These seem appropriately strong for the purpose. These are not a replacement for real pallet forks, but they can handle some small lifting tasks. There's always a risk of bendng a bucket if you overload forks like these. These look like they'll hold for about as much weight as a person ought to risk. I'm just guessing, but I think there's a good chance a person would bend or break these forks before bending their bucket. And that's a good thing. If something has to break, its much better to break the cheap forks rather than the expensive bucket. I put 370 pounds on them and they felt stable. I pushed on it to make it bounce a little and the forks still felt stable.