Buying a Used Forklift - Do Hours Matter?

Jul. 02, 2024

Buying a Used Forklift - Do Hours Matter?

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Used equipment is a great way for you to get a quality machine at a lower price. But when choosing a used forklift, too many buyers just look at the price and how many hours the equipment has. Ask these questions listed below if you want to save a lot of heartburn and wasted money. Questions such as:

&#; How this equipment been well-maintained?
&#; Does the equipment come with a warranty?
&#; Is the manufacturer known for long-lasting equipment?

Read on to for our top tips to find a quality pre-owned forklift at an affordable price.

What to Look for When Comparing Used Forklifts

How Much Do Forklift Hours Matter?
The age of a forklift is measured in hours, not years, and the average lifespan of a forklift is 10,000 &#; 15,000 hours. That said: Toyota is the only forklift manufacturer to maintain its resale value after 10,000 hours.

The Toyota 4y Engine is a run-tough workhorse. I usually don&#;t like to compare Toyota&#;s forklifts to their automotive products, but it&#;s similar to the 4y engine used in Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks for the last 20 years. Those engines got 250,000-400,000 miles!

The long-term value of a Toyota is more than just the engine. I&#;ve worked with Toyotas since , but continued to sell and rent equipment from other manufacturers. The Toyota lift has the fewest problems by far compared to other manufacturers out there. The hydraulic system (one of the main components on a lift) has a reliable control valve that we very rarely has problems.

Also, Toyota lift truck masts are strong. I never see bending unless the lift has been in an accident. The engine compartments all easily accessible to service and check fluids; such as hydraulic, transmission oil, engine oil, fuel regulators, radiator fluids belts and fans. Also parts are very easy to find.

If you take care of the forklift, it will take care of you
At Total Industries, we have rental lift trucks with low hours, but we also have forklifts in the 14,000-16,000 hour range that don&#;t give us problems &#; because we stay on top of maintenance. As the saying goes, &#;if you take care of your forklift, it will take care of you.&#;

While I wouldn&#;t recommend buying a 10k+ hour lift truck to use eight hours a day all week, a 10k+ hour Toyota forklift is ideal for a buyer who needs a lift truck 10-15 hours/week. I recently sold three lb cushion forklifts with 15,000-18,400 hours and it was a great fit for the businesses&#; needs and their budget.

What to Look for When Buying a Pre-Owned Forklift
Always have a qualified forklift technician inspect the lift prior to purchase. Skip this step and odds are you&#;ll live to regret it. Have the technician inspect the mast, transmission and safety components like the seatbelt, horn and lights.

Also check the tires. Bad tires tell you the forklift has been used in a rough environment, and you may have issues down the road.

Lastly, be sure the forklift has been properly maintained. Normal wear and tear on hoses, tires, rollers, and seals is okay. There can also be fuel system maintenance. But be sure to check:

Is there fresh grease on all grease fittings?
Are there current hour meter readings on the air and oil filters?
Are there gaps between the lift chain links?
Is the counterweight mounted straight?
Leaking fluids are an early sign of a performance issue or safety problem.

If you find one sign of poor maintenance, there are probably more&#;

Beware of discontinued models
A forklift that&#;s not longer in production may be less expensive up front, but finding parts may be a challenge and can increase ownership costs. Before buying a discontinued forklift, find out how easy (or difficult) it might be to source replacement parts.

Try not to have one of everything
Sticking to one or two manufacturers allows you to go to one dealer for all your warranty and repair needs. Also, it limits the number of forklifts operators need to be familiar with.

How to Avoid Buying a Bad Used Lift Truck

Beware of as-is forklifts and forklifts for sale by owner. Someone selling a forklift on craigslist has no vested interest in you once the sale is done.

When you buy a certified used forklift from an authorized dealer like Total Industries, we&#;ll lookover all the systems to make sure the equipment you&#;re buying is safe and problem-free. We stand behind the equipment we sell, and all our used equipment includes a 30-day parts and labor warranty and a six-month powertrain warranty.

