I really like the plastic forks with the “bucket” on the end. Great for sifting and easy to clean the stall. But they break so easily. Anyone found anything more durable?
I have yet to find a metal basket fork. I know the Manure Master or the Apple Picker is metal but neither makes it in a basket style.
I wish they did too!
LOATHE plastic forks. Sorry, can’t recommend any that I’ve ever found durable, or even worth messing with. :no:
I love my Union Jack rubber matting fork so much–getting hard to find, so I’m glad I have two! 
Well, just for grins/giggles, I e-mailed the nice folks at Apple Picker (home of the metal fork). Seems they tried it before. Here’s his reply to my Wish Request:
We tried a basket style years ago. It double or tripled the weight factor.
Oh well. I tried! 
[QUOTE=ChocoMare;4660575]
Well, just for grins/giggles, I e-mailed the nice folks at Apple Picker (home of the metal fork). Seems they tried it before. Here’s his reply to my Wish Request:
We tried a basket style years ago. It double or tripled the weight factor.
Oh well. I tried! :D[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I could definitely see that problem with the metal forks. I wonder if anyone has tried titanium. :lol:
Then instead of tripling the weight factor, you’d be upping the price factor by an order of magnitude or so.
Visited a farm once and the BO had all her dead, mangled, of no use manure forks along a fence line handle dug into the ground forks facing up and every which way. Then she planted climbing flowering vines below them. It really was pretty and put to use the ODF (old dead forks).
I just keep replacing the no-name plastic heads, about $6 each. I never have a problem with handles!! The vendors sell just the heads at our Tack Sales, so I stock up now. DD likes the long finger tines, while I prefer the tines with cross pieces to hold them still. So we have spares waiting for both of us when we break off a tine or two. Found some PURPLE ones at the last sale, she is excited!
I never see the basket heads only, for sale. I would give you mine, we never use it, too heavy loaded, even in plastic. I never liked the metal tined sawdust forks, too much wiggle. Work good shoveling mulch though, cleans the truck bed right out! Doesn’t seem to work for anything else for me. Too “picky” I guess!
I have steel forks for real work or when we use straw bedding. Plastic forks are useless in straw, but the 10-tine steel is really nice for straw. 6-tine steel is nice for loose hay, not heavy. I use the garden fork, heavy tines, short D-handle for leverage, in the frozen wood fiber or sawdust pile to loosen things up. Breaks up frozen stuff fast to fill the wheelbarrow with. No bending the lighter tines of the pitchforks trying to get bedding out of the bin.
You silly pitchfork breakers. It’s all in the skill. I’ve had one plastic pitchfork from TSC for NINE years cleaning 8 stalls a day and it’s still going strong. Learn how to muck. :lol: Just kidding btw…
No complaints about my little metal one except the darn handle keeps breaking- I got a new handle at the hardware store and it has broken a few times now, always right where the fork attaches. That darn handle gets shorter by the day, one or two more fixes and it will be child size:D
About 8 years, I bought a couple of pitch forks with the ergonomanic metal handles (bent) with plastic tines. They were pricey ($22 each) but I was tired
of wooden splintery handles (hubby can’t quite seem to put them out of the weather, in fact, puts such things in places I don’t see them until damage is done).
DH fussed about them and the price, but they both are still going strong. Once
you get used to them, going back to a straight handle is a hassle. And the handles are still nice and smooth…
[QUOTE=dmalbone;4660795]
You silly pitchfork breakers. It’s all in the skill. I’ve had one plastic pitchfork from TSC for NINE years cleaning 8 stalls a day and it’s still going strong. Learn how to muck. :lol: Just kidding btw…[/QUOTE]
lol! me too! I’m reading this amazed so many people break them.
watch both of ours will break tomorrow now :lol:
Durafork brand lasts for years. No name knock-offs break easily. Just getting harder to source them.
I have one too and I love it. It was a present
[QUOTE=dmalbone;4660795]
You silly pitchfork breakers. It’s all in the skill. I’ve had one plastic pitchfork from TSC for NINE years cleaning 8 stalls a day and it’s still going strong. Learn how to muck. :lol: Just kidding btw…[/QUOTE]
Well, I was being so careful with this one, but the horses keep getting bedding underneath their mats. I used to use a short-tined metal rake to get it out, but that broke too. Maybe I just have bad luck. 
These are the best if you can get them over there. I’ve had mine for at least six years and it’s still as good as new!
[QUOTE=kookicat;4662556]
These are the best if you can get them over there. I’ve had mine for at least six years and it’s still as good as new! :D[/QUOTE]
I think I’ve seen something similar to that. I wish they made it with a bucket though. I’ve got a horse that spreads his manure all over the stall and I need to do a lot of sifting. It’s so much easier when the fork has sides.
I wonder if a fork could be made from aluminum or if that would bend too easy. It would be lightweight.
Aluminum probably would not be at all flexible, since it is usually a cast metal. Not sure it would be that light, as a cast head with teeth for a fork.
I love the basket forks as I am a three-bounce bedding sifter. I can get a year out of one if I remember NEVER to use it backwards to rake beding towards me and never to jam it into the wall. Mine crack at the handle join. I keep the heavy short handle metal fork handy for big jobs.
[QUOTE=Plumcreek;4663821]
Mine crack at the handle join. [/QUOTE]
That’s what happened to mine. I’m still using though!
