When Should You Replace Your Forklift Truck

Whether you own a single forklift truck or a fleet, it is important to know when it’s time to replace. The decision to replace a forklift truck never comes easy and requires due consideration of all the relevant factors. Businesses that work with material handling equipment are always looking to derive optimum life and return from their investment, which makes the decision to replace a little tricky.  Here is some information to help you know when its the right time to replace your forklift trucks.

The downside of waiting till to late

As mentioned before, businesses that buy their forklifts brand new often push them to the limit in trying to maximize the return on investment. While this may sound great on paper, the problem is that maintenance costs tend to increase with age ultimately reaching a point where it becomes a liability to keep them on the fleet. You can expect extended downtimes as they stretch the time required for normal maintenance work. Apart from extended downtimes and expensive repairs and maintenance, worn and aged forklifts will become less productive over time even when they are up and running.

When to replace

There are a number of signs that should tell you its time to replace your forklift truck, chief among them the ballooning of repair and maintenance costs. This point, depending on the truck’s work conditions, is usually reached at 13,000 work hours for electric forklifts and at 10,000 work hours for internal combustion forklifts.  A sophisticated and more precise approach is to go by indications from the forklift’s vitals on whether or not there is a dip in performance. You can take advantage of a Fleet Management System to check things like fuel efficiency and workloads to determine is you can still salvage the situation by way of maintenance and repairs. If there no improvement, its time to replace your forklift truck.

Lastly

You dont have to get a brand new truck as such a strategy may simply delay the replacement or introduce havoc in your finances. Established forklift dealers used forklifts for sale in Georgia and surrounding jurisdictions. Search online for reputable dealer that offers a warranty on their used forklifts for sale and talk to the product experts to discover the best deal. Depending on the condition of your old forklift, you can trade it in to get some discount of your purchase and bring down the cost of ownership.