From old to new, big to small, I have almost never heard of;>Planned Obsolescence>Vendor Lockout>Poorly Speced Components> Quality Control Problems>Price Gouging>Lack of Parts Availability(Even on equipment from the 70s)>Dealerships being so much as impolite to customers (even if they are only buying one part for a 50 year old machine)Comparing similarly sized machines with skid steers, its night and day. In the general world of heavy equipment, everything is whittled down into something that just barely lasts through the warranty period, except for some reason forklifts. Why can I buy a forklift that is so damn well thought out, reasonably priced and dependable, but not a skid steer, dozer, washing machine, car or truck?
>>2015529Forklifts don't and can't have any safe failure modes.
>>2015529Forklifts come with service plans that are factored into the cost of buying a fleet of them, right alongside liability contracts for avoiding downtime. And and in order to keep that cost down, they need to be dead simple and reliable. Not just because the repair and maintenance needs to be cheap, but because if downed equipment impacts a customers profits, the company selling the lifts will be sued into the ground shortly after, and subsequently have their reputation tanked.I work for DHL, we buy Crown forklifts. They’re simple machines, propane 4 cylinders at their core which require little maintenance and can be abused horrendously without batting an eye.If they had say, some flawed component that caused 3/4 of the fleet to fail one day, that would cut our ability to move freight so heavily that it may shut down a customer.And in that scenario time becomes money very fast, like $10,000 a minute fast on the low end. If that shutdown is deemed to have been the fault of the equipment provider? They will pass that bill down until it’s Crowns problem.So crown brings us solid equipment, because they can’t afford to do any nonsense since the outcome for product failure isn’t like how the automotive industry handles it. If the Corolla sucks for some reason one year, big deal, there’s some recalls and people don’t like the Corolla name for a while.If a certain range of forklifts causes a loss of time, no customer will ever buy those forklifts, and they will avoid your entire company, and encourage others to not buy your forklifts.
>>2015529They are inherently valuable, unlike a consumer automobile (worst "investment" everyone in common life makes).And the eternal pressure of other business men not buying a liability of a dog piece of equipment, unlike the eternal sucker or the citizen consumer...But to be fair, forklifts are hothouse darlings of hyper primitive suite of simple machines in a supremely prepared use area. I worked in material handling corp, and they had a onsite museum as they sold forklifts. Shop too. I used to have to drive by hundred of these things off trucks. And every other kind of lift/electric floor jacks too. Loved that job but it was a career dead end.
remember that psa video where they impale the guy with a forklift
The main inspection points are:1. The lifting mechanics 2. The energy/propulsion system 3. The forks Meanwhile anything car like most likely requires a full disassemble or for it to be lifted until you can access the internals. Also >>2015555As said, if Toyota or Crown or any brand refuses to give proper access to service, then whoever is the middleman just blackball them.If anything, they are more comparable to various specialized equipment. Its also normal to get the hydraulics serviced out of shop, same with parts.
>>2020796Forklift Driver Klaus