3rd forklift in 2 years

[Albert]

Finally bought myself a decent forklift after 2 years of struggling with my previous forklifts.
1st forklift: bought private, 40 years old Komatsu, one side had no brake at all, one side has some form of brake. spent $4k on it to get the brakes right and evetually sold it due to uncertainty of other parts that may fail.
2nd forklift: bought private, 30 year old Nissan, was ok with minor startup issue, had it resolved but then one day the transmission started to have issue, quoted $5k have it done, and $10k to have it done properly, sold it cheap, as is where is, still drivable but just harder to backup.

3rd forklift: Toyota 8 series, 10k hours, bought from reputable dealer who rent it out new, full service history and 6 months warranty.

467924

lesson learnt and hopefully you dont have to go through what I have been through:
1. 10,000 hours on the clock is like 200,000km on a car, some car can still do it at 200,000kms, some car just cant.
2. dont buy anything thats resprayed and a new seat, chances are they were neglected
3. just like a car, you want to buy something with service history and warranty
4. dont buy a petrol version, the carburettor adjustment is a tricky business, buy a LPG or a diesel. stay well clear of battery operated.
5. try buy as new as you can, and reputable dealer if you can.

[KBs PensNmore]

Thanks for that Albert, pretty sure we have the same model fork with the 18 on the side.
Ours has had a rough life, more so in the last year, never gets serviced, when you switch it off it still runs on one or two cylinders, sounds a bit like the old hit and miss engines of yesteryear. It was on gas but had a problem with the converter, so it now runs on petrol.
The boss a 21 YO, has this bad habit of when it's switched off and still running, pumping the throttle and then switching it back on, causing it to backfire and blew the muffler out of it.
It, by the way, is his 3rd forklift in 2 years also. The biggest problem with the one we have, is that the outside area is road base, not compacted, and when the steering is turned it tends to bog easily, instead of backing off the throttle, he just flattens it, in the hope of gaining traction, consequently it doesn't take much to get stuck in the ruts that he leaves.
That's my gripe for the day.
Kryn

[PJM16]

They're a good forklift, a former employer had the same, but bigger models, on lease and they never missed a beat. Like anything mechanical, keep on top of the maintenance and it won't let you down. A different former employer however had old ones that he got cheap at clearing sales, were never maintained and he couldn't understnd why they were so unreliable... and as Kryn said, if it didn't do what he wanted, "foot to the floor fixes everything"