Fork carriage for my Ford 755

[Frank S]

The loader on my 755 is so strong that I can almost bring the rear tires off the ground when I don't have a bucket mounted on the backhoe. The problem here is that in order to lift something that I cannot scoop up in the bucket I have to get out and chain what ever it is to the bucket I need to use it as a fork lift a lot so I decided to see about getting forks for it. I didn't want some week little clamp on forks that slip over the cutting edge besides it is hard to see what you are picking up. I also didn't want to have forks that hook to the top of the bucket either same reasons.
So I went to a forklift salvage yard to see what they had
The most suitable carriage I could find was a class 3 good for 8 to 10,000 lbs it was 5 ft wide and they wanted $300.00 for it plus another $350.00 for a pair of forks plus tax. Well I wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money, so I went to a steel scrap yard and found a pair of heavier class 3 forks than the others for $150.00.
I bought them so now all I have to do is come up with a carriage. Time to look in my usable stock.
Here is the pics of a factory carriage which I was going to have to modify anyway to fit my loader arms

and these were the forks

These are the forks I bought

Will post pictures of what I am making the carriage out of next

[Frank S]

OK I have a lot of steel in my usable stock area. Although it is not always exactly what I want it is always exactly what I need to get the job done
I frequent auctions and whenever I can buy for 10% of what I can sell it for in scrap it gets loaded on a trailer.
I bought 8 of these for $10.00 they are about 200 lbs each

It may be a little hard for some to visualize how those are going to become a fork carriage so you will have to wait until tomorrow after I start cutting and welding them together

[C-Bag]

Funny how things spiral out. In order to be able to move and store big juicy chunks of steel you have to have a loader, a trailer and a good heavy truck to move it.

Like the Joker said in the first Batman movie " where DOES he get all these wonderful toys?" or something to that effect. You make them, and having the wonderful materials to make them out of, and the way to move them, the place to store them and the equipment to whittle them into submission along with the knowledge/creativity to make it all happen is enviable. Those last units that you showed pix of looked brand new, still on pallets. I have a feeling I know where they are headed in your carriage mod but I'll wait for the next pics. Lots of heavy metal whittling.

So Texas is where heavy equipment goes to die?

[Frank S]

Ha,ha yeah where does he get all of these wonderful toys indeed. When we returned from Kuwait we very carefully packed up everything to ship it back. our household stuff alone would have required a 40 ft container Partially because I had a fairly complete mini machine shop that filled 1 20 ft by 18 ft bedroom of out 3rd floor 1800 sf apartment A Harrison 280x1200 manual/ CNC trainer lathe a Clarkston Tool & cutter grinder My Do-moore versi mill 2 bench grinders a 2 HP table mounted Mill Drill and even a 1000lb cap gantry crane plus a 27 drawer tool cabinet the rest of the house was chock full of the usual house stuff except for my office which had 2 computers an 8 ft Mahoghany executive desk with 4 32" TVs for moniters
In my factory mnost of my stuff had been removed from service as we had replenished with upgraded equipment but my machines and tooling alone would have filled another 45 ft container. Our debarkation date came earlier than expected so everything had been placed in one of the companies warehouses to be loaded in a container. We left with 2 large suitcases and 2 laptops leaving everything else to be shipped at a later date that was in March of 2013 to this day we have received nothing Not even the vested interest due me for my 10 years as senior engineer for the company which was to be 1% of net and 1/4 of 1% gross annual receipts. Nay all we came away with was the 10 years worth of my wife's salary plus about 6 months of my salary. We have lived off of that and accumulated what we have from my buying and selling or the few odd jobs that have come my way
the truck not mine the trailer half mine because I rebuilt it at cost and no labor the Backhoe mine from a customer that I have had since 1979

THe reason I need forks

more reasons for forks the trailer half mine

the small trailer mine the junk mine

And there have been 10 more loads like these brought out here call it my Mad frank beyond thunderdom apocalyptic survival stash

[Frank S]

Progress today





Yes the scrap steel is new so to speak. also it is CAT steel so I know it is high quality and strength

As you can see I cut 2 of the pieces to the the upper and lower lips of the carriage
the funny thing about this steel is if the market hadn't dropped by half right after I bought it at the auction I would have sold it As with about 2/3rds of the other junk I hauled out here

[C-Bag]

"Mad frank beyond thunderdom apocalyptic survival stash" LOL!

