3C Mk2 4 in 1 with Forks [Wanted]

[XS650]

Back in the late 70s when site forklifts really took off I remember site fitters coming round and fitting fold out forks to JCB 3C's in the field ,so someone must have been making 'kits'.
These seem to work much better on 4 in 1's as you could open out the bucket and see the forks.

Craig

[Megasong3]

The one I'm after may well be one of those later mod type, I've attached pictures. It seems ideal.

[Slooby]

That 4 in 1 bucket is almost, if not identical to the one fitted to my 1987 3CX, so that broadens your options to finding one:

[Megasong3]

It sure does look the same, I'll have to find a 3CX and take some measurements and if it'll fit as you say could make my search much easier. The one in the pictures is on a machine that's for sale but he does not want to break. All the rams are badly pitted and the engine leaks oil and it is rusted through in many of the places that still remain BUT IT WORKS!! and comes with a full set of buckets. You can't beat the old ones. There's not enough of use to me to make it worth buying the whole thing and I have no interest in breaking it.

[Slooby]

The one thing I will say though is that I think the 3CX bucket is a fair bit wider overall, could be wrong, but if you look at the width of the forks on that pic of mine they look a lot smaller than the ones on the 3C, which makes me think a 3CX is a bigger machine...

[Megasong3]

Well observed, it is a lot wider, oh well back to the drawing board. Think I may see if there's mileage in the earlier suggestion of sorting a quick connect mechanism and get a standard 4 in 1 and a separate pair of forks, It would make using the forks much easier and add quite a bit to their carrying capacity.

[Slooby]

The mounting points for the loader arms might still be the same though, so when I get a chance I'll measure them up for you

[Slooby]

Ok, weather was kind today, and I was able to sneak away from my laptop while 'working from home' to take a few pics and some measurements of my 3CX 4 in 1 Bucket and the 'Q fit' carriage fitted to it.

Overall the 3CX 4 in 1 Bucket is 95" wide

The Bucket mounting pins are 12" centre to centre vertically (dimension A) and they are 1 3/4"(45mm) pins



The Loader Arm mounts are 7" wide (dimension B)



The centre to centre width of the loader arms is 37" (dimension C)



As for the Q Fit carriage itself it is fabricated from 1/2" plate, the top tube is 2 1/4 OD 1/4" wall, the bottom pins are 1 1/4" on mine

The 4 in 1 Bucket has had Q Fit brackets welded ontop of the standard mounting hardware, you can buy these from ebay for about £80 a pair. If I was going to make my own carriage I would buy a pair of these first to make sure my top tube diameter and bottom pins were correctly sized and spaced to suit.

This pic shows another detail of how the Q fit brackets have been welded to my bucket:



Hope this helps!

[Megasong3]

That is brilliant, many thanks, will get out there tomorrow and check out measurements on mine. The brackets on the bucket look quite easy to make but I need to investigate the rest of it, give me a chance to try out my plasma cutter on something more than a few mm which would be fun. I'm lucky there is a steel stockholder who also cuts to size for customers and they let me raid their offcut bin for very reasonable money so could be an option. It would certainly give me something to keep me occupied should I ever have a spare minute.

[Slooby]

No problem at all

The 'hook and hole' part of the brackets welded to the bucket are 1 1/4" plate! You'll need a pretty pokey plasma cutter to cut them out!