Welding up some Forklift slippers?

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Hey there,I load and unload alot of trucks at work and we frequently use our forklift slippers to lift 2 pallets at once due to the depth of the truck. We (my other co drivers) are finding the current slippers are too short at 1600 long. The boss agrees that we need new ones but is not pleased on spending another 1500 bucks on a new set. I would like to save the company a bit of dough and build some and make everyone happy. The loads we lift never exceed 1500Kg or ~3300Lb. The slippers we have currently are 1600 long, 140 wide and 70 high with a 5mm wall thickness. My proposed design is 2100 long, 130 wide and 65 high with a 6mm wall and 10mm thick tail piece for the locking pin. My question is, is high tensile for this project necessary or will mild do the job? I dont want to cause and accident even though we are very safe and responsible operators. Isn't the genral rule of thumb that a slipper must not exceed 1/3 the legth of the Tyne? If that is the case, the current slippers are to long because our forks are 1100 long. I plan to weld them up with 7018 either way.Thanks for any help Support Bacteria -  It's the only culture some people have!
Reply:Hey bud we made several pairs of these with regular mild steel channel iron with  a series of plates welded into them to grab the forks. Just to be safe we used 6011 roots and then capped these with 7018. Hope this helps and these are now 4 years old and doing just fine....
Reply:Do you remember dimensions of these?I like the sound of using channel instead of getting 4 sides guillotined. I would still have to cut a taper on the channel though?Support Bacteria -  It's the only culture some people have!
Reply:Distractor,It's the vertical area that counts.The shape and strength of "MC" Ship & Car channel may save you some fabrication work.Good Luck
Reply:In order to determine if the design is good, I think it would be necessary to know the dimensions of the forks without slippers.  With that info, I would be able to make a better determination.
Reply:I will get you some dimensions.Support Bacteria -  It's the only culture some people have!
Reply:The Tynes are 1100mm long by 100mm wide and 40mm thick at the heel which tapers to 9mm thick at the tips.Support Bacteria -  It's the only culture some people have!
Reply:Originally Posted by distractorThe Tynes are 1100mm long by 100mm wide and 40mm thick at the heel which tapers to 9mm thick at the tips.
Reply:Good point dave,I have used borrowed extensions on my forklift, and plan to make a pair of my own. You just have to use them smart. I have a 5000 pound forklift. Now let's assume that I am going to make 96" extensions to put on my 48" forks. That's fine, but there's not a snowball's chance in heck that I'm going to try to lift 5000 pounds at the 96" tips! Not even 2500 pounds. That's why there are rules about how long you can make them...even if all your operators are respectful of the extensions now, you'll hire some idiot one day who doesn't know and he'll try to lift a large load out at the tips. Best case scenario...the back tires come off the ground BEFORE he backs away from the trailer. Worst case, he backs away, starts to drive forward, hits his brakes and kisses the mast when it nose-dives!!!!Andrew
Reply:I would be way more concerned if I had compromised the stability of the fork lift or exceeeded any working limits of the material,  If those forks fail they are going to find whoever is responsible and cook with chicken grease.  Boss needs to come off the cah for the proper equipment if that is in his realm of responsibility, but I personally would be very dissinterested in building that project without drawings from an engineer.BobI'm spending my Kids inheritance, I dont like him that much anyway!!!!!!Enuff tools to do the job, enough sense to use em.Anybody got a spare set of kidneys?  Trade?
Reply:Perhaps you dont understand Dave powelson that I do know the load rating of the forklift and I am a very experienced operator. I came here asking for advice and I get and attitude from you, matey!Slippers are not "levers", they are TEMPORARY Tyne extensions for the sole purpose of load stabilization. I'm aware they are not designed to actually lift a load and to use them in such a way would be foolish at best. Our forklift has the capacity to lift the said loads at that CofG. The problem now is, we have to drive the slippers in the pallets, drop them and reverse a bit and then re-enter with the slippers half on the Tynes in order to reach the second pallet adequately. This works OK and is the ONLY way we can unload the pallets except we have to fiddle around getting the slippers out again because we cant use the locking pins. We had a quote today and the guy said that at 2100mm long we could lift ~1650kg safely and ~2000kg on the redline. He has not got back to us with a price yet.Just remember that we have a full height dock and the loads are never 3 inches from the ground!Support Bacteria -  It's the only culture some people have!
Reply:Distractor - I would have to agree with Dave on this one. Slippers are levers. So are your forks. They just happen to be designed to leave the load center in a safe place to prevent tip over. Extensions on those forks, especially with weight out on the tips, moves the load center beyond the wheels in such a way that it could create a tip over situation. But, with your loads never far off the ground, a tip over is highly unlikely, so maybe i shouldnt have even said anything...  On the subject of type of metal to use, we have a set of extensions similar in design to what your using. They were made with mild steel and we havent had any problems with them. We dont pick up anywhere near the weight that you move though, so it might be better to go with some higher tensile strength steel. This coming from my vastly inferior metal knowledge however. I would talk to an engineering firm or talk to the people giving you a quote on new ones. See if you can pry the knowledge from them. Good luck, and be safe. Forklifts, as im sure you know, arent anything to be messing around with.