capacity left. :grinz

[Alan]

Well, I did a sort of a load test today. I've been swapping out winter tires so I stacked 4 245/75-16 truck tires and wheels and a pair of 16" Honda tires/wheels on a pallet. Picked that up easily when it was against the back of the forks. So I backed up about a foot, got the center of the load very near the end of the the forks and it still took it up fine. Then I got Linda to come run the valve and I put 245lbs of me on there too and it would still lift it slowly. Couldn't roll it back though.

[Alan]

Got it all done and painted. Made a backstop to keep things off the hood(and me) if I get klutzy. Tapered the ends of the forks so they like they should. Painted it yesterday then reassembled it this morning and put it on the tractor.

Got to play with it a little, a neighbor was taking down a small black cherry and there were a few sections 10' or so long and 6-8" in diameter. Forked up the job of getting them on my trailer. I'm supposed to be taking down four fairly large spruce in the next few days. Biggest ones are porbably 12-14" on the stump. I can cut them almost 12' long and still fit them on the trailer, never had that luxury until now. Everything in the past had to be cut to be "man portable". I'll try to get pictures of a forking load when I do those.

I was working on this and thought maybe I was doing things pretty perfeshunil for a change. Two welders in the shop, extra set of torches in a box on the shelf, several grinder to choose from. Yehaw!, I'm on the way to being acceptable to old BB (Backwards Bruce)! Then I remembered, I've only got one welding helmet. So close and yet so far away, still an amatoor in the welding department too.

[Pelican]

Nice job Alan!! Looks like something that came straight out of Moline!

[Plow Dak]

That is sweet alan
Nice job.
Will be interesting to see how it performs.

Now you need to build a perfeshunil weight box. ;)

Your having way to much fun with this !!!

[MDsnowPRO]

So Alan...............when ya startin on the grappler:D :D :D

[Alan]

I got to generate a little revenue with the new forks yesterday and today. Had a couple spruce trees that had to come down, the road bends a little right in front of the property and the trees hid oncoming traffic. The tree to the left, in the picture, will be coming down too. It's about 4' taller and quite a bit bigger on the stump. Figured I'd practice on the small one first. The first tree got limbed out as high as I could reach with the pruner attachment on a split boom trimmer. Then I pulled it over with the truck, uprooting it in the process. Picked the whole thing with the loader, lopped the root ball off and cut the trunk into two sections. The trunk will go for firewood, the root ball went over the edge of a convenient ravine.

[Alan]

The second one was a little more of a challenge. Limbed it from the ground up again, did the last few feet from in the back of the truck. Got pretty well to 16' of it cleaned off. Had about 40' of strap on it, took a few "boinks" to get the necessary force but this is how you take out a stump when you don't have a big machine. Leverage works every time!

The tree was about 12" at the base and I cut two 11' sections, which I carried off with the rest of the wood. Stump was a bit challenging as it kept wanting to flop off the forks before I could get it rolled back enough to hold it. I'm glad I went to adjustable forks, I was able to set them narrow and spear through the rootball then lift to break roots free and help loosen the dirt so it would fall off. Then I was able to open them up just enough to cradle the center of the stump.

[GuzmanProperties]

NICE job!!! glad everything worked out for you.

[Pickering Snow]

Looks really good Alan and the pics say it all iam scared you might becoming profesional , i think BB would have just used C-4 and blew it in place:D

Like Steve said the Fork Job looks like something bought from a equipment company its that nice looking, Even though i do alot of Fab work you have me beat in designs and projects some of the nicest mods and Fab work i have seen come out of Milton Vt.:wink

[MDsnowPRO]

Looks great alan, the way the bruush/stumps sitting on there you may not even need a grappler

[Mark Oomkes]

Glad to see it worked out for you Alan.

Also glad to see you're catching your typos before the edit time is up now. (cooming) :grinz :grinz :rolling :rolling

[Alan]

Also glad to see you're catching your typos before the edit time is up now. (cooming) :grinz :grinz :rolling :rolling

Damn, making me feel like a fly under a lens.

[Big Dog D]

Damn, making me feel like a fly under a lens.


"Literacy should not be considered optional" :D :D :D

MARKO is the new........ \/