yard forklift

[civic83]

I recently started building a yard forklift, the goal is to have a set of forks for skids and regular cargo, and an add on grapple for containers. I started this because I was frustrated with the newray conversion I had, it basically lacked power and controlability, this should eliminate that!

So far the specs are:

tamiya f350 rear axle with aluminum lockouts
stock tamiya semi tires
venom creeper transmission
planetary gearbox for lift motor
duratrax chains and sprockets in the lift system
custom machined mast
brass chassis
rc4wd 80t motor
hitec 645mg steering servo
hpi sf1 1/4 scale servo for tilt on the mast
venom esc and tamiya esc to run the motors


heres a starter pic.......

[RoadFlyer]

Looks promising. Nice work!

[rcguyfarms]

Another big forklift being built. This might encourage me to finish the body work on mine.

[Claus]

Looking good. Remember to keep your center of gravity as low as possible, any way to lower that transmission or use one that sits lower? Also add as much weight to the chassis as you can but keep it as low as you can.


When they talk fork lifts you will hear the "stability triangle", that is the imaginary triangle that runs across the front axle and back to the center of the rear axle. Your load weight should never be outside of that.

[civic83]

Thanks for the info, the transmission itself looks high but the motor bolts on at the bottom frame rail. The lift motor and batteries also mount low on the frame so most of the weight is below the top of the tires.

I had to mount the tranny like that so the drive shaft could come in over the top of the gearmotor that runs the mast. Once everythings done I plan to add a "tray" tot eh bottom of the frame and fill it with lead stick on weights as necessary to lover the CG and balance it.