So you got all those tires sewed into your clothes yet? Man, I don't know how I would deal with having all my equipment along with all the owed $$$ disappear. I'd think it would be tempting to go Mad Max on whomever the local representative is. You seem a lot more mellow about it. Better man than I..........

The ONLY thing I miss about the Central Vally was the scrap yards and there was great metal yards in Fresno and Merced. It was staggering the weird stuff you'd find like those Cat(bumpers?) cast offs. You just take stuff like that for granted until you move where it's not. The best score recently was a barn sale, and I wish I'd gone back. But unlike you I don't have the space and being close to the ocean rust is ever present. I already have more material than I can store or have projects for in my garage space. But I miss having the space and raw material like you have.

Thanks for sharing your project(s).

[Frank S]

"Mad frank beyond thunderdom apocalyptic survival stash" LOL!

So you got all those tires sewed into your clothes yet? Man, I don't know how I would deal with having all my equipment along with all the owed $$$ disappear. I'd think it would be tempting to go Mad Max on whomever the local representative is. You seem a lot more mellow about it. Better man than I..........

The ONLY thing I miss about the Central Vally was the scrap yards and there was great metal yards in Fresno and Merced. It was staggering the weird stuff you'd find like those Cat(bumpers?) cast offs. You just take stuff like that for granted until you move where it's not. The best score recently was a barn sale, and I wish I'd gone back. But unlike you I don't have the space and being close to the ocean rust is ever present. I already have more material than I can store or have projects for in my garage space. But I miss having the space and raw material like you have.

Thanks for sharing your project(s).

The comnpany was Kuwaiti owned They had contacted me through an at the time distributor of mine for my freight elevators I built 2 for them then went over to supervise the install then spent 6 weeks re designing them to suit the changes their customer needed then an agreement transpired so I set up a factory there so I guess that I would be the only local representative Where I made my mistake was in not renewing my passport and going back to ship the stuff my self, that and if I had I could have pleaded a case in front of their high courts. Since I was also a Member of the Kuwait engineers society if I had wanted to be snotty about it I could have had their membership flagged as well but that has never been my way Just move on and eventually things come full circle.

[Frank S]

Windy enough to today blow a prairie schooner across the desert on square wheels with a ripped sail.
Not a lot of progress having to constantly fire watch while trying to weld cut or grind
First pic is where I am starting ro scarf off the left over stubs from the previous cutting
2nd one is after grinding the land

3rd is the back side nearly finished welded out 4th is turning the assembly over


5th is some plates I have that will probably be the attachment plates for the loader arms.
6th shows how the front side next to the forks will look

7 is an end view

[Frank S]

Almost no progress on the forks carriage today. just a little grinding to the front face. for minimal clean up.
most of the day was spent trying to clean out the machine shop van enough so I can make the pin bushings that will be welded into the mounts that will attach to the loader arms.

Too much stuff had to be packed for transport leaving an absolute mess when some stuff that hadn't gotten tied in real good shifted A lot of this stuff doesn't even belong in here so out it goes as soon as possible to be stored elsewhere

The arbor press broke free of its moorings and walked out to the middle taking along with it a parts bin the 30 drawers decided to empty their contents on the floor as well as some stuff from a lower cabinet managed to wind up under the lathe.
Some people can work by stepping over that stuff and I might have if machining these bushings had been an emergency job but they are not and I will not so before I power up the lathe a good house cleaning is in order 1 day or 10 I don't have to worry about keeping everything in lock down anymore so a lot of this stuff has to go

[C-Bag]

Mad Frank, do you ever sleep? All the moves you've done and these huge projects sandwiched in between. If I ever get delusional enough to think I'm busy all I gotta do is take a peak at the stuff you've posted over the time I've been here and feel like a slacker. You ain't Mad Frank, you're the TasmanianFrankdevil!

What happened to those drawers and the arbor press is what every time we've ever shipped stuff in a trailer or SeaTrain. No matter how good you nail it down it's always gotta be free. I can only IMAGINE what a container full of 1,000's of lbs of heavy machinery would look like after taking a sea trip from Kuait. 1 or 10 days indeed. Weeks if it was me. Spin on Tas......