Forklift With a Raiseable Seating Compartment

Hello! Thank you for taking the time to read about my forklift design.

I am a high school student in Ignite Christian Academy that decided to jump in on an opportunity to share my possible improvement for future forklifts.

I have never driven a forklift before, however I have operated a Bobcat machine and have personally been plagued with not being able to look over the top of a load. This was the problem that I was determined to solve in my project.

Autodesk Fusion 360, for the actual designing of my concept

Photoshop, for photo manipulation

I, unprofessionally, did not begin with a sketch of what I intended to create since my idea was pretty clear to me. Instead I just began to design it in Fusion.

My idea was to aid forklift operators with their problem of being unable to see around their cargo once it is elevated. My addition to modern forklifts would allow the user to rise independently of the forks, becoming able to precisely line the forks up under their cargo, and see over their cargo after it is lifted up.

Obviously one must start somewhere, so I began to make the wheels, axles and the body. I added a step for easy entry to the seating compartment. I added some detailing although it is simply for aesthetics, since I am not a physics major.

I then created the seating compartment, forks and the gas tank. However I did not include any forklift controls, other than the gas and accelerator pedals and the lever to control the compartment's height, as this design was not centered on basic controls.

My addition to the forklift model is based on the rising capability of the seating compartment. This could be accomplished by the same type of hydraulic system that raises the forks. Therefore this design would not require a new system for lifting the compartment.

This is the end of my Forklift Design Concept. Thank you for reading!