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Overloaded forklift mayhem.
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Previously:
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...148#post227252
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...230#post211279
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...427#post204790
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...601#post228781
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...564#post201177
Oh that bring back memories!!!! I may have told this story on here before. It still makes me cringe when I think about how close some guys came to serious injury or worse that day. Back in the early 70's I was in college and self-employed doing repairs on equipment for friend who was a landscape contractor. Driving in one morning, I had to stop in the parking lot as a 40' flat bed truck full of brick pavers on pallets was blocking the entrance. Rather than the switch loader bucket for forks on good sized backhoe, the guys had chosen the a small articulating, 4 wheel drive machine with forks on front and a tree spade on the back. For perspective smaller and much lighter than a common skid-steer today.
Prior to my arrival they had tried to lift a pallet, it did not budge. Guys climbed onto the tree spade attachment on the back of the machine. There was just enough "beef" hanging on the back to barely lift the pallet. I got there just in time to see the driver slide the first pallet off the truck. Having never fully picked it up, the driver slowly backed out dragging the pallet off truck. When the pallet cleared the truck it pushed the front down but rested against the side of the truck. As be backed further, without lowering the load, the machine tipped more. Of course this freaked out the guys on the back, a coupe of them jumped off. Which caused the pallet to slam into the ground which broke the bands and some of the pavers spilled off the pallet. Then the load was light enough enough for the remaining guys to counter balance. So the back of the machine crashed down which knocked the remaining guys off the back. Without those guys, there was enough remaining on the pallet to crash the front back down, spilling the remaining pavers. This of course caused the machine to once again crash down, at which point it broke in half right where the rear frame attached to the articulating connection.
That machine was actually my first major fabrication/welding/repair job. Prior to that I had just been doing engine work, rebuilds, maintenance, etc.
:3stooges: I heard a big crash in a shop I worked at, the guy was pulling a Detroit Diesel 60 series out of a tour bus with a forklift and it did the same thing. No injuries. Extra repairs were needed.
Sounds similar to one of the incidents I investigated at work. The 'clever' guy made fork extensions by slipping box section over the forks of a walk behind electric mini-forklift, he sort of picked up a box without knowing the load weight or CoG, as it cleared the bed of the truck it overbalanced the thing, and as the driven/braked wheels were under the battery/counter balance it shot backwards as the load and extensions slipped off. Thankfully he only suffered a broken leg as he was trapped by it in an internal corner of the building, if it had been a flat wall he'd have been splatted and died.
They are using a forklift jib boom attachment. This changes the forklift's center of gravity and load capacity. Forklift jib booms (fixed or telescopic), come with a load chart that should not be overrated and compensated for by human counterweight.
Nobody outdoes Staplerfahrer Klaus...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChOH...AgenturHamburg
I am reminded of Gerard Hoffnung’s narration of “The barrel of bricks” accident report.