Yesterday I bought a 1969 Yale forklift at an online auction because it was dirt cheap and I could use one at the roofing shop. I had not seen it, there was very little information on the auction site, but there was a video of it running and operating so I felt confident enough to bid. Today it got delivered, and I was surprised to find under the hood: The leaning Tower of power! It runs beautifully, powered by LP gas. Old mopar's seem to find me without even trying sometimes.

A mini Hemi!!

Turbo it!!

What does that rascal weigh?

"When it absolutely has to run forever"...that's cool, didn't know they were used in forklifts.

Nice Joel, You need to check the horn you may have a Sparton Road Runner horn too DAMHIK

Mike

we had a couple Slant powered forklifts where I worked.

Nice score, Joel. That might just outlast all of us!

I'll have to check and see if it has a horn. I heard turbos do well on a slant six, but the last thing this thing needs is more horsepower!
I already got it stuck three times in my parking lot. I knew it was made for nice level hard surfaces but I thought it would do better than it does. I'm not going to be able to use it for my intended purpose of moving materials around in our gravel parking lot. So now what shall I do?

Yep, those small hard rubber tires don't do well on gravel, but they are even worse in snow, and slide around VERY easily on wet pavement.

For something to work on gravel or off a smooth hard surface, you really need one of these lift trucks with the large tractor tires. The good news is many of the bigger off road lift tractors have a slant 6 in them too.

Probably need to send it away and get something useful for your intended purposes.

I don't know, but I would guess at least a couple tons, if not more.

you could try riding mower chains or do like some of us winter dirt bike riders do and screw in sheet metal screws or studs into the tires....................of course they are not that good for your asphalt driveway but great traction on gravel and ice

Well you could go out for a liquid lunch, come back to the shop and play forklift demolition derby, of course that would require at least one more forklift, DAMHIK

Exactly what I’m looking for, a saw mill forklift with those semi truck tires. Then I could move all my junk cars around to mow under, and any thing else I can think of

Very common not too long ago. The branch of the company known as Chrysler Industrial. 20 years ago met another forklift tech who was responsible for a fleet of alcohol powered slanty tow motors.

25 years or so ago a friend of mine built himself a forklift. He started with just the hydraulic and lift parts. Then he built a frame with drive train and steering. The ONLY spare engine he had was a mildly built 440...

I wouldn't think it would be less than 8000lbs. He have some 4500lb capacity warehouse forklifts at work and they weigh around 8500 each.

Put some snow tires on it or pave the lot

what was you doin' Joel, foot to the floor drifting in the gravel ?

The problem is that it has no suspension whatsoever. And the majority of the weight is on the rear wheels. So if one of the rear wheels hits a slight low spot, or digs into the gravel just a little bit, it teeter totters one of the front wheels up off of the ground. Or if one of the front wheels hits a low spot, all the weight transfers to the other three wheels. Since it is front wheel drive with out positraction, as soon as one front wheel is unloaded, it spins.
I have another facility that is all paved that I use just for material storage when I need to, but that is pretty infrequent.. I'm contemplating whether to bring it out there and try and get some use out of it or flip it. It's so cool I hate to get rid of it but I probably should. I think I could make a little bit on it.

You just need to figure out how to split the front brake system when that happens. My John Deere 322 has two brake pedals side by side with a plate that connects them together, The plated pivots and if I lose traction on one drive wheel I disconnect the brake pedals and hold the brake on the spinning wheel to drive the traction wheel. Maybe just left footing the brake and right footing the throttle will get you the traction you need for the situation???

Don't give him any ideas... He doesn't have time to figure all that out.

When I was in high school I worked at a local marina and I was shocked to see the big travel lift had a slant six!

I probably shouldn't say this but.... When I worked in factory maintenance, the two slant 6 fork trucks we had were both equipped with a very narrow 8 3/4.. Sure Grip time? LOL! Bet that would be fun with about 4,000 load on an 8,000 lift, trying to make a turn.

For those that don't know fork trucks, the one Joel has uses solid steel wheels with pressed on tread less tires vulcanized on to a steel sleeve. New tires with tread on the outer edges are available, but won't help much because one of the drive tires was usually off the ground. 40 years ago new solid rubber with the steel sleeve, drive wheel, fork lift tires were just over $500 each, the steering tires with the steel sleeves were about 1/2 the price). Wouldn't try to guess what they would cost now.

I did just see that Joel's fork lift already has the treaded drive tires. That is as good as they get as far as traction, which pretty much sucks on anything other then a dry, hard surface.

Is it drag week ready and where’s Jeff gonna sit?

I worked on a bunch of those when I worked at the Hyster dealership. Yale used a lot of Slants. Does your have the belt driven transmission pump that looks like a power steering pump driven by 3 belts?

Jeff can be like the spider in a motorcycle side car race, maneuvering all over to keep weight on the drive wheels.

https://youtu.be/SltqgZrPXt8

In the past we have had posts about Mitsu 6 cylinder diesels transplanted INTO Dodge vehicles.

We have posts about Slant 6s being transplanted OUT of Chrysler automobile service to forklifts.

There are posts elsewhere about one of the severe problems of the modern Russian army is that they never transitioned to off road forklifts and shipping containers and still human muscle handle a large percentage of supplies.

I once visited a new 10 story high coal cleaning plant at Marrowbone WVa where the plant manager was very proud that every piece of plant equipment could have a fork lift come pick it up and carry it away to two large industrial elevators. We had a spirited debate because I favored plant designs where two overhead travelling crane could “snatch up” any piece of equipment and carry it to a ground level side work area.

The humble forklift
does not get the respect it may richly deserve.

I did that to a couple pairs of boots when I worked in the lumber yards.

I've seen a few of the bigger Hysters with, GM 350, GM 6.2 diesel and honest to God Detroit Diesels! Happy the last one had a blown transmission so nobody tried to use it.

It's more Drag Week ready than the Coupe, and I'll most likely be sitting at work, while Drag Week is going on.

Jeff you should probably run over there and put the battery charger on the GTX.

I kinda wish we would be taking the parade car again. We had a ton of fun on that trip, but those days are over, for that car.