Snap coupler carryall

Deep in the dark depths of winter, no Allis project to be found.

Thought we would pass the time....



That didn't take long. Last winter I had an engine to build, before that, garden tractors. This winter wasn't looking too good.

Then, saw a couple topics on carryalls on here. Man those look handy!

But they don't come up for sale very often, certainly not close by, and they seem to command a pretty good price.

Uh Oh. The smokestacks in the littlemarvey R&D department started belching smoke, here we go again.....


I put an ad out for snap coupler eyes, but never found one with a horizontal plate on it.

Grabbed a u-bolt from the mistake bin next to the u-bolt machine at work.

Cut out the excess,





There, one snap coupler eye with a horizontal plate.



Got some 1 1/2" square tube, had to draw out one half of the hitch on a big piece of cardboard to get all my lengths and angles right.



Drew three parallel lines on the floor, so I could mock everything up and ensure everything would be where it needed to be when it was done.



Really, all that matters for the hitch is 42" from the front of the eye to the front of the carryall, and 30 1/8" between the lift arm latches.

Welded her tight, no turning back now....




Finally, a use for them forks I had laying around!

When scrap is low, that's when you hit up the fellow at work who is in charge of used cranes. Got a pair of forks for doughnut money, basically. Torched off the extra brackets and cut the forks down a bit to clear the lift arm latches.

The lift arms are about 24" off the ground when lowered, and 40" raised. Giving you 16" of lift. I set the pins to go in the latches at 25" off the ground, just to be safe.







Welded on the brackets for the hitch and the lift arm links, leaving two flat washers on either side of everything, just in case some minor adjustments are necessary. Hey, if I was building a carryall for the space shuttle, I'd tighten up my tolerances a bit. Until then, I engineer in a little wiggle.



So there, time for a test fit. I thought about welding a cross bar out on the tips of the forks, but, I might want to use it as a crude forklift someday. Plus, the platform will give it rigidity. As long as nobody uses it for a battering ram, we should be O.K.



Everything came out really good, the hitch snapped in, the latches fit correctly, looks good.





Theres only one snag, it doesn't sit level. The hitch is too long. I actually kind of planned it that way, as it is easier to remove the hitch and cut it shorter and redrill two holes.

One neat thing you'll notice in the next three pictures, is that it tilts back as you lift it up, due to the radius of the hitch being bigger than the radius traveled by the shorter lift arms. Built in tilt feature, good for keeping stuff from rolling off.









So there, a successful test. Back home for the platform, and to shorten up the hitch by 1 1/2".

I got two pieces of angle iron and bolted them on with the bolts through the rollers at the end of the forks, to bolt all the boards to. I'm sure not going to try to drill 14 holes through the forks!






I made it 6' wide so it will fit through the woods.

Bolted on 2 X 8's for the floor, and 1/2" plywood for the back. Took it up to Pa's today for a trial run.

Of course, you know what the first cargo is going to be....



The dog didn't stay on, but I told the boys to sit down, face back, and keep away from the tires. Off to the woods we went. Found a pile and loaded her up.


 


Then, went back up and got another load. I guess, in the back of my mind, this project was really for one purpose. When Pa cuts up wood, the bigger blocks are just a pain to handle. He rolls them over to the trailer, flips one end up, then lifts and shoves the block on, and shuffles it around into position. Takes them home, pushes them off the trailer. Then, when he gets the itch, he pulls out the woodsplitter, and rolls the blocks over to it, flips one end up, and lifts it on.

With this little attachment, I can go up to the woods, back into position, roll the blocks on, tote them home, back up to the woodsplitter, roll them right on, and split them.




I wouldn't want any more weight on there than that, she makes the front end pretty light!


So there, that worked out pretty good. Its a little overbuilt, those forks make it pretty heavy, but I used what I had at hand.


Thanks for looking!













Edited by littlemarv - 16 Sep 2017 at 8:40pm

you done good...

Not only liked your project but thoroughly enjoyed your narrative...reads just like a story and really kept my interest.  Great job on both counts! 

I had the same idea Ryan until I tried to get a couple of fork lift forks.  They aren't cheap....
GREAT outcome!  You did good!
I got the plans and measurements and a lot of pics from someone on here years ago.  If I'd a known,,,,,,,,,,,I'd of sent them to you.

Nice work in engineering. ..sometimes that is the hard part as you always worry that some small detail will foul everything  up.   I built a fork frame for my D 14 loader  and have not had the bucket back on in 5 years.  Forks are handy and yours will make you happy every time you save time and exert less strain doing projects.  Nothing better than DIY success.   Good story and pics.

Well, a year later, I finally get to try it out!

Junior has no idea how much work we accomplished there. When I was a kid, I did the same damn thing, only instead of a carryall, a tractor, a woodsplitter, a gator, a wagon, and a trailer, I used a splitting maul and two wedges. You carried and stacked it by hand. Would have taken me two weeks to split what we did in three hours.   

Edited by littlemarv - 21 May 2018 at 10:02pm