When comparing used forklifts, the sales price and number of hours should be only two factors in the overall equation. Cheaper options may seem like a good deal, until you start dealing with downtime. Toyota Certified Used forklifts undergo a 103-point quality inspection and consistently rate as highest in quality, durability, reliability, overall safety and value. Check out our used forklift inventory, and please don&#;t hesitate to contact us for more information or if you don&#;t see a truck that fits your needs.

Please contact us online with any questions, or by :
East Bay &#; Livermore (510) 675-
Fresno (559) 834-
Sacramento (916) 376-
Salinas (831) 757-

Further Reading:
How to Maximize Your Forklift&#;s Trade-in Value
What&#;s Better: Lowest Cost of Ownership or Lowest Price?
How Long Does the Average Forlift Last?

Forklift Useful Life: Everything You Need to Know

Whether you already have a forklift or are considering buying one, forklift useful life is a key concept to understand.

Fortunately, this article has everything you need to know about it, including:

The average forklift lifespan
How to determine the useful life of your forklift
The difference between useful life and economic life
And lots more!

Let&#;s dive in!

Quick Summary

Don&#;t have time to read the whole article? Here&#;s a quick summary of the main points:

Forklifts last 10,000 hours on average
Forklift usage is measured in hours as opposed to miles
A rule-of-thumb is that 200 forklift hours is roughly equal to 3,000 car miles
How long a forklift can last depends on many factors, including hours of use, working environment, operator behavior, fuel type, maintenance practices, and forklift brand
While 10,000 hours is the average forklift useful life, many brands (such as Toyota) can last much longer &#; with some surpassing 50,000 hours
&#;Forklift useful life&#; is simply how long a forklift can remain operational. &#;Economic life&#; is the point at which it&#;s cheaper to replace a forklift than continue to maintain it
You should consider replacing your forklift once maintenance costs per hour rise to about $4
You can get rid of a forklift in several ways, including selling it yourself, recycling it in a scrap yard, keeping it for spare parts, or trading it into an equipment dealership

How Do You Read Forklift Hours?

To understand a forklift&#;s useful life, we first have to talk about hours.

That&#;s because the lifespan of a forklift is measured in hours as opposed to miles (as cars are).

Almost all forklifts have an hour meter to help users keep track of their usage.

And the forklift&#;s hour meter is located on the dashboard, near the steering wheel and hydraulic controls.

Forklift hour meters are commonly found near the hydraulic levers

Depending on the forklift age and manufacturer, there are 2 types of hour meters:

Analog
Digital

Let&#;s briefly cover the differences.

Analog

Analog hour meters are found on older fork trucks.

These feature rolling digits &#; like an old-fashioned alarm clock.

The main drawback of analog meters is that they&#;re less accurate.

This is because they stop counting after four digits, meaning they can only keep track of up to 9,999 hours.

Once the truck reaches those hours, the meter simply rolls back to 0 hours.

This makes it necessary to consult service records for more accurate hour meter readings.

Digital

Digital hour meters are found in most modern lift trucks.

These have the advantage of accuracy over analog meters since they can track beyond 4-digits without rolling over.

Other Forklift Hour Meters You Should Know About

On electrics, the main forklift hour meter reading that you&#;ll look at is key-on hours.

And this simply shows how long the key is in the &#;on&#; position in the ignition.

For internal combustion-powered forklifts, the main hour meter is the engine hours, which is the amount of time that the engine has been running.

But these aren&#;t the only hour meters that forklifts can have.

Depending on the make and model, they may also have:

Travel time. This shows how long the truck has been in motion
Pump hours. This indicates how long the hydraulic motor has been running, such as when lifting and lowering the mast

Each of these meters tells you something a little bit different about the forklift.

For example, high travel hours with low pump hours may mean that the forklift was mostly used for driving back-and-forth from point A to point B without doing a lot of lifting.

On the other hand, relatively high pump hours with low travel hours may mean that the forklift was not traveling for very long distances.

Instead, it was mostly used for lifting and lowering loads.

Forklift Hours To Miles

If you take a look at your forklift hour meter, it may be hard to put into perspective exactly how significant those hours are.

