Fork carriage for my Ford 755

[Frank S]

Rice farm eh' the only thing I know about rice farming is stay out of the paddies because that's if was impossible to locate a landmine until it was too late. Seen a couple of guys not return from stepping off in a paddy DO know about milk barns though, or rather the processing room. I was darn near blinded blinded when I was a teenager helping a welder rework some of the stainless plumbing in the processing room of one.
Wife says that may be why I don't eat rice or drink milk
the 2ft above grade is an arbitrary figure the location is on a flat area kind of on a hill flooding is very unlikely unless we were to get a 100" rain fall, I just like to have the area sloping away from a building rather than being completely flat around it
Permits? We don't need no stinking permits. They call this the Free State of Stonewall county, however I have always had a tendency to build things just a little over the top anyway

[C-Bag]

" I have always had a tendency to build things just a little over the top anyway"

Ya think? I want to make stuff so I never have to do it again, so over the top is good IMHO. I envy those who don't have the raft of officials jumping in your pockets to fill their coffers.

Any kind of farm work in the Central Valley is more about slave labor than anything else. And rice farming was no exception. If you were not a relative it was tough to make ends meet. But I have to say it was not boring. Had everything from Cat's to combines to wheel tractors and all kinds of implements. They were constantly wanting to resurrect some completely abandoned piece of equipment or vehicle. At one point they decided they wanted to get the old rice huller going again that hadn't been used for 40yrs. Learned a lot of fabrication on that project. I imagine they have not been able to do any rice for the last 6yrs because of the drought. Most of the rice was for export anyway. I don't have a problem with rice, but dairy, no Bueno. I stay far away from that stuff.

So would you make the shop from scratch or buy a kit/metal building?

[Frank S]

It will be from re-purposed materials that I have been accumulating for the past 3 years. I would like to say that I am going to design it around my bridge crane but I don't currently have the materials to build the bridge beam at this time, besides I would probably want to make a 10 ton bridge like the 60 ft long ones I designed and made while in Kuwait.
But hopefully I have enough materials to build a 60 by 80 ft building with 15 ft side walls. I will probably start out with a 45 by 45 to start out with then move 2 of my vans along the north and south sides and put the smaller van across the East end then later add on to the West or the entrance end if need be What I would really like would be to have 4 40 ft shipping containers placed along the North and South sides with the machine shop van on the East end I could cut the large doors in the inside walls of the shipping containers for access

[C-Bag]

I've mentioned several times how much I like idea of containers for quick down and dirty shops. A couple of 40' high cubes with a roof between the two on a cement pad is my idea of heaven. Anymore having a big old open shop if you are gone for any amount of time is a bit scary. It's what I like about them is they are so secure compared to just a metal building. Right now on the coast they are blowing out 20'ers for $1000. I was reading a report that for first time in a decade the shipping lines between here and China are going to not turn a profit. So the containers aren't going back. 40'ers have always been cheap comparatively because nobody has the room for them so they are not as popular.

[Frank S]

Well after 3 days of near freezing temperatures and rain I finally got back the the fork carriage today around noon.
All I can say is this one is ready for the Home made tools sub forum.
because now instead of a backhoe with a loader I have a backhoe that can double as a rough terrain fork lift
After checking both sides for alignment it was time to weld it on
I had thought of making a fixture to hold the mount plates then use a long shaft for a bore alignment bar but decided that the wasted and best way was just use the machine itself

Now this is a carriage not one of those wimpy store bought things



Too tired to put the second fork on besides they weigh 250 lb each and 1 was all that I wanted to wrestle and lift onto teh carriage today

[C-Bag]

Lookin good Mad Frank. Heavy duty as usual. Looks like you could play chicken with a semi, no problem.

Two questions,

are you going to square up the rails or just leave them staggered just to mess with bozo's like me?

Is there blocks, tabs whatever they are called on the back of the upper rail to help lock the forks in place or you don need no stinkin locks? just curious......

[Frank S]

I will probably square up the ends for looks for the locks the forks have a cam operated protrusion that would fit in a notch in the top rail since I won't be spinning around doing doughnuts in a warehouse in front of some stupid-visor of a safety cop I really don't need or want them. Usually the first thing I have always disabled on my own forklifts were the fork locks the only thing I will put on will be end caps so the forks cannot be accidentally slid off
they are heavy enough and there is more than enough friction to keep them in place.
I especially like the frontal look of the carriage the way the rock guards are joined together it kind of says go ahead and make a frontal assault I'll ruin your day
Looking at it I think it would make a heck of a back drop of a dozer blade
Now where did I put that 7 ft cutting edge

[Frank S]

While the big lumbering backhoe may not be as quick or maneuverable as a warehouse forklift. it will hold its own in the lifting department
I still think it carriage would make a good dozer blade

[C-Bag]

I don't think I've ever seen a backhoe with forks. If I had but one unit on the farm top of the list would be a backhoe. They are the Swiss Army knife of equipment.

[Frank S]

Id like to get a tracked skid steer but only if it had steel tracks