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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: ericheartsu on November 15, 2015, 04:19:21 PM
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It's becoming increasingly present that we need to buy a simple, used forklift.
I know nothing about any of this stuff, and was hoping that some of you cool guys and gals on the board can educate me, on what i need to look for!
I always see 3,000 and 5,000lb, and propane vs gas forklifts on craigslist....but i don't know what the best one to get is!
any help would be awesome!
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Buddy runs all electric, loves them. Nice and quiet, no fumes etc. But hella expensive.
We have an old $1000 cat forklift. Propane, leaks some fluid drobs, has 4000+ hours...but it does exactly what its supposed to.
Your budget will determine the choice probably...cus the new Toyota Electric forklifts that are out are freakin awesome lol.
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Check the height reach. They telescope in two or three sections and some only go up 10-12'.
3000 or 5000 will affect the size. If you don't have enough room to maneuver in between the lanes, 3k might be it. If you have the room and funds, go bigger.
Propane is not a big deal. Electric is nice, but not necessary.
There are usually forklift shops around, call them and see if they have a trade in for sale. This will get you some good will with somebody you can call when they need maintenance or repairs (and it happens more than you think).
Pierre
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What do you need it for... if its just to take pallets down off trucks or stack some pallets on top of each other look at a pallet stacker. You can get them powered or non powered. I have seen them as low as $800 for non powered ones. They are only good for taking stuff off trucks. They have very low lift heights.
I would get one but all my deliveries are on lift gate trucks.
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Be aware that some states do not allow propane (or gasoline) within a closed
work area. Check your state/local regulations before buying.
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5,000 pound with phenmatics. LP. Nissan makes a really nice truck they are short so they are really nice inside.
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Just getting one to help move pallets off of trucks, and move some equipment around, once we start moving, in the next year.
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bringing this back from the dead.
Are walk behind forklifts any good?
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Powered ones are ok. Non powered ones and ice and or a few inches of snow SUCK!
I started looking further into one about a month a go. The more I thought about it I am thinking of getting a skidsteer with fork attachments.
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The more I thought about it I am thinking of getting a skidsteer with fork attachments.
Yeah buddy!
We have a 5K propane forklift. It's old but does what we need it to do, pull pallets off a truck and put them in the shop.
Made our last move way easier though. That plus pallet racks and I wonder how we ever got by without.
I'd be nervous about a walk behind and pulling pallets off a truck. That's just me though.
Our forklift model was apparently used in the military and came with instructions on how
to "disable forklift to prevent use by the enemy" which consists of punching a hole in the block one way or another.
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Our forklift model was apparently used in the military and came with instructions on how
to "disable forklift to prevent use by the enemy" which consists of punching a hole in the block one way or another.
Good to know in case you guys are ever in a hostile takeover.
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The more I thought about it I am thinking of getting a skidsteer with fork attachments.
Yeah buddy!
We have a 5K propane forklift. It's old but does what we need it to do, pull pallets off a truck and put them in the shop.
Made our last move way easier though. That plus pallet racks and I wonder how we ever got by without.
I'd be nervous about a walk behind and pulling pallets off a truck. That's just me though.
Our forklift model was apparently used in the military and came with instructions on how
to "disable forklift to prevent use by the enemy" which consists of punching a hole in the block one way or another.
Does it come with the 50 caliber to perform such action?
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pallet racks are another thing i'm trying to buy. but i refuse to buy them new. so many used ones around. but it's always a waiting game.
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Does it come with the 50 caliber to perform such action?
If it did it wouldn't have lived past the regulator going out.
pallet racks are another thing i'm trying to buy. but i refuse to buy them new. so many used ones around. but it's always a waiting game.
We were quoted over $4000, used, for the same racks we bought for $200. Even if you don't live in earthquake country,
secure the feet!
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Get one that can move the most amount of weight and can support 12' forks. Trust me, with what you have coming with your move you will thank me.
It's like getting your first auto, skip the 6 or 8 or whatever heads and get at least 10 or 12. More is always better.
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@TCT
You wrote:"The more I thought about it I am thinking of getting a skidsteer with fork attachments."