Instead, it may be easier to make sense of how much your forklift has been used by converting the hours into something more familiar.

And that &#;something more familiar&#; is the mileage on a road vehicle.

After all, most people are more familiar with car mileage than they are forklift hours.

How To Convert Engine Hours To Miles

Full disclosure, converting forklift hours to car miles isn&#;t a perfect 1-1 comparison, but it can still help us gain some perspective.

How does it work?

The basis of this conversion is the maintenance intervals for both forklifts and cars.

For example, most cars need to undergo a standard oil change every 3,000 miles.

And on a forklift, the standard interval is every 200 hours.

Using this information, we can convert forklift hours into mileage.

Here&#;s how to do it:

First, take the forklift&#;s hours and divide by 200 to get the number of service intervals.

Second, take the number of service intervals and multiply by 3,000 to get the forklift mileage.

Let&#;s take a forklift with 5,000 hours as an example:

5,000 ÷ 200 = 25
25 X 3,000 = 75,000

Therefore, 5,000 forklift hours is roughly equivalent to 75,000 car miles.

How Long Will My Forklift Last? Factors That Affect Forklift Lifespans

You now understand forklift hours as well as how to put them into perspective by converting them to car mileage.

Next, let&#;s talk about the factors that can affect your forklift&#;s lifespan.

Hours of Use

Perhaps the most obvious factor in forklift longevity is how often it&#;s used.

We define &#;light use&#; as being in operation less than 4 hours per day.

And we define &#;heavy use&#; as 4 hours or more per day.

Of course, the longer a forklift is used, the more wear its various components will endure.

Thus, it&#;s probably not surprising to say that forklifts that are used in single-shift operations tend to last longer than those used in multi-shift operations (all things being equal).

Working Environment

The environment your forklift operates in can affect its lifespan.

In particular, some environments that tend to reduce a forklift&#;s lifespan include:

Corrosive environments like chemical plants and plating facilities
Operations with excessive heat or cold like foundries and cold storage warehouses
Environments with heavy dirt and debris like recycling plants and lumber yards
Wet environments like food and beverage facilities

Generally, a forklift will last longer if it&#;s used in less severe environments with clean, cool, and dry working conditions.

Operator Behavior

How operators handle their lift trucks has a large effect on their lifespan.

For example, the following can harm lift trucks:

Heavy braking
Excessive speed
Collisions
Skipping pre-trip inspections
Misusing functions

These not only reduce the lift truck&#;s useful life, but can also raise costs, endanger others, and can cause damage to products and infrastructure.

Fuel Type

The fuel type of your forklift also has a large impact on how long it can last.

In general, electric forklifts last longer than internal combustion forklifts.

Why?

Because electric forklifts have fewer moving parts.

And fewer moving parts means less wear, fewer maintenance requirements, and fewer things that can go wrong.

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Maintenance Practices

Keeping up with maintenance is key to forklift longevity.

Just like a car, a forklift that is well-maintained and serviced regularly will last longer.

Most forklifts should be serviced every 200 with a more extensive maintenance procedure done every 2,000 hours.

But others, such as some Toyota models, are designed to go even longer between maintenance, thus saving you money.

Always check with your manufacturer&#;s recommendations to find out when exactly your lift truck should be serviced.

Forklift Age vs. Hours

When assessing a forklift&#;s condition, hours can be a better indicator than age alone.

For example, it&#;s not uncommon to see 40 to 50-year-old forklifts still in use while some 6- to 10-year-old forklifts can&#;t continue operating.

This is because of the factors we&#;ve been talking about: Maintenance practices, environment, operator behavior, etc.

Forklift Brand

Some brands are simply more durable and longer-lasting than others.

Toyota forklifts, in particular, have that reputation.

For example, the Toyota 4Y forklift engine is one of the longest-lived engines around.

First introduced in , the 4Y engine has resulted in users reaching more than 35,000 hours, with some even reporting over 100,000 hours!

So when it comes to how long a forklift will last, consider that sometimes, you get what you pay for.

