"Made It Myself" Tow-Behind Forklift
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Marty Gallaher, Hartford, Alabama, needed a forklift to load his home-built barbeque grills onto customers' trucks. He couldn't justify the cost of a self-propelled forklift so he picked up an old forklift mast and converted it into a 2-wheeled, pull-type rig.
The mast mounts on a steel frame that he made out of 6-in. channel iron and fitted with a home-built axle and a 10-ft. tongue. Two cylinders tilt the mast back and forth. Two more cylinders are used to raise or lower the forks, which reach 9 ft. high. Power is supplied by the tractor's hydraulics.
"It does the work of a self-propelled forklift at a far lower cost and I can go anywhere without getting stuck. It comes in handy for a variety of jobs," says Gallaher. "I paid $350 for a used forklift that wasn't in operating condition and about $50 more on parts.
"I mounted the forklift's original hydraulic control levers on the frame behind the tractor where I can reach them from the tractor seat. There isn't enough fluid in the tractor's hydraulic system to make the lift go all the way up, so I mounted the air compressor tank from a semi tractor on front of the frame and use it as a hydraulic reservoir."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Marty Gallaher, 7553 East State Hwy. 52, Hartford, Alabama 36344 (ph 334 588-6700; email: gallaher@lycos.com).
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"Made It Myself" Tow-Behind Forklift MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Forklifts 27-6-35 Marty Gallaher, Hartford, Alabama, needed a forklift to load his home-built barbeque grills onto customers' trucks. He couldn't justify the cost of a self-propelled forklift so he picked up an old forklift mast and converted it into a 2-wheeled, pull-type rig.
The mast mounts on a steel frame that he made out of 6-in. channel iron and fitted with a home-built axle and a 10-ft. tongue. Two cylinders tilt the mast back and forth. Two more cylinders are used to raise or lower the forks, which reach 9 ft. high. Power is supplied by the tractor's hydraulics.
"It does the work of a self-propelled forklift at a far lower cost and I can go anywhere without getting stuck. It comes in handy for a variety of jobs," says Gallaher. "I paid $350 for a used forklift that wasn't in operating condition and about $50 more on parts.
"I mounted the forklift's original hydraulic control levers on the frame behind the tractor where I can reach them from the tractor seat. There isn't enough fluid in the tractor's hydraulic system to make the lift go all the way up, so I mounted the air compressor tank from a semi tractor on front of the frame and use it as a hydraulic reservoir."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Marty Gallaher, 7553 East State Hwy. 52, Hartford, Alabama 36344 (ph 334 588-6700; email: gallaher@lycos.com).
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