From: none@none.com99   
      
   On 5/18/2025 6:46 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   > "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:100dvck$18gr0$1@dont-email.me...   
   >   
   > FYI:  Slip on bucket forks are really handy on a front loader.  If you   
   > only need them once in a while its no big deal to put them on and take   
   > them off, and they are pretty cheap.  They have a couple issues, but if   
   > you don't use them often you can live with it.   
   > ---------------------------------------------------------   
   > My younger neighbor has slip-on forks for his loader and tried to use   
   > them to stack the logs the tree company left in a tangle in my yard. He   
   > found they were useless for lifting all but the smallest logs, though he   
   > could knock the larger logs around so he played with them for a while.   
      
   Bucket forks or even a bucket swap fork are still limited to the   
   capability rating of the tractor.  Typically for a compact, but real,   
   working tractor that's 750-800 pounds.  Basically more than the weight   
   of a bucket full of dirt.  There is a safety margin.  Having pushed mine   
   to its limits I know it will lift around 1500 lbs through its range, and   
   lift 2000lbs a few inches and stop.  This does not mean its inferior to   
   your home made stack up.  It means it has design limits.  Your stacked   
   up tool may be able to lift 4000lbs or even a lot more, but it might not   
   be practical for "knocking around" an 8500 lb container.  You bump an   
   8500 pound container with a 6000+lb tractor and the container is going   
   to move.  Bumping around is a legitimate way of moving things.  LOL.   
      
   The home made stackup might not be so good at lifting pallets off of a   
   truck.  That can a new compressor out of my pickup bed for the shop, and   
   placing it right where I want it a couple hundred feet around back by   
   the door where its going.  It could be a pallet of salt for a water   
   softner, or the better fork attachment that will replace it.  Sure you   
   "can" unload things with non optimal tools.  I once unloaded a welder   
   from a semi truck with a cherry picker, by running a pair of lifting   
   slings through the pallet.  The tractor forks with its paltry 750lb   
   "rated" lifting limit would still be the better tool for the job.   
      
   I recently lifted/dragged a boat off a trailer and set it on the ground   
   in order to repair the trailer.  Sure I could have done that with a home   
   made stack up, but it was much easier and faster to do it with the   
   tractor.  When I pull the engine on the Bronco I'm considering making   
   road worthy again I may use the tractor, I may use a chain fall and an   
   A-from, or I might use the cherry picker.  Its going to depend on what   
   is most convenient at the time.  A the moment there is an outboard   
   hanging from my cherry picker, so it would be the least convenient.   
      
   > I   
   > weighed one he could barely lift at the specified capacity of his   
   > tractor, proving its hydraulics were still in good internal condition,   
   > if not so pretty externally.   
      
   They can generally lift twice their rated capacity if you have a counter   
   weight on the rear to prevent nose diving, and air up all the tires to   
   prevent 3 wheeling.   
      
   > Then I set up my manual hoists and neatly stacked all of them on blocks   
   > to cover for winter, including two at ~25' long and over 4000 Lbs each.   
      
   Sounds like a good tool.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Bob La Londe   
   CNC Molds N Stuff   
      
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