Vertically telescoping intermediate plate for additional height on pallet forks

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Buy a forklift!
Any adapting of a set of forks to try and gain 12" is a foolish endeavor!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

true, first you put your stuff on the top skid of 5, take it to the 'mezzanine'....
or load the skid at back breaking ground level, lift and place on top of stack of 4 skids, flip forks, grab skid of stuff, take to mezzanine.

You CAN NOT flip fork lift forks!

 

[Sidekick]

I picked up a Presto lift on ebay that will lift 2000 pounds 96 inches for under a grand and something like it would be perfect for your needs and safe. I use it for the pallet racks in my shop. Would even be easy to build a fixed one like an elevator with 2 c channels, some cam followers, and a lifting hoist.

 

[InTheWoods]

You guys are overthinking it. THIS is the way it's done:

 

[Showmedata]

Geez. The OP comes to the Fabrication forum with an idea and everybody (save one) tries to talk him out of fabricating anything. What a letdown.

 

[Hkb82]

Geez. The OP comes to the Fabrication forum with an idea and everybody (save one) tries to talk him out of fabricating anything. What a letdown.

Nobody trying to talk him out of it just giving advise and ideas. I like fabricating stuff as much as the rest of ya do but I also don’t mind to hear the truth about my ideas.
I think I’d be trying to build a Jack plate kinda thing. They are used on boats to lift and lower your outboard on your transom without changing the trim. Your essentially looking at building a jack plate for between your quick connect and your forks. Definitely doable. Check them out online if you’re not sure what they are. I thinks you could get some good ideas from them and then run it from the 3rd function. Could probably build one that maybe would give ya 3-4 feet of clearance. You mentioned you’re not looking to lift heavy stuff but just remember anything you build adds weight plus bad stuff happens real fast at maxed height so be careful.
prob not the cheapest solution either if you only use it once a year or less.