At the end of the day forklifts are a tool. Where they are generally used in businesses or in places where there is a need to pick up a load (pallet) and carry it from A to B. So the question really is, are all forklifts created equal ? We’ve covered this a few times now, in the last 5 years in Australia, there has been a huge influx of Chinese made forklifts in the Australian market (Almost 25% of the forklift market).
So if you were looking at a replacing an existing 2.5T forklift with a new 2.5T forklift, does it really matter what it is if they both lift 2500 kgs to 4 meters. ?
Well there are certain things you need to consider when looking to purchase any forklift, that will make the world of difference :
Utilization
One of the first things to consider is how many hours a week are you doing with it.
- If your only doing 5- 10 hours a week, would you spend top dollar and get a premium forklift like a Linde, which can cost north of $40 000 for Linde’s 392 series forklift.
Or would you consider a Chinese model that like a HangCha H25XF that you could purchase for $25 000 depending on the specifications.
Environment
The environment is a crucial part of the decision making process when you start thinking about forklifts.
- Is it dusty, is it clean, are there ramps, is it operating outside, or inside, in a freezer.
The environment that you operate your forklift in can tell you a lot about what forklift you need to choose.
Application
Whats the forklift doing ?, is it unloading trucks and carting a pallet into a warehouse and in to racking. Well you might need to consider either a reach truck or a standard counterbalanced forklift.
- How high is the racking, does it go through low doors,
Budget
How much budget do you really have ?
- How much money do you really want to spend, are you looking to purchase it outright or rent it.
So are all forklifts created equal ?l, the simple answer is no, there is a forklift for every requirement you might have.
Additional things you might want to consider are things like :
Service intervals
They can range form 250 hours to 1000 hours on the same capacity forklift
Parts availability
With the Chinese forklift market developing in Australia, there are now plenty of places to buy parts from. But it always pays to check before moving forward with a purchase, there are some brands on the market with no local back up or support.
Service cost
This really does go hand in hand with the parts availability, how much does it cost to service ?. With a lot of the more modern forklifts, they now need trained technicians that can use a laptop for diagnosing any issue the unit might be having.
