Forks for blade on snowcat

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Ski hills typically use some sort of forks that mount to the blades of the snowcats for moving rails and boxes in the terrain Parks.  We have been dealing with 2 options neither of which was good.  You could either use the flimsy wobbly forks that hook on the blade individually with no real mechanism to lock them in place, or you could use the set that's less flimsy but requires removing the blade from the machine, and had a crossmember between the two forks about a foot from the tips, making them pretty much useless as forks.I threw together a new set this afternoon that will hopefully solve the issues.  It can be picked up and set down at will, and is very beefy with plenty of gusseting at the major stress points.  Loops to attach cargo straps to hold stuff tight when traversing the hill, and a lug under the crossmember, which allows for a binder to be hooked to the cutting edge of the blade and REALLY hold them on good.  All 1/4" thick material, mostly 2.5" square tube.  Tapered tips were done by simply torching a triangular notch, bending the bottom up and welding the seam.  This set oughta last them a while.You didn't build that.'85 Miller AEAD-200LE
Reply:NICE forks...Made a pair for our Pisten Bullies last year!  PM sent..  I do a lot of things like you, due to working at a ski center also.  Rails, snowmaking crap, Lift maint stuff, Groomers are constantly breaking something, always busy.  Plus you can use creative freedom in making things (rails and stuff) for the mountain to make it a better experience for the patrons. I made some scaled scrap steel groomers and got to hang em up around the lodges/bar as well as some metal art stuff we did a couple years ago. Last summer we did a mile of snowmaking pipe, 6 and 8 inch plus a 16 in dia. manifold from the pumphouse tying into to the hill.  Quite an undertaking for me, but it all came out nice and snowmaking was so good this year were done for the season already, pending no major thaws.  knock on wood....Keep up the good stuff!! Ill post pics soon as I figger it out!  What kinda snowcats you guys have?peace
Reply:We've got an old ParkBully 200 with a custom gun-lifting blade made by yours truly for the snowmakers, a PistenBully Edge 200, a Prinoth BR350 Bison, a Prinoth Bison X, and a Prinoth BR350 Winch Bison.You didn't build that.'85 Miller AEAD-200LE
Reply:What area are you at?  I rebuilt both the blades on our 93 PB240 and 94 PB260 snow cats because the tops of the blades just weren't reinforced enough for picking snow machines.  Now made out of 1/4 wall 2x4" square tubing and a lot sturdier. Attached Images
Reply:That's about what I did on our ParkBully blade.  I did ours so it looks factory though.  I cut out the flange on the top of the blade and stuck some 2x4x1/4 and rebuilt the fence out of assorted 1/4" stock.You didn't build that.'85 Miller AEAD-200LE