As I may have mentioned I used my boom (cherry picker) to unload my new welder, but I've been thinking. If you could figure out some form of regular set of forks to go on the end of the boom you could leave it shortened and have more lifting capacity because you would not have to reach up over the cargoe you are unloading.
The concept has been nagging in the back of my mind for a couple weeks now, but I just can't seem to come up with and visualize an easy to use and affordable to build mechanism that would allow you to keep the forks level or even close to level when raising and lowering your load.
Not many of us can afford a forklift for that once or twice a year load that could use one, so we wind up borrowing a loading dock down the street, begging a forklift, or improvising. I think it would be the coolest thing if you could come up with a set of 1000-1500lb forks that you could just push your boom upto and slide in a couple pins. Lots of folks have cherry pickers. Something you could build or buy in the $400 - $700 range. Want to get fancy? Put on an air operated hydraulic ram to raise and lower the arm faster.
I was gonna try and invent this gizmo, but the basic mechanics just slip away when I almost have it vizualized each time. I'll let one of you guys invent it and make a million dollars. I'll just buy one when you do.
Bob La Londe