I am an aspiring lift truck mechanic in Vancouver. We (me and my co-workers) work on small lift trucks(eg. 3000lbs forklifts) and large lift trucks(100,000lbs container stackers and forklifts). I figure that a team of warriors, maby even us, will be able to construct a forklift within 10 hours. With the right parts I am shure that they could figure it out. major requirements: channel iron engine and transmition differential wheels hydraulic pump(if using hydraulic powered lift) hydraulic cylinder and hoses carrage(they can make it) hydraulic valves counter weight

The lift truck can be driven using a transmition onto the differential or using a second hydraulic pump and using it as a motor driving the differential or wheels. A rack and pinion steering box could be the steer axle. Using channel iron, the mast or upright can be built. ideally there would be roller bearings to aid in the smooth operation but a lot of grease will do.

the idea is to build a lift truck and send it through a obstical course. on each end there would be a object to pick-up and carry back to the other end.

Well thats my idea and I leave the rest up to you fine people at junkyard wars. I am shure me and my co-workers will be willing to challange any team to the task. Any questions or clarification just e-mail me.

-- Brenden Davie (brendendavie@hotmail.com), April 01, 2001

Answers

Forklift ideas have been around the forum for a while, but this version does give more details. How about this challenge:

A fews pallets of something fairly heavy (concrete paving blocks, perhaps?) are sitting in the parking lot of a warehouse. They need to be lifted up, driven to a loading dock that is 50 meters (100 feet? 200 yards?) away and set up on the dock. The first team to move three (2? 5?) pallets is the winner. Alternately, the teams have 20 (15? 30?) minutes to move as many pallets as they can. Since hydraulics have had a mixed history on the show, each team is allowed a 10-minute repair break with no penalty.

This challenge could be solved by a hydraulic lift truck (see Brenden's suggestion) or perhaps a truck chassis with a boom and an electric winch. You could even use machine power to hoist the load and human power to move it from the parking area to the loading dock. Maybe some team would elect to build a truck chassis with a boom and hoist that where human power lifts the pallet using a block-and-tackle system.

There are several ways to solve this, and lots of opportunity for "educational failure" (spraying hydraulic fluid, collapsing boom arms, tipping lift trucks).

-- Rick Tyler (rick@raf.com), April 02, 2001.

YOU'RE ON!

...and my team will build it without counterweight!

See what we do at www.piggy-back.com

-- Dan Denney (Rustrenegades@hotmail.com), April 02, 2001.