How Long Can a Toyota Forklift Last?

They can last between 10,000 and 20,000 hours or even more.

In fact, as of this writing, our records show 2,162 Toyota forklifts with 10,000 or more hours on them!

Common Forklift Lifespans

The average forklift hours per year are usually between 1,000 and 2,000.

And in general, forklifts are expected to last about 10,000 hours.

This works out to about 5 years, based on an 8-hour, 5-day workweek.

Now, let&#;s answer some of your top forklift hour questions.

What Are Low Hours For A Forklift?

Generally, anything less than 2,000 hours is considered &#;low hours&#; for a forklift.

Is 10,000 Hours A Lot For A Forklift?

Yes, this is about the end of its useful life.

Is 15,000 Hours A Lot For A Forklift?

Yes, in fact, most forklifts don&#;t last up to 15,000 hours.

So, this is the time to seriously think about replacing it since it&#;s 150% the usual forklift useful life.

Is 8,000 Hours A Lot For A Forklift?

It&#;s about 80% of the forklift&#;s usual max useful life but may still have some life left in it.

Is 6,000 Hours A Lot For A Forklift?

No.

It&#;s 60% of the usual max useful life.

How Long Do Propane Forklifts Last?

Compared to electric forklifts, propane forklifts have a lower useful life.

So, how many hours is a lot for a propane forklift?

Generally, anything over 10,000 hours is considered a lot for a propane forklift.

That said, our records show a total of 1,087 Toyota propane forklifts with over 10,000 hours on them &#; with 296 trucks surpassing 30,000 hours!

How Many Hours Will A Propane Forklift Last?

If we&#;re talking about the fuel consumption, the answer is that a 33 lb. tank (the most common size) can last 4 to 8 hours, depending on usage.

How Many Hours Does A Diesel Forklift Last?

Diesel engine lift trucks are built with stronger components to handle the higher pressures exerted by diesel engines.

So, you may get more than 10,000 hours on a diesel truck.

In fact, a review of our service records shows 20 Toyota diesel forklifts with over 10,000 hours and 3 with over 25,000 hours!

But as with every other truck, it depends on the working environment, usage, and maintenance history.

Electric Forklift Lifespans

Because there&#;s less to go wrong with electric lift trucks than with internal combustion ones, it&#;s not unusual to expect an electric forklift to last beyond the 10,000-hour rule-of-thumb.

In fact, our records on Toyota electric lift trucks show:

1,044 with 10,000+ hours
412 with 20,000+ hours
2 with 100,000+ hours!

How Long Do Forklift Batteries Last?

A lead-acid forklift battery (the most common type) has an average lifespan of 1,500 cycles or 5 years.

Lithium-ion batteries, on the other hand, can last up to 3,000 cycles or 10 years.

Read this guide to learn more about forklift battery longevity.

How Long Does An Electric Pallet Jack Last?

A Toyota electric pallet jack can last 10 years &#; or 10,000 hours &#; or more.

When Should I Replace My Forklift?

When it comes to &#;when should I replace my forklift?&#; there are 2 slightly different ways to assess it:

Look at the operating cost per hour
Look at the economic life

Let&#;s go through how to calculate each.

Forklift Cost Per Hour

When we talk about the forklift cost per hour, we&#;re really focused on how much it costs to maintain a forklift.

Unfortunately, there&#;s no single answer to this because it depends on a lot of factors, such as:

The fuel type. Whether it&#;s an electric or internal combustion power system
How many service hours the truck already has on it. The higher the service hours, the more it&#;s going to cost to maintain it
The work environment. Dirty and harsh environments require more frequent maintenance

So instead of what it does cost to maintain a forklift, we can talk about what the maximum amount it should cost is.

And the answer is usually between $1.00 and $3.50 per operating hour but no more than $4 per hour.

