We've been pushing logs around with the bucket of our Kubota L3400, waiting to find the right implement for lifting and handling logs. Today, with the help of a neighbor, we made some simple but effective forks that mount onto the bucket.
The two forks are 18" long, tapering from the tip to 2" high at the edge of the bucket, and 3/4" thick steel. Each tapered fork widens into a piece 10" long and 5" high that bolts to the sidewall of the bucket with 2 @ 5/8" bolts. Pictures if anyone wants them. The tapered shape shields the sharp cutting plate on each end of the bucket lip, and keeps those from scarring our house logs.
After some practice, I can drive up to a log on the ground, fork under it, roll the bucket back, pick up the log, and set it on top of a log deck.
It's not practical to carry 30' logs around the property this way. Imagine walking with a fishing rod sideways in your mouth. And there are large logs that it won't lift because they weigh more than the 1,000 lb lifting capacity of the bucket. For most of our work, though, this is a good setup.
I have to be squarely facing the log when I start, or it ends up on just one fork and causes problems if I try to drag it around like that. Uneven ground complicates the operation -- one fork goes into the ground before the other gets under the log. And it's tricky to judge the center of balance of a log, and misjudging will result in a spilled log (and sometimes a tippy tractor).
I looked at "logger forks" for sale online (Paynes, $460) and a simple cutting tooth bar for the bucket ($340). Palette-length forks were too long to be practical, and the teeth were too short. The Paynes forks had a nice safety feature, which I have yet to design into our forks: bars that prevent the log from rolling back toward the operator. It is easier than you might think to get the bucket high and tilted back too far. One error could be deadly.
I have the same tractor and want to do the same thing.... we had an ice storm...100's of trees down, need to move them around. I have an old 14ft, 3/4" thick snow plow blade from which I could make these forks... Sure would like to see a photo.
ReplyDeleteEmail is robtlord@gmail.com
I'm in the sticks and stuck on dial-up so please make'em small!
TIA
R Lord
We've been pushing logs around with the bucket of our Kubota L3400, waiting to find the right implement for lifting and handling logs. Today ... tractorforks.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteKlemens, I've tried those forklift fork attachments. They're too long (they reduce leverage and thus bucket lift capacity) and those clamp-on bolts come loose from the bucket at all the wrong times. The best options are bolted through the bucket at a point where the log weight won't bend the bucket.
ReplyDeleteI had wrestled with the same dilemma on our tree farm for years. We have a 36 hp Cub Cadet tractor with a quick attach adapter on the front end loader. We bought a set of 2000# palette forks for about $600. The forks are 42 inches long and work great. Yes it can't lift what a skid steer can lift, but we can move any log our tree farm can grow. The pivot point for these forks is behind the forks on the end of the bucket, meaning a bit more lift capacity, and they are easily switched out with two levers back to the bucket in seconds. I would never buy another tractor without that capability.
ReplyDeleteWe previously had adapted a John Deere 755 (20 hp) compact utility tractor to a universal skid steer adapter to use forks or the bucket. We should have done this 15 years ago! It's amazing how much even a small tractor can lift, or maybe just lift enough to move with the forks. You won't be sorry and will find the forks also work great for brush, sawed lumber, slabs etc.
Randy, when we bought the tractor new I wondered why I would ever want the quick-disconnect bucket option. Years later I can rent any number of skid-steer attachments, from trash rakes to brush mowers, that would come in very handy around the tree farm for a day.
ReplyDeleteLong forks make it easier to deck logs (see our video) if you can lift them. We handle large logs. When you put the tip of a 42" fork under one on the ground, the tractor has to be able to lift it enough to roll the log up against the backstops or bucket. Sometimes it can't. Hydraulic bucket tilt is stronger than arm lift, but that can be negated when you reduce leverage.
Cutting those 42" forks down to 24" would solve the problem but limit other uses for the forks.