Kevin(Bluey) wrote:
Christopher Tidy wrote:

Bob La Londe wrote:

As I may have mentioned I used my boom (cherry picker) to unload my
new welder, but I've been thinking. If you could figure out some
form of regular set of forks to go on the end of the boom you could
leave it shortened and have more lifting capacity because you would
not have to reach up over the cargoe you are unloading.

The concept has been nagging in the back of my mind for a couple
weeks now, but I just can't seem to come up with and visualize an
easy to use and affordable to build mechanism that would allow you to
keep the forks level or even close to level when raising and lowering
your load.

Not many of us can afford a forklift for that once or twice a year
load that could use one, so we wind up borrowing a loading dock down
the street, begging a forklift, or improvising. I think it would be
the coolest thing if you could come up with a set of 1000-1500lb
forks that you could just push your boom upto and slide in a couple
pins. Lots of folks have cherry pickers. Something you could build
or buy in the $400 - $700 range. Want to get fancy? Put on an air
operated hydraulic ram to raise and lower the arm faster.

I was gonna try and invent this gizmo, but the basic mechanics just
slip away when I almost have it vizualized each time. I'll let one
of you guys invent it and make a million dollars. I'll just buy one
when you do.


I'm not sure I get this. Doesn't the platform on a cherry picker stay
level automatically?

Chris


and further to that cherry pickers are rated for a one or two man lift .
Here in Australia it is illegal to use cherry pickers and backhoes to
lift loads other than what they were intended for.
If you are caught or someone is injured because of your actions you face
heavy fines and imprisonment.
Machinery inspectors are like under cover cops here ,you never know when
one is likely to show up any where on a job site.

A backhoe is probably safer than a cherry picker. You just have to
remember not to drop the load by opening the valve all the way. It is
not uncommon to see a backhoe with a rated load sticker applied by the
manufacturer, so they are not unhappy about them being used for lifting.
Usually it's about 1000 kg on a medium to large backhoe loader. There's
often not a lot of point, though, when you could just put pallet forks
on the front.

Best wishes,

Chris