How To Calculate The Cost Per Hour Of A Forklift

To calculate a forklift&#;s cost per hour, you&#;ll need to gather 2 pieces of information:

Annual maintenance costs. Include planned and unplanned maintenance but exclude abuse and damage since they&#;re preventable and will inflate the cost per hour (If you&#;re not sure what your maintenance costs are or how to calculate them, read this)
Lift truck hours. Grab the service hours from the lift truck&#;s hour meter

Once you have these numbers, divide the lift truck hours by the maintenance costs.

For example, let&#;s say you&#;ve spent $800 in one year for a particular fork truck.

And you got the truck new at the beginning of the year and have since put 1,500 hours on it.

The calculation would then be: $800 (maintenance) ÷ 1,500 (hours) = $0.53 per hour (forklift maintenance cost).

Are You Struggling to Keep Track of Forklift Maintenance Costs?

It&#;s key to keep accurate records of your forklifts to determine when they&#;ve maxed out their economic life.

However, it&#;s difficult for businesses with lots of forklifts to keep all that information together.

Luckily, our sister company &#; Unified Fleet Solutions &#; can help you do just that.

To learn more, visit UnifiedFleetSolutions.com.

Useful Forklift Life vs. Economic Forklift Life

The forklift cost calculation we just did is really part of a larger discussion, which is about the economic life of your forklift.

And a forklift&#;s economic life stands in contrast to its useful life.

So what is the difference between the two?

The useful life of a forklift is simply how long the truck can continue to operate until it&#;s no longer safe or possible to repair.

What is the economic life of a forklift?

It&#;s the point at which repairing or maintaining it becomes more expensive than retiring it and purchasing a new one.

And that occurs once the forklift cost per hour reaches $4.

This is an important concept to understand, because while your fork truck may still have useful life left in it (i.e. it may still actually be able to operate), it may not be financially wise to continue to do so.

Instead, you should think about replacing it.

How To Calculate The Economic Life Of A Forklift

The economic life of any forklift depends on the quality, its use and environment, and maintenance habits.

But to give you a general idea here&#;s how to calculate it yourself.

You&#;ll need 3 pieces of information:

Operating days per year. Whether it&#;s 3 days a week, 5 days a week, 7 days a week, or something else
Average hours of run-time per day. Whether it&#;s a 1-shift operation at 8 hours, 2 shifts at 16 hours, or 3 shifts at 24 hours, for example
Median hours at trade-in. In other words, how many hours do you expect to have on the forklift when you trade it in? Or, what is the maximum number of hours you&#;re willing to put on it?

Once you have these 3 values, put them into this free online calculator from Toyota (Note: This calculator only works for internal combustion lift trucks).

And it&#;ll tell you approximately when the economic life of your forklift is used up and when you should consider getting rid of the lift truck and replacing it with a new or used model.

How Often Should You Replace a Forklift?

When maintenance costs rise to about $4 per hour.

That&#;s when it&#;ll be cheaper to replace the forklift than repair it.

4 Ways To Get Rid Of Your Forklift

Once you&#;ve determined that your lift truck is no longer economically-viable, there are 4 ways to get rid of it:

Recycle

Recycling is best for lift trucks that have zero useful life left in them and can&#;t fetch good prices when traded-in or sold outright.

Scrap yards will often take used forklifts.

But beware&#;

Because they&#;ll often deduct for any oil left in the machine along with the tires, which may make what you get for scrap very modest.

Sell Outright

You can sell your forklift online using Craigslist, eBay, or an equipment auction site.

The upside of this is that you have the potential of getting the best price for your lift truck.

But the downside is the hassle that goes along with selling items yourself, such as making sure the inspection is updated, checking the listing, responding to inquiries, etc.

Keep for Spare Parts

If you have many of the same forklift models, it may make sense to keep your worn-out ones.

That way, you can harvest parts from them and reduce your overall maintenance costs.

This works best for operations with in-house maintenance teams.

Trade-In And Up

If you don&#;t want the hassle of selling the truck yourself, you can trade it into an equipment dealership and apply it towards a new or used forklift.

A good tip is to check for promotions.

For instance, Toyota periodically runs a &#;Trade-In and Up&#; promotion in which you can get a generous rebate for your old lift truck.

Check our promotions page &#; we&#;ll list any active promotions there.