I have one and it is marginal for getting pallets off of trucks. For stacking or for racks they don't lift much more than about 7 or 8 ft.
It does do a fantastic job with the snowblower attachment!
I have a family member that scored us an old electric stand on forklift that had been in storage for almost 15 years...for FREE. It included the 220 volt battery charger also.
Had a guy go over it and replace a few things. That cost me about $200 in parts and labor which he was willing to trade for computer service.
The only real expense was the replacement battery. I think that was almost $1300.
I have used that forklift for almost 12 years without any issues.
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@TCT
You wrote:"The more I thought about it I am thinking of getting a skidsteer with fork attachments."
I have one and it is marginal for getting pallets off of trucks. For stacking or for racks they don't lift much more than about 7 or 8 ft.
It does do a fantastic job with the snowblower attachment!
I have a family member that scored us an old electric stand on forklift that had been in storage for almost 15 years...for FREE. It included the 220 volt battery charger also.
Had a guy go over it and replace a few things. That cost me about $200 in parts and labor which he was willing to trade for computer service.
The only real expense was the replacement battery. I think that was almost $1300.
I have used that forklift for almost 12 years without any issues.
;D
You got to kind of know my setup to understand it I guess. Pallet racking is not possible in our current location, hell, the skidsteer would only be able to be in 1/6 of our main floor space! I just want something to unload pallets better than the leg powered electric lift we currently have. If you want to split hairs, I have just really wished I had a skidsteer at home the last few years, the forks would just make it a write off! ;)
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I love my glorified wheel barrel!!
But like I mentioned already, it was not a great option for unloading trucks.
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can anyone tell me why propane isn't preferred?
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We have bought both new electric and propane forklifts over the past years. The electric forklifts are far more reliable requiring far less maintenance than the propane powered units as long as you keep an eye on the water level in the batteries. Our propane powered Clark unit less than 2 years old has problems where it won't start or run right 2 or 3 times a year requiring maintenance. The battery powered units have had no issues at all.
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I have a 5k pound lp nissan and it's been awesome. Only thing I wish I would have done different is to buy Pneumatic tires rather than cushions, most of our lot is gravel. It sucks pulling dead weight out of a hole.
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I just convinced my dad he needed a forklift. And then convinced him to leave it at my shop :)
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I drove a standup electric forklift for almost 7 years, and if you can score one of those, a Crown preferably, go that route. I wouldn't worry too much about a used one, those Crown electric ones at Sam's club can run for decades, and they can be abused the whole time and still get the job done. I don't know that much about the propane sitdown models, they could be as reliable and durable as the ones I ran.
As many new forklifts as we got over the years and new club buildouts, there has to be a few used ones on the market. I never knew what management did with the older forklifts but every once in a while we'd get a few new ones and one or two of the old ones just disappeared, but they still ran fine. The batteries are crazy heavy, but the way you need to use it you can just charge the battery while it's in the forklift and won't have to worry about getting the battery changing system.
On a side note, one morning a guy forgot to put the plate that holds the battery in the lift back in, and when he turned the corner while leaving the battery changout area the battery rolled out of the lift and went through the receiving office wall. It left this cartoon-like perfectly square hole in the wall like the coyote would when he'd run through a wall. It took us a few hours to fix that mess, and the guy lost his job because he didn't do so well on his test, his drug test, the one they'd give you if/when you screwed something up. If there would have been someone on the other side of that wall I can't imagine what it would have done to them. Maybe they just get knocked down, or maybe that 3K pound battery smashes them up badly, but thank God nobody was hurt that day.
I've got a few dozen good forklift disaster stories from my years in big box retail. I never had a bad accident while driving, because I was the best operator there ever was :), but I did have a pallet of Dixie cups buckle while I was lifting the pallet because someone put a pallet on top of the cups that was too heavy to be on top (pallet of clothes washing detergent in the 5 gal buckets). We had to downstack both pallets from the top rack but we couldn't just climb up there ninja style, we had to wear the safety equipment harnesses and strap ourselves into the lift cage or the steel we were climbing on. It took almost as long to get the ok with all the safety stuff as it did fixing the problem. SAFETY FIRST!!!!