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What Are the Top Eight Uses of Crane Pallet Forks?
You’ll be amazed with how many different uses you’ll find for pallet forks on the construction site or in the factory. Whether outdoors under the hook of a tower crane or mobile crane, or indoors under the hook of an overhead crane, you’ll never regret buying this essential accessory for your crane.
Sure, you probably have a forklift on the factory floor, right? Forklifts may be quick and easy when there is ample room to move, but what about when space is tight, and it makes better sense to utilize that overhead crane with a handy pallet forks attachment?
The same goes for the construction site where the all-terrain forklift is getting used regularly. It works great until it doesn’t, like when space is confined, and access is restricted. Then it makes good sense to use that crane that’s already on site and fit it with the pallet forks attachment.
Explore the eight different uses listed below and let us know if you’re interested in looking at a new set of pallet forks:
Moving Pallets
Maybe it’s the obvious one, but it’s definitely the most common reason to buy the pallet forks attachment. It just makes moving pallets easier, whether you’re delivering them where they need to go, or just rearranging. Especially when space is tight and overhead access is the most reasonable route, pallet forks become the most reliable choice for effortlessly moving palletized materials.
Stop Dragging and Start Lifting
One of the best things about cranes is that they lift up, up and away. It’s common to see oversized objects being dragged from place to place on job sites, or pushed around here and there in the factory, but these options are usually messy and risky. Save yourself the hassle by utilizing pallet forks under the hook of a crane to do the lifting.
Stacking Supplies
One of the best capabilities of pallet forks under the hook of a crane is the reach. With a pallet forks attachment, you can stack supplies where they need to go and reach the top as easy as ever when you need to access the supplies. This option is especially valuable when space is at a premium on your job site or in your factor. With this option in mind, your pallet forks can save you high-priced space, in addition to labor and time.
Moving Equipment Boxes
Whether it’s for the plumbers or the HVAC guys, moving around heavy equipment boxes around the site or factory can be a major annoyance. But with pallet forks you can eliminate the trouble and stress by lifting these heavy items above the busyness below. Your workers will love you for the convenience of it, and you’ll probably save time and money in the process.
Delivering Roofing Materials
Since there’s pretty much nowhere on a construction site that a crane cannot reach, with your pallet forks attachment you can deliver materials to anywhere, even the roof! That is just way beyond what a conventional forklift could do. Your roofing crew will love the specific and strategic placement of their shingles or tools or other necessary supplies directly to where they need them. And the cleanup process will also be made safer and more efficient. Pallet forks can be of great assistance to any roofing project.
Loading and Unloading Supplies From Trucks
Whether you’re unloading supplies from the back of a pickup truck or getting an order delivered from a tractor-trailer, having pallet forks available will make the loading and unloading process much more manageable, especially when the staging for the product is a few floors up, or the space around the truck is limited. Apologies to the forklift, but instead of dispatching a ramp, bring in the crane with pallet forks.
Lifting and Maintaining Machinery
Some of the machinery on your job site or in your factory will need to be moved from time to time to make room or clear a path. Sometimes that maneuver will be far easier to perform from above by way of a crane and pallet forks. As well, sometimes that machinery needs to be worked on from below and pallet forks can allow you to raise it to a comfortable height to be looked at and serviced.
Relocating Heavy Objects
Whether its transporting equipment like generators or delivering major appliances like refrigerators, relocating heavy objects on site can be made easy and safe with your pallet forks attachment. Bulky items like these can be a headache to move and require sometimes require far more labor than necessary. Bring in the pallet forks to save time, energy, and money.
Conclusion: Making Cranes Infinitely More Useful
That’s just what accessories do, right? In the case of cranes, accessories make them far more versatile and useful. The pallet forks attachment allows cranes to be used in ways that would otherwise be impossible with pallet-sized loads. That’s why crane owners and operators alike love to accessorize their cranes and explore the innumerable possibilities of lifting and moving.
In summary, pallet forks are a good investment as a crane accessory. The above eight uses are probably just the beginning for you, whether in your factory or on your construction site. Yes, in many cases, forklifts are being used to perform standard tasks, but they don’t always work in confined spaces, nor do they reach the heights of cranes. In addition, they can easily carry a price tag of $100,000 or more. So, if you’re already utilizing a crane, it may be worth your while to consider the pallet forks attachment at a fraction of the cost. They may become the easiest, safest, and most feasible option for lifting and moving heavy items around your job site or factory. And when you start finding other creative uses for them, let us know!
