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Well nuts. I was keeping my eye on a webcast live auction about 40 minutes from my home with the intent of picking up a Biax power scraper and a pristine looking CAT50 test bar. The scraper quickly went too high for me but I managed to nab the test bar.
And a forklift.
I was in the middle of doing something else and all of a sudden I see this poor, sad looking forklift that no one was bidding on and the auctioneer was really doing his thing, trying to drum up bids. It was a 3k capacity - too small for any machines other than my Bridgeports - but I thought, "what the heck" so I bid on it. I figured a 3K capacity forklift probably weighs about 9k lbs. so no trouble trailering it and maybe I'd use it for misc. crates, lumber, etc.
Well the darn thing supposedly weighs 12k to 13k lbs., about the same as my backhoe, which was a real stressful trip home given that I knew I was a few hundred pounds overloaded. Now I have to do it again... and it's an electric lift so the battery is probably garbage and I won't even be able to use it. What the heck was I thinking??!
My only consolation is that the local scrap yard is paying $0.20 per pound for lead-acid batteries. This baby has a 2100 lb. battery in it or about $420 scrap value. Which is more than I paid for the forklift so I guess if all else fails, I'll just scrap it out and maybe keep a few parts for a future frankenfork build on the Case 580C.
For anyone interested in the details, it's a Drexel SLT30 with 42" forks. Comes with the charger. Drexel makes these 90* swinging masts so you can drive down a narrow isle and then rotate the mast instead of turning the truck. If the battery kinda-sorta holds a charge, it might be useful around the shop since my shop is too small for a proper forklift but I occasionally need to lift or move crates or pieces of machine tool that are quite heavy. Dunno... definitely feeling buyers remorse after this one...
Funny thing is, there was a second Drexel forklift right after this one (along with a couple other electrics in the same general class) and they were having such a hard time selling them, they gave me the option of buying both. And for a moment, I almost said, "yeah ok". Luckily the rational brain finally caught up and said, "what the hell are you doing to do with TWO forklifts... you ain't got space or time for ONE!" Meanwhile, sensible folks were bidding on the LP and diesel forktrucks, running them up to several thousand.
And a forklift.
I was in the middle of doing something else and all of a sudden I see this poor, sad looking forklift that no one was bidding on and the auctioneer was really doing his thing, trying to drum up bids. It was a 3k capacity - too small for any machines other than my Bridgeports - but I thought, "what the heck" so I bid on it. I figured a 3K capacity forklift probably weighs about 9k lbs. so no trouble trailering it and maybe I'd use it for misc. crates, lumber, etc.
Well the darn thing supposedly weighs 12k to 13k lbs., about the same as my backhoe, which was a real stressful trip home given that I knew I was a few hundred pounds overloaded. Now I have to do it again... and it's an electric lift so the battery is probably garbage and I won't even be able to use it. What the heck was I thinking??!
My only consolation is that the local scrap yard is paying $0.20 per pound for lead-acid batteries. This baby has a 2100 lb. battery in it or about $420 scrap value. Which is more than I paid for the forklift so I guess if all else fails, I'll just scrap it out and maybe keep a few parts for a future frankenfork build on the Case 580C.
For anyone interested in the details, it's a Drexel SLT30 with 42" forks. Comes with the charger. Drexel makes these 90* swinging masts so you can drive down a narrow isle and then rotate the mast instead of turning the truck. If the battery kinda-sorta holds a charge, it might be useful around the shop since my shop is too small for a proper forklift but I occasionally need to lift or move crates or pieces of machine tool that are quite heavy. Dunno... definitely feeling buyers remorse after this one...
Funny thing is, there was a second Drexel forklift right after this one (along with a couple other electrics in the same general class) and they were having such a hard time selling them, they gave me the option of buying both. And for a moment, I almost said, "yeah ok". Luckily the rational brain finally caught up and said, "what the hell are you doing to do with TWO forklifts... you ain't got space or time for ONE!" Meanwhile, sensible folks were bidding on the LP and diesel forktrucks, running them up to several thousand.
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