Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anybody know anything about fork lifts?

I just drive the thing occasionally. Wanna school me on what the best brands are? Thanks

I have never seen anyone lift a fork with one.

I've always been partial to lull.

Older Hyster , new stuff has proprietary diagnostics. Komatsu also used to be good. Toyotas seem to be very good and hold their value as such.I have a newer Yale, nice lift but, it'll be a pain when it breaks down as the dealer will have me by the balls.

We have electric Toyota's rated for 5600 at 20 feet. but the mast's are really thick and the visibility sucks. Before that we had Tusk's( the Yugo's of lift trucks) they are propane and worked good but they needed PM weekly. We looked at Crown but out of our bean counter price range. We begged but no dice. The Crown's controls are at your fingertips and a very comfortable ride if the guys are sitting all day. If you need more info IM me. This is my basic info but I can get with my other guy for some details.

Might make a difference what type you are looking for? Warehouse, rough terrain, inside, outside, extended reach? My experience in the rental business has shown that not all brands have a lock on all the various types they might produce. New, used?

Its a manufacturing environment, inside, moving sheet steel and a variety of pallets, boxes and baskets. Not real heavy or high frequency. We have about 10 lifts and pickers, total. Mostly Yale but a couple toyotas, all electric.
We just ordered a Crown today, I don't have anything to do with ordering, I work in a different department. We demo'ed Linde, toyota, one I don't remember too, we get loaners occasionally, recently a Hyster and a Nissan. I guess everyone loved the crown, I never drove it. Just wondering what all brands everyone thought was best for their application.

For indoor use an electric Toyota is for me.

I like Hyster.
We have some Clarks, no comparison.
Can't remember the Aisian loaner we had, but it sucked.
Had a Toyota loaner for awhile, nice lift, no better than Hyster.

In my experience, from my forklift days, Toyota has the smoothest and most reliable propane lift out there for a mfg. environment. Other manufacturers may have caught up with them by now though. Not sure.

I know the rental Clark's that we used to get once in awhile SUCKED.

I used to be able to lift a quarter onto the fork when it was laying flat on the ground...

Caterpillar makes very good machines that seem to take a lot of use, and abuse.

I’ve done the quarter trick before.

As per usual, if it's on wheels, Toyota won't be the wrong answer.

We have nothing but Toyota

I lost a dollar one time betting a guy he couldn't do it. Damned if he didn't do it four times in a row!

We run 8000 lbs. pneumatic diesel forklifts outside in the stone yards.

Caterpillar, which is made by Mitsubishi, is the best in my opinion.

Hyundai is the worst.

Hyster is OK, but I'll never buy another one because they screwed me on a warranty deal.

Yale is good. However, we have one that has electronic controls which I'm not a big fan of. The one with hydraulic controls is good, but not a fan of the electronic transmission. It's a little jumpy.

Never been on a Toyota.

Yep! They're good for picking s hit up and moving it from point A to point B!

My limited knowledge suggests, when they work.....they “lift”! When they don”t lift.....you’re “forked”!


That said, Many years ago Hyster was a good machine. A few years ago, I used some of the newer stuff with “joy stick” controls. I’m old.....it was no joy! memtb

Years ago, the boss rented a boom forklift to load a bunch of roofing material on a building. He picked me to drive it. It was one with several different steering modes: rear steering, crab, 4 wheel. The hydraulics were going bad and when you turned the wheel, you might go there or you might go somewhere else. I was close to the building and turned left. It went right and bumped the building, cracking some plaster inside. The boss was 'displeased'. Later, I needed to return it to the rental place. Going down the street, the steering really went crazy. No matter which way I turned, it would go somewhere else. I finally got it off the street into someone's front lawn and we left it there for the rental company to deal with. I was heading for a busy street and it would have been a disaster.