For a look at some of the world’s highest quality Italian-made pallet forks, click here.
To watch a video about Bigfoot’s innovative self-levelling Boscaro Pallet Forks, click here.
West Shore Constructors have been using Boscaro products purchased from Bigfoot for some of the biggest challenges they’ve faced at Neptune Terminal, a billion-dollar project in North Vancouver.
“We work in some pretty challenging environments,” said Brian Casper, Construction Superintendent with West Shore Constructors. “So we need equipment that we can rely on to be durable and safe. That’s why we work closely with Bigfoot.”
West Shore has been a leader in Western Canada’s heavy construction industry for more than fifty years. They are known for their outstanding work in bridge building, pile driving, marine construction, and industrial transport. “We’re not a huge company,” said Supervisor Michael Kobelka, “but we have a lot of machinery and equipment, so we can pretty much handle anything.”
In 2020, West Shore has been a part of a billion-dollar construction project at North Vancouver’s Neptune Terminal, where they have been using some very specialized equipment from Bigfoot’s Boscaro line of products.
Working in Cofferdam Cells
“At Neptune, we were asked to build a massive cofferdam for the new coal dumper,” explained Kobelka. “When it’s all finished, they will be able to bring two rail cars at a time directly over the pit, where they’ll be flipped upside down to dump out the coal. Then the conveyors will load the ships. It’s a huge project.”
West Shore has been building the cofferdam with multiple cells, driving in piles almost one meter in diameter, interlocking all the way around the perimeter. The main cell needed to be almost twenty meters deep and twenty meters wide. “We started digging from the top with our excavators, but we couldn’t go very far down because it’s such a big cell,” said Casper. “So we had to lower the excavators inside the cell with our cranes, but we still needed a way to get the material out.”
The solution was a Boscaro self-dumping bin that West Shore had purchased from Bigfoot. They could simply lower the bin into the hole, fill it with material and then lift it straight out.
“We’ve been using that dumping bin constantly on this project,” said Casper, “and we’ve probably hoisted out about 150,000 meters of material with it. It’s been invaluable.”
History with Bigfoot
West Shore has been dealing with Bigfoot for years as a supplier of quality products for both rental and purchase, but Kobelka and Casper both got to know Bigfoot initially through it’s training programs.
“Most of our guys at West Shore have gone through Bigfoot’s rigging courses,” said Kobelka. “For guys like us who have been in the industry for more than thirty years and have attended multiple training sessions, I can honestly say that those courses at Bigfoot are some of the best I’ve ever taken.”
Whether through the training courses or through years of steady business-to-business sales and service, West Shore and Bigfoot have developed a strong relationship of trust. “Now, when we need a new product, we’ll call Bigfoot right away or we’ll go to their website,” said Casper. “And if they don’t have what we need, they always talk to us straight and refer us to someone else who can help. We appreciate that kind of honesty and integrity.”
“We’ve never had any issues with our purchases from Bigfoot,” said Kobelka. “They always provide great products and great service.”
Other Boscaro Products
In addition to the Boscaro dumping bin, West Shore also purchased several other key pieces of equipment from Bigfoot that have been put to good use on the Neptune project. “We needed a heavy duty spreader bar,” said Kobelka, “so we could lower a Komatsu 138 down into the hole. You can’t do that with just any spreader bar.”
West Shore bought the Boscaro 110-ton system and they’ve been using it steadily at Neptune.
“We’ve been craving a good quality spreader bar for a long time, and this one is holding up extremely well,” said Casper.
West Shore has come to expect the highest quality standards from Boscaro. “We’ve been using their man baskets for years,” Casper said, “and we recently bought another one from Bigfoot. For access in and out of these cells at Neptune, we regularly have to use man baskets off of the crane. They get used a lot, day and night, and we always keep one on hand, in case of emergency, if we need to do a rescue.”
For West Shore, the close working relationship with Bigfoot and the top-quality products from Boscaro continue to be indispensable at Neptune, one of their most challenging projects to date.
**This article was previously published in Modern Contractor (December 2020) and Equipment and Contracting (Vol 2, Issue 5).
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Photo courtesy of David Gosse
Photo courtesy of David Gosse
