Cut and shut pallet truck

[Pete.]

I've been after a shorty pallet truck for moving my stuff about the workshop so when someone approached me last week "Can we throw this knackered pallet truck in your metal skip?" of course I said yes. This 2000kg truck was about 2.4m long and used for moving full length pallets of plasterboard/glass etc. Very often they will overload the truck, or lift something close to its capacity then bump it down a step or something and when that happens it bends the two long pushrods underneath that operate the raise feature of the small end wheels. Once that happens the tool is scrap (or needs replacement push rods which no-one ever does).

So, I cut the legs off with the cold cut saw and stuck it in my van to bring it home. Here they are stripped down.

I had to cut about 300mm off the remainder to leave 100mm left for welding. I didn't want to put the cut right in the middle of the legs because that is the point of greatest stress, much better to put the join near one end or the other. Also, how these things are made is that they have a folded section leg with a u-shaped stiffener underneath, welded together with staggered joints to carry whatever load it's rated for. I decided to cut the legs square across and then cut the welds to remove the stiffeners.

Once this was done I cut the legs down to about 800mm but left the stiffeners long enough to fit back into the same place where I just cut out the ones on the main chassis

Then it was just a matter of clamping the bits together and welding them in place.

All that's left to do is shorten the pushrods and fit them in place, then turn it over and weld the tops of the leg frames. this is going to make my life a whole lot easier when it comes to moving my machines out of this workshop and into the new one.

 

[Agroshield]

First thing I thought seeing the above is "do they do an all-wheel steer version for really tight spaces?".

And, of course, they do:

Ameise® PTM 2.5 four-way hand pallet truck | Jungheinrich PROFISHOP

Ameise® PTM 2.5 four-way hand pallet truck. ✓ From only £580.00 / Stk. ▶ Order here!

www.jungheinrich-profishop.co.uk

 

[Pete.]

Hmm, you know that might be part 2 of this project

 

[6ply]

Toyota BT Pro Lifter pallet trucks are great for confined spaces. Pull the handle back and it starts a heavy load moving with ease.

 

[zzr1200]

I have at times considered doing this to my pallet truck for tightish inside space in the workshop, I might have to find one to shorten and keep my other standard one for normal/outside... use.

 

[Pete.]

Shortening the bottom stays. The stays fit like this to the wheels and 'push' to raise the truck

Here's why the truck was scrapped, too much load on too long a truck. The braces are about 30mm box section with quite a thick wall, braced either side by 10mm thick flat bar. This bit pictured is already cut down about 500mm where I sawed through the legs to get it in my van.

So I cut the bent sections off, then sliced the welds holding the side braces. Then I took the two ends, cut them to the correct length and welded on the braces. These are now super-strong and probably don't require the extra bracing but I'll probably abuse it so might as well make it indestructable. Here's on side done.

Then all I had to do was weld the rest of the legs top and sides and grind it back flush. Job done.

 

[Screwdriver]

Nice work.

 

[Turbo]

Nice job!

I already have 1 truck I refurbished & then I acquired another one with bent push rods like yours. I might create a short truck from it for use in tight spaces.

 

[Paulbarrett]

I’m seriously thinking of doing this to mine having seen one in a hotrod workshop, thinking how useful that is.