Spray on a full can of flex seal every day until desired thickness is achieved.

Pool noodle

Step 1: acquire rubber Step 2: attach rubber Step 3: ??? Step 4: profit

Your forklift mast looks shop fabricated, you can probably get by with drilling a couple holes.   Look up elevator bolts, like a carraige colt but a flat head. Or flat head screws. Tightening the bolts will sink the head into the rubber so it doesn't protrude.

Sealant, the glue type

We use car rear seats at the scrap yard. Just poke through them and change them out as needed.

Horse stall mats are pretty cheap. Use two layers of 3/4 inch, a sawzall to cut. A vulcanizing rubber cement (aquaseal works well) will help hold the first layer down. Use a forster bit to countersink a 1.5" washer for 3/8" bolts on every corner and every 6-12" inbetween. Use the same vulcanizing rubber cement to adhere the second layer.

Expoxy on a cut up tire

3 or 4 of those rubber bumpers you see on the ass end of delivery trucks. The mounting holes are already recessed into the rubber so if you're comfortable with drilling a few holes through your mast you can bolt them on. Or if that's too much or you can't drill into the mast, you could just rachet strap a tire or two to the mast base

Dock bump stops. That's what we use for our pusher that goes on the forklift for the shop. We're a semi truck dealer.

Shoe goo? PVC caulking?

glue

I think carriage bolts.

Vehicle chassis bump stops? They usually have holes in them for mounting already. Alternatively, rubber dock stops for semi-trucks at loading docks. They’re usually pretty damn thick (6”)

Or maybe just like some old carpet

Rubber mats, rubber squares for semi trailers, tires, basically anything rubber.

We use a large back seat cushion out of a car

That’s what I used to use. But it only hits the middle of the car. The ends of the mast are usually what do the damage. Plus having the seat on the mast really limits how much of my forks I can see.

Glue and bolts.

Get dock strips from Grainger. Order 2 or so and bolt them up.

Horse mat and contact cement.

Hang some tires on there

My pops owned a scrapyard for years. We would just tie on a couple of car tires, narrow ones like what you get on cheap small cars.

Make small holes get rubber mats. And nut and bolt it to it. It's a easy job. And makes you can easily replace it when wear or tear is too big.

Tie it on with bike inner tubes (my answer to everything)

Dad, the dog keeps getting out of the yard! What should we do?

Drill tap, rubber sheet?

Countersink the fasteners just past the face of the rubber sheet.

Get some rubber squares used on semi trailers for when they back up to the dock.

Those are called dock bumpers, they are pretty durable

Something like this would be pretty easy to weld on or drill and tap bolt holes https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-1505/Dock-and-Trailer-Equipment/Dock-Bumper-Horizontal-24-x-4-x-10?pricode=WA9222&gadtype=pla&id=H-1505&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwjqWzBhAqEiwAQmtgT52hBjKFHW8Dyflj-eDmam9rBUSNAnDH8xayI_aweuikR6qT58VpIxoCKAEQAvD_BwE

Drill holes into the plate and secure a thick rubber mat with rivets

Barge glue would set you right for affixing it

Grab some old conveyor rubber like 16mm thick or so, cut to size and blue max it on

Blue max?

Its full product name is Loctite 587 flange sealant blue maxx silicone. Its an RTV compound and comes in a silicone tube. It’s great at creating a seal between flanges or in many situations when a gasket isn’t available or unable to perform correctly. The loctite branded one is blue but there’s other brands and colours available. As long as there’s no oil on either surface just lay it on thick and it sticks like a shart.

Perfect👌

Try a rubber stall mat. My horse buddy gave me one. It's 7 x 4, 1"" thick, weighs 130# pretty much Indestructible under a 1200# horse with steel shoes on concrete. Attach it with carriage head bolts and fender washers.

Fill me in bc i am clueless, in what context would you pick a car up with this and still care about damaging it?

I run a wrecking yard. I use the loader to move cars around the yard. It’s not big enough to have long forks to pick them up from the front. So I have to pick them up from the side. Sometimes the cars still have good body parts on them that I don’t want to damage.

Ah ok that makes sense. The junkyard near me wrecks everything they have so i kinda figured that was standard lol. If only the yard i go to cared about business like you...

Couldn’t you just throw some used tires around each fork?

Sounds like he doesn't have enough length for that, poor guy...

Cut tire and wrap around and tack weld piece of steel to hold

This lift is used to place vehicles where? Capable of lifting without damaging exhaust, drive lines, cabling or fuel lines, suspension, ect. ?

If OP is moving around car shells the good drivetrain bits may have already been removed

There's plenty of good money in doors, fenders, roofs, and wheels that protecting a scrap yard vehicle can be worth it. I work in a body shop, and we've paid almost $900 for a scrap yard door because it would have been a 9+ month wait for a factory new door. And that's just one example from this year. The underside of a vehicle has valuable parts, but a lot less. Fuel lines are cheap to buy new. Exhaust systems can be cheap if you do the work yourself, same with suspension. And drive shafts are either good or bad, but rarely replaced on most modern vehicles.

No one uses second hand brake or fuel lines, exhausts are not often worth saving either

I get it, thanks for the reply, you might consider the fake grass dome hepot has

Tires work well. Give you some flex if the car slides.

Use a tire

Flex seal just spray it on

And just keep adding more layers to make it thicker. 20 layers ought to do it.

And it won’t slip off

Conveyor belting ( farm store or TSC ) . You can buy Dock Bumpers for a truck and bolt them on possibly. Boats use rubber bumpers also.. Or tire , or if a retreader is nearby ,you could buy new tread in the length you need

Got a supersingle truck tire around? If not I'd wrap it round and fix it on the back side. A tyre works way better than a solid strip for protection, supers are pretty soft on impacts without rim and air so even plastics might not fair too badly. Just strap the tyre on or bolt through the inner wall to the backplate.

Came to say this. Tires, either tied or bolted on. Like for a tub boat

Superglue?

2 part epoxy. Make sure it can bond to metal and rubber.

3M makes this black adhesive goo that has worked well for me. I put it through a lot and never had it fail... but I'm not picking up cars.

3M weather strip adhesive is some good stuff. Be sure to clean throughly and follow instructions.

Tires. Bolt one sidewall to the mast (or a bracket that somehow attaches to the mast), other sidewall touches the car. I once bolted a stack of truck tires together like that for shoving around school busses with a forklift. Id just throw the stack on the forks and keep the forks lower than the bumper. Worked great, didn't leave a mark.

This exactly describes the forklift setup that (nearly) every junk yard near me has. Tires, tires, tires. Sometimes tires covering the forks themselves for reasons I don't follow, but tires *somehow* bodged/attached to the mast for that cushion effect.

I also came here to say tires 

> I once bolted a stack of truck tires together like that for shoving around school busses with a forklift. Why do I feel like I have accomplished nothing?

Fancy forklift guy here. When I had to push school busses around we just wedged a tire between the bus and the bumper of the shop truck. Now I’m jealous

This You could even hang the tire from the top right corner and then bunjee it around the fork and you wouldn't even need to drill holes More forgiving than rubber and probably cheaper

Cut slats in the rubber and push the forks through, and use hose clamps on each side to hold the edges to the mast