Forklift log splitter

[fizzy]

I have seen a few YouTube videos. Seems effortless.
I have a 1600kg reach truck. With the mast in it will lift 5 tons easy. Looks like a 10 ton ram.
I will make a frame like a goal post to go under the front . Axe head under it.
My concern is what happens to hydraulics if I overload or stall it? Relief valve opens or i blow something?

 

[roblane65]

Never let technicalities get in the way of a good idea , crack on

 

[bourbon]

I have seen a few YouTube videos. Seems effortless.
I have a 1600kg reach truck. With the mast in it will lift 5 tons easy. Looks like a 10 ton ram.
I will make a frame like a goal post to go under the front . Axe head under it.
My concern is what happens to hydraulics if I overload or stall it? Relief valve opens or i blow something?

When I tried to pick something up with my 3 ton rated fork lift. It would lift the back end up. If I countered that with full forward tilt. It just wouldn't lift. It didn't blow seals or blow pipes off. Have a go and don't forget the pictures

 

[fizzy]

When I tried to pick something up with my 3 ton rated fork lift. It would lift the back end up. If I countered that with full forward tilt. It just wouldn't lift. It didn't blow seals or blow pipes off. Have a go and don't forget the pictures

Mine won't tip as it's a reach truck.

This one works well but looks like a 4 ton.

 

[sako243]

@fizzy relief valve should kick in assuming everything is working properly.

 

[fizzy]

Just spotted these.
Bolt some 10mm angle to the sides. Might need longer bolts.
Piece of hefty U or C channel across with wedge or axe underneath.

 

[gaz1]

@fizzy take a look at this simple build with axe head and no massive attachment needed

also take note how it fastens to the forklift

 

[fizzy]

@fizzy take a look at this simple build with axe head and no massive attachment needed

also take note how it fastens to the forklift

Thanks Gaz I did see that one. A lot more involved than just bolting on 2 bits of angle though.
My only concern is the shear force on the bolts. Will have to work it out.

 

[jmp49]

The easy way out this I thought is to get a vertical log splitter for a 3 point on a tractor, and weld two rectangular boxes underneath it to take the forks. Then you park the forklift forks on the ground pinning it in place, without altering the structure of the forklift in any way, so just another attachment like a hook or a tipping bin and any damage etc happens to the splitter rather than wrecking something expensive on the mast.
For the hydraulic side, a set of tractor self sealing connectors for the hoses on one of the services, and bypass the controls on the splitter so you can control it from the forklift (or with a piece of string or handle from the service control. Or tee off on the feed to the services, and keep the splitter's hydraulic controls.
I was going to do same, except I ended up putting the one I got on the jcb back acter, horizontally by adding some bucket ears to it, and diverted the bucket craw ram feed to the ram so I could use the jcb controls to lower it onto logs on the ground and pinch them above a split pile then finally split them fully onto it. This was really really nice and meant I could split a large quantity of logs on my own straight into a trailer with no manual humping about, until the homemade log splitter built by someone else bent its ipn backbone as it wasn't up to the force of the ram/machine hydraulics after a couple of hours of blissfull thoughts about how much of a log processing unit it had become.
So thats parked in the garden, splitter still mounted but bent like a banana in disgust, waiting for me to make it stronger myself.

 

[steve t]

A place I worked had something set up similar with a jig for bending the base for hooped top railings