Repair or Recycle?
Posted on | Posted in General
In a previous life as a rookie fork truck salesman in the early 80’s I was quoting my customer for a new fork lift truck. My customer told me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want one with the “new-fangled electronics”. I asked him why and he replied “your engineer says they’re rubbish and he’s the guy who works on them so he should know!” The engineer was right and the “new-fangled electronics” were later re-vamped.
At Hallmark our focus is on repairing pallet trucks and we know it pays to take note of what our engineers say. We therefore know why a cheap truck is cheap and why a more expensive model will usually prove to be a more cost-effective option in terms of lifetime costs and longevity.
The problem our engineers come up against most often with some of the cheaper units is the hydraulic system. Replacement seals fitted to a well-engineered truck generally extend the life of the truck by several years but poor manufacturing standards make it impossible to re-seal many of the cheaper models.
Trigger assemblies and handles must also be extremely robust to endure the rigours of constant use and the cheaper trucks vary considerably in the quality of these key parts.
A quick search on Google shows standard trucks ranging in price from about £200 to £380, nearly double the price for the most expensive. Does that mean that the expensive ones are better? Looked after they will last a great deal longer and when the time comes to repair them the parts will be readily available so you’ll be able to repair rather than recycle