15.10.2010

Telehandler Death Wish

Sent in from South Wales an innovator creates a whole new meaning for pallet on the forks access.

This man, possibly a farmer looking at the machinery outside of the house, clearly needed to paint the side of his house, or this house.
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Our man has at least protected himself from passing traffic by parking the tractor strategically in the road

Unlike many who feature in our Death Wish column our man in this example clearly understands some of the benefits of powered access, but possibly only half of them.

He obviously needed some up and over reach to get to a point where he felt the telehandler could not reach and so he rigged up some very long steel fork extensions in the form of RSJ/I-beams with some home-made angle iron collars to retain one end of them on the forks.
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The device uses two I-Beams, two sets of angle-iron clamps, two tie-down straps, a wood pallet and a mesh cage

A wooden shipping pallet has then been slipped over the ends of the extensions and nylon web tie down straps used as pendants to support the extensions – they are tied to the top of the fork carriage and it not clear how he has attached them to the pallet.

Finally feeling he needs a guardrail he has used a mesh box which seems to be doing the job nicely, it was probably intended to keep all his paint on the pallet rather than as a safety consideration? He has though parked a large tractor in the street so that his telehandler is at least protected from passing traffic.

The result? Interesting.. Not the worst thing we have seen my any measure, efficient – hardly although possibly better than a long ladder. Imagine how well he might work with a proper work platform on his telehandler!
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And our friendly man is clearly proud of his ingenuity