2.5t Forklift

Hi

We are soon moving out of our farm with loads of storage to a much smaller industrial unit. To have enough room in the unit for all our toys, a couple of small vintage cars (3.5m long x 1.4m wide x 700kg) will need to go up onto a mezzanine floor. We have a 1.5t forklift, but I am not comfortable lifting the cars with that, so am looking for a 2.5t forklift. I don't mind if the forklift is an older model, but it does have to be safe, reliable and well maintained. Does anyone have one for sale, know of one for sale or can recomend a trusted dealer? Will need the forklift in Perth, WA, although i am overseas at the moment. Comments on the plan to lift the cars with a forklift are also welcome. We will build some sort of platform for the cars to sit on.

Thanks
IanB

G'day Ian - It would assist if you gave some idea of a budget, in $$ terms, for the forklift, and a time frame for purchase.
The standard length of 2.5T forklift tynes is around 1.1M, to ensure that they don't poke out the end of pallets and damage items behind.

You can get slippers for forklift tynes, that assist in lifting loads wider than pallet width .. but the recommendations for slipper lengths are that they do not exceed 1.5 times the length of the forks.

Accordingly, a 2.5T fork with standard tynes and slippers is able to obtain a reach of approximately 1.65M (65" or 5' 5").
This means you need to keep this in mind when lifting vehicles .. that you have adequate reach in the slippers, to ensure that the vehicle is adequately retained on the slippers, when lifting it.

The other factor to keep in mind, is that forklift load ratings are at 600mm centres. Thus a 2.5T forklift is rated at 2.5 tonnes when the load centre is at 600mm from the front face of the forks.

If you are planning to lift a vehicle that is only 700 kgs in weight and 1.4M wide, the load centre moving out to 700mm does reduce your lifting capacity by around 15%.
However a 700kg vehicle is still well within the limits of a 2.5T forklift. If you had plans of lifting heavier and wider vehicles, a 2.5T forklift might be struggling.
For example, a Holden sedan of the 1970's is around 2M wide .. and this moves the load centre out to approximately 1M.
At 1M centres, the load capacity of a 2.5T forklift is reduced to 1.125 tonnes, meaning that a vehicle of 2M width and 1.125 tonnes in weight, carried on slippers, is a maximum safe load for a 2.5T forklift.

Cheers - Ron.

Thanks Ron, useful information as always.

For the budget I was thinking around $5,000, but if that is not realistic can go higher. of course less would be better. In terms of time, I am happy to buy now, but can wait until March to find the right unit.

Gas or Electric ? Most forks in the 2.5 ton range are gas but you will need good ventilation if using it in a storage unit. Also the fork will weigh around 4 ton ( plus load) so needs to be on a sound concrete floor.

ianb, If your only going to place the cars on the mezzanine & leave them there,for some time.

Why not just hire a 3.5/4 tonne forklift to pack eveything away???

Just a thought......

Atkipete, I am after something with an IC engine, gas, diesle or petrol. The unti is a modern tilt concrete construction so the floor should be sound.

Hayseed, hiring is an option, although I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted $500 for a week including delivery and pick and I would rather own my toys than rent others.

I don't know if forklifts are cheaper or dearer in Perth than Brisbane, but Briso you can easy buy an old 2.5 tonner usually with side shift for $5,000. I uasually buy Jap ones, I've got 3 Toyota at the moment, but I've had a couple of Komatsu's as well. If your in a unit, the gas ones are the go, there is plenty of mobs to choose from who drop the cylinders out to you, in Briso you can't fill them at the servo any more, I would guess Perth is the same. Personally I hate the side shift, it blocks your view through the forks and is a right PIA. I would assume if you are getting a newer unit it will have electric doors, make it a rule that the doors are either up or down, nothing in between, and spew if you see a door half open. Unless your the one paying to fix the door there is never any need to look up....until someone hits the door at 5 pm on saturday arvo. I've got about 8 doors in my shed, nearly all of them have been hit. Another tip, if someone hits the door, remove the track on one side to pop it back in, don't be tempted to try forcing it back in, anyway, you should be right, just beware. They are great machines to have, with slippers and a lifting jib, very handy. A 2.5 tonne forklift wieghs around 4.25 tonnes, just out of interest.
In Briso there are some rental mobs that sell there old machines, the auctions, and obviously the ads, though I've always bought mine through a couple of different ex hire mobs or the auctions. To put a bit of perspective on it, a new 2.5 ton Jap fork is just a bit over $30,000 brand new, so a 20 year old one should have depreciated a bit from that.

Just a thought maybe to increase storage the use of a hoist one up one under. The other way may a four post hoist to a upper floor
Just another way

Another way to might be to get a 2 or 4 post lift (which seem to be getting cheaper these days) set up to lift to the high level and roll on and off. It is there to do maintenance safely instead of being tempted to work under a car held up on a forklift.

You can get a pretty reasonable forklift in Perth for $5000, although the range to choose from, is larger on the East Coast, because the East Coast has nearly all the manufacturing industry.

Diesel forklifts are dear here. A mate wanted a diesel forklift 3 years ago, and I was struggling to find a good used one under $15,000 locally.
The local dealers will import from Japan and send them in one end of the workshop, and out the other, with a coat of Dulux, and call them "fully workshop checked and overhauled". :

This is a total joke, and I don't know how they get away with it. One of these I looked at, had a full 15mm slop in a steering ball joint .. even though it was listed as "overhauled and ready for use". :
I bought him a 3000hr, 1994 model, diesel 2.5T Komatsu from Melbourne for $9000, and shipped it over for $1100 .. then went to town on it, fixing all the little things that were wrong, doing the neglected maintenance, and giving it a nice squirt of paint.

Another $1500 later, he had a forklift that he thought was straight off the showroom floor .. all for $11,600. He reckons it's the best fork he's ever owned. He still loves it.

I bought another backup diesel 3T Toyota for him last month. This one isn't quite as good, it's an '89 with probably 12,000-14,000hrs on it, but a relatively low hour crate motor.
I negotiated the seller down to $6,500 for it, which is a darn good price. It needs some work on it, but another $1500 in R&M and paint will see it looking pretty spiffy. It should be finished next week.

The problem with all used forklifts is that no-one maintains them. Everyone jumps on them for 10, 20 or 30 mins at a time .. but no-one ever thinks to change oils, change coolant, fix the things that bugger up on them, and generally keep them in good shape.

Most used forklifts need a heap of work done on them, because they get run into the ground, then sold.
I've rarely seen a used forklift that is in perfect, ready to run condition, unless someone has taken the time to do the necessary repairs and maintenance.

The worst feature of the Jap forklifts is the engine cover/seat base panel. I'm convinced, that in most cases, the manufacturers spent $29,970 on building the rest of the forklift .. then asked the engineers to spend no more than $30 on building the engine cover!

As a result, these engine covers are built out of crap sheet metal .. that buckles, bows and rusts out faster than 1970's Jaguars.
Both the Komatsu and Toyota engine covers are giving/gave me much grief, with the sizeable amount of repair and reinforcement needed, to bring them back to satisfactory condition.