Tree handling with forklift

[davidwyby]

I get teased and get questions about my machinery, using what I got, so I figured I’d start a thread. Once you get good and as long as the ground is firm enough you can do a lot. Sometimes I have to venture off the hard pack to grab a log(s). In that case I only get one shot. A little momentum and stab the forks under on the first try to get weight on the drive tires and off the counterweight tires. Long forks help a Lot. Counter balance thing, reach, and being able to sweep things side to side. One nice thing is a compact lift can pick up a lot of weight for its size. Mine are 5 and 6,000lb. The 5 gets around better. Lighter counterweight and the drive wheels are smaller so the tires have more sidewall squish, grip, float.

Thinking ahead is important. We put the strap in the bed before putting the logs in. Loading them we used a small, hard tire short-fork lift. Significantly less useful than mine.

 

[davidwyby]

In recent memory I have only had to pull the lift out with the truck once.

I grew up running them in our dirt lot. Those were built from WW2 surplus with manual transmissions.

Here is the 5k. I nearly got stuck here. Had to get 3 logs on for drive balance. Don’t steer too much, easy on the throttle, don’t bounce it. Smooth is fast, slow is smooth.

 

[davidwyby]

Bit of trick getting momentum, tipping forward, bouncing the down lever, and hitting the brakes to slide them off into place.

 

[flushcut]

I had a guy pick up wood at a job in an industrial park and he used a fork truck. After pulling him out for the tenth time I made up my mind they are useless for tree work. Now this was a never left the warehouse machine until now with smooth tires. He was getting stuck on grass and a 1.5° incline it was pretty ridiculous.

 

[davidwyby]

I probably wouldn’t get very far in your climate.

 

[Kaveman]

Never anything wrong with learning your equipment, and I won't preach safety to you David, except standard PPE. If you can yeet the tractor better than I can, it's a skill issue on my part.

Have I mentioned that Rob is a maestro on the Dingo? Guy makes it look easy, so does Da Boss, I made an ass of myself 😆. But experience can breed skill, and I have fine teachers.

Just be safe Wyby, don't want my favorite desert rat ending up squished by some dirty euc log.

 

[davidwyby]

It’s purty hard to smash yourself with a log with a carriage, mast, and ROPS in the way…been moving a lot bigger sketchier things than logs for a long time.

 

[Trains]

Manitou, or do you lot call it a telehandler gets lots of use around here.

 

[SkwerI]

Run what you brung! Gotta make do with what you have. We all have a wish list of all the expensive toys we would buy if we had unlimited funds to outfit out tree businesses. In the real world we rarely have that option. I have no doubt my Avant 528 with a grapple would run circles around a forklift but the forklift didn't cost $55,000 either.

 

[davidwyby]

Manitou, or do you lot call it a telehandler gets lots of use around here.

I have used them quite a bit, very handy. Bout to buy one.

 

[davidwyby]

Run what you brung! Gotta make do with what you have. We all have a wish list of all the expensive toys we would buy if we had unlimited funds to outfit out tree businesses. In the real world we rarely have that option. I have no doubt my Avant 528 with a grapple would run circles around a forklift but the forklift didn't cost $55,000 either.

I can’t do soft ground. No grapple. Yet. But it’s kinda fun seeing what can be done with some creativity. Physics. Kinda like using a “floppy” grapple. Momentum, rolling, etc.