I might be wrong but Im thinking that 46 is a bit too wide a normal pallet is about 4ft x say 3ft 9 not having a forklift near me of ever having measured one Im thinking more along 36 inches wide outside to outside. I work with skids every day and our steel slots are roughly 4x8

 

Std. pallets are 40" x 48", the forks I'm making will be adj. so min width is not an issue, just didn't want to make them too narrow.
I'm thinking of going with my original idea of 42" wide (outside-outside of forks) when set at full width.
This will be used for a lot of things and prob. rarely on pallets, just don't want to make it and find out its a little too narrow.

Brad

 

then make it however wide you want neither of the things I use to lift pallets are adjustable they just have side shift well the forklift did till it broke or it was disabled

 

I have looked at a lot of pallet fork frames over the years, but never measured one. Don't recall seeing one that looked to be 48" but are over 36", so I think you right in ball park at 42.

 

I am building a set for John Deere 2520. I ordered a set of these forks and they include the rails that the forks attach to:

http://www.skidsteerexpress.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=FORK3FORK

I hope to get the soon so I can start my build, they should be a useful implement.

 

Thats a great price on those forks and plates! I have a set of used forks that I'm going to use for now (they are a little too heavy at ~ 112lbs each though!). I'm just adding a 1/2"x3/4" "rail" to the top of some 2"x2" 3/16" square tube. My loader will never be able to damage that. I might change out the forks for lighter ones or make some if they turn out to be too heavy though.

Brad