Nothing lasts forever, and there are definite signs to look for to determine if your forklift is nearing the end of the road.
After some years, all forklifts will start to have trouble. At a certain point, continuing to drive the same lift into the ground will stop making financial sense. It’s actually easy to tell when an aging forklift is ready to be sent upstate to play on the farm with the other forklifts.
If you have accurate and thorough maintenance and repair records for the unit you can estimate when its time has come.
If you don’t have accurate and thorough records, the forklift will give you signs it’s ready. Check the hours. If it’s been in operation over 10,000 hours it will need a complete overhaul- anything close to 20,000 hours and it’s time.
If your forklift spends more time in the shop than it does on the floor, it’s time.
If maintenance costs have doubled in the past 12 months, it’s time.
If its safety equipment is out of date, or you are using your newer forklifts more often because they are more reliable and just work better, it’s time.
The older a forklift gets, the more likely it will fail while it’s in use, and no one wants that. Failure includes things like jerking while it’s being driven, dropping loads, losing power suddenly, freezing up and leaking fluid. Any one of these problems is potentially serious and certainly dangerous if it happens on the floor.
So when it is time, what should you do?
Call us at (704) 842-3242 and we’ll handle it from there. We’ll haul your old forklift away, drain and safely dispose of oil and hazardous materials and remove the parts that aren’t recyclable.
And then, of course, we can help you choose a shiny new (or used) forklift to replace the one you just said goodbye to.