Forks on Loader Bucket

I got a set of forks that I would like to be able to but on and take off of my front end loader pretty easy. Do any of you have a picture,drawing or advice on what and how to make something to do this.Thanks.

I don't remember just exactly how Ivan had them in his,but somehow he had another steel plate that bolted over the top of his and sandwiched them between that and the bottom of the bucket. He could take them out by unbolting that plate and taking the whole thing out.

Depending on your forks the way I have done things like that was to weld a U shaped part to the bottom of the fork cradle so it fits the bucket edge and then I have a piece of flat bar on the center of the top of my bucket so you can pin the top. I also have a 1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the bucket so I can bolt the bottom part on so it does not slide out of the U at the bottom. Works pretty good till I bent my forks. I also have a boom pole that works that way and a bale spike

Easiest rig I've seen is like the one I have. It's a box steel frame about 3'x3' made of about 3" steel. The leading edge has the bushings welded in about 2 1/2 feet apart and a piece of angle welded on top that fits over the cutting edge of the bucket. There are two ears about 4"x4" welded on top of that with about 1" holes. There is a turnbuckle pinned into the holes and the head of the turnbuckle is cut for a chain grab. From the rear of the frame, there are two chains which go around the back of the bucket and over the top. The cutting edge of the bucket is slipped into the angle top, then the chains are flipped over the bucket, inserted into the chain grabs, and the turnbuckles are tightened by hand. The spear is on. Takes about aminute on or off. I got a second bucket form a guy who had boogered it up, and put the spear on it- it's a quick tach bucket like my other one, so the spears stay on it all the time. All we have to do now is change buckets,

I'll try to take some pictures this afternoon and put them on later.

What type of forks, forklift tines/forks ? You could mount those like often seen on backhoe buckets, but you do have to be sure that the bucket is rigid enough. Those usually have bushings welded on top, and a thick rod passing through, bucket has hooks where you can grab onto them and allows you to adjust. No guard on those to prevent things from rolling back over the bucket onto the loader arms.

If were me, I'd have quick tach/skidsteer type pallet forks, take a blank quick tach plate and fabricate what is needed for the loader arms, then use either the bucket that you have (modified for quick tach) and or the forks you have, modified or bought. Reason I mention it, is I have a clamp on set I built from old vehicle lift arms, which also secure with chain and binders, they are handy, better than nothing, as forks are a very useful tool, but those add weight and though they work, I have bent where they attach and the threaded rod with a handle I put on them with a nut welded to clamp to the bucket floor.

I bought a set of 42" ( tips of 48" would be more visible) quick tach forks for our small tractor with that style loader, its night and day how handy they are and easy to use. Those have a proper guard so that things cannot roll down the loader arms and crush the operator, like a round bale, the ones I built, could easily do that with those chains to make em tight, could send a log right on top of me.

I cannot emphasize enough how handy the quick tach ones are, whatever you decide, something easily changed, and with an adequate guard, you might be able to make up the rest of the steel to make what you have quick tach and allow the forks to be adjusted sideways as well as easily switched to another tool like the bucket, lot of photos of these things on the net.

The thing with having a bucket on with forks is also operator visibility, having just forks makes it so much easier to see what you are doing and removes unnecessary weight, what the bucket weighs you could be carrying.

Pictures! Frame is about 40" wide by 20" long. Forks are set at 30", but if you make one up, I'd recommend 28"- they'll fit into pallets better. Main frame is 3" angle, but we reinforced it with box. The main bar in the front is 3".

My son has a JD Compact 4320. It has a cat 1 quick coupler on the rear and JD version of a quick-tach bucket on the loader. It also has a self leveling bucket. I made a frame from 2 inch square tubing and a set of old fork lift forks. I have just two positions for the width. also have a stabber, to keep bales from coming back and crushing you. The stabber will turn 90 degrees and get out of the way. You will not believe how many times you will use the forks, if they are easy to put on. The forks are used as much as the bucket. Don't put your forks on the bucket unless you can't help it. We also have a backhoe without a quick-tach. You can't see the forks need someone else to guide you to just get a pallet. Vic

Forks for my Tonka toy loader are made from used 7 inch channel.

If you are going to lift anything heavy such as a full pallet of feed or seed you need to get the forks closer to the loader frame. We have two neighbor with the clamp on forks and they don't have the power to tilt the forks when they have a heavy load.

We are looking for a set of pallet forks for our Westendorf TA26, they will be designed so the back of the forks are as close to the pivot point as possible.

Jim