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Hoist forklifts

m16ty

Hot Rolled
Joined
May 11, 2016
Anybody know anything about the Hoist brand forklifts?

I'm seriously considering ordering a Hoist FR60/80. The manufacturer's sales rep has already met with me twice and even brought a machine by my place to try out. Everything seemed ok with the lift I tried out.

They are basically a Versa-lift clone. About the same price (a little cheaper) but the big thing is the wait time. Hoist is running 8-12 weeks from order to delivery and Versa-lift is running a year out.

It's just a lot of money to shell out and I haven't found much info on them, mainly because they are fairly new with the FR series. Of course, the people that are selling them used say they are the best lifts on earth and the people selling Versa-lifts say they are junk. I'm looking for a unbiased opinion but I'm not coming up with much.
 
Silent-Hoist is a builder from way back.

Just be careful. There was a company making big forklift that did not survive the recession. I can't remember the name, but several customers lost sizable deposits.
 
Silent-Hoist is a builder from way back.

Just be careful. There was a company making big forklift that did not survive the recession. I can't remember the name, but several customers lost sizable deposits.

That was Rigger Xtreme out of Canada.

There was also Lowery lift trucks that went broke not too long ago. I don't think they stiffed any customers but left suppliers with a hefty unpaid debt. I don't recall the name but the major creditor ended up with most of the assets and are now making lifts under the Lowery name.

I'm not too worried about the Hoist company. They are actually Part of the old Silent Hoist company and have been under current ownership since the 1990's. You just don't see many of the Hoist or even the old Silent Hoist around here but it's my understanding they are/were real popular up North.

I was mainly talking about the FR series in particular. The FR is a fairly new venture for them (I think they started them around 2013).
 
Those low mount mast tilt cylinders must be huge. I think the other makers put the tilt cylinders at the top of the roll cage for more leverage.
 
I can't really help with opinions on the current Hoist trucks but I was thinking they had a pretty good reputation. I owned the below 20,000 lb electric Hoist for a couple years (which was really a 30,000 lb model with less counterweight). It was supposedly "refurbished" by Hoist themselves, with new tires, new forks and paint....plus the usual suspect "refurbished" batteries....two of them at 36 volts for a 72 volt system.

Worked fine except positioning the forks was a PITA requiring a long pry bar to move them. Have never understood why they don't make hydraulic fork positioning a standard feature of these larger forklifts. I sold it when the batteries started to have hints of lasting less time....would have cost more to buy two new batteries than I paid for the whole deal originally.

hoist6.jpg


I didn't like how high up the driver seat was but figured that an unavoidable aspect of the design.
 
Those low mount mast tilt cylinders must be huge. I think the other makers put the tilt cylinders at the top of the roll cage for more leverage.

The pics are of a 25/35, one of their smaller models. The 40/60 and 60/80 have the high mount tilt cylinders.
 
Call Dan at Rowe Transfer in Knoxville, TN. He has a Hoist FR series that he is very happy with.

Let me know what happens...I would visit the factory outside Chicago I were going to shell out $300k +

Strongly consider getting all of the options. Remote operating, Do they offer a winch option to use with the Boom? One extra counterweight for those times when you need just a little more. Make sure the forks are full taper and polished.

Stop by ER crane and rigging in Memphis and see there Factory Taylor 40K. Taylor made a few Factory rigging machines and the ER has one.

Nick Bohanon in KY has 4 or 5 Versalifts of different models. Do you have the proper truck trailer combo?

Pedowitz might be all Versalift on their extendable counterweight forktrucks. I know a rigger who is all Royal Rig-N-Lift. He is a very diligent knowledgeable owner operator. I personally would be happy with any of the three options. I wish Linde out of Germany would make one. Too much liability and too low a volume I guess for such a large company.
 
I've looked at them all. We run several T series Royals and Cats now (12k-40k). They are great machines but Royal tractor just got bought by Nordco and are in a transition phase with talk of a total re-design. In other words, probably taking a proven design and screwing it up. The major drawback to the Rig-N-Lift is the boom, it's not nearly as versatile as a Hoist or Versalift.

Versalift is running a year out and didn't seem real interested in making a deal. I guess you can be that way when you are a year behind.

IMO, Versalift has dropped the ball by not increasing manufacturing capacity to meet demand and Hoist has slipped in there and taking a good portion of the market they had sewn up.

Transportation of a 60/80 Hoist is a little annoying. Stripped down, the bare machine weights 44k, that's just over the threshold where you need permits to haul. On our 50 ton Tri-lifter, bare machine is 34k with 25k of counterweight, you can move it on two legal loads. We've got a 50 ton lowboy so we have the capacity to haul, it's just aggravating having to permit.
 
On the options Hoist has them all. I've tried the remote and wasn't impressed. Everybody says you just have to get used to it and that may be the case. To me, you just loose all "feel" of what's going on.

They also make a winch option but we find they tend to get in the way more than they are useful. One easily removable would be ok.

I doubt they would offer extra counterweight due to liability.

They offer camera options but depth perception is lacking.

Only option we are looking at is fork positioners over the base machine.
 
Transportation of a 60/80 Hoist is a little annoying. Stripped down, the bare machine weights 44k, that's just over the threshold where you need permits to haul.

I don't understand why they do this. Something like 35 US states follow the federal bridge laws. You would think that would be the very first criteria in machine design.

Maybe you need a lighter hauling rig. Are you using a Landoll or hydraulic tail trailer? You might save a few tons by switching to a 35 ton detach lowboy. Some of those are pretty light. It just takes longer to load and unload. That's what the riggers I know with a Versa-lift use.
 
Currently our main trailers to haul lifts is a Landoll and a 50 ton Talbert detach lowboy. Both are admittedly fairly heavy.

I might could squeeze by with the Landoll if I placed it just right, it would be close. The other thing is that although it's a 40 ton trailer, it doesn't really like tilting anything over about 35k. It will do it but it seems hard on it. You really load the axles when they slide forward.

Landoll has even came out with a 40k machinery moving forklift. It's a cross between a forklift and a telehandler. I've demoed one of them and met with a factory rep. Interesting concept but they have some learning to do. I gave a honest opinion of the machine and they said they would have the engineers address my concerns. The main thing I had issue with is the fork positioners. They use what amounts to a exposed ballscrew, powered by a hyd motor. There's no way that would hold up in the field.

Landoll also over-engineered their boom. I know what they were trying to do, lower the weight of it to not detract from lifting capacity. I'm sure their engineers designed it to hold the weight but it's made out of light weight steel, compared to other booms. It would never hold up to the abuse riggers are known for.
 
Just from my corrected doubt in the past..I look at servo driven ball screws on cnc machinery running WAY more cycles than fork positioning cylinders...and stand beside any crane 20 or less in age
and massive does not come to mind..engineered does. Versalift booms you have said you like and Royals not so much...tensile strength says it all ..I would bet the Versalift booms are 100,000 psi and Royals maybe 50,000 psi..just guessing from observation.
 
The issue I have with the ball screws is not that they aren't strong enough, it's that they are completely exposed, right on the mast. All kinds of dirt and grime can get in there and there's a good chance they could also get bent fairly easy. I had a discussion with the factory rep about it and suggested they at least put a accordion type flexible cover over the screws. He said it sounded like a great idea and present it to engineering. I don't know if he was just blowing smoke or was serious, but I have checked their website to see if they took my idea and applied it to the new models. I haven't seen anything.

I understand about tensile strength and all and I'm sure the Landoll booms have been designed to hold the rated load. I just know how booms get treated and get used from time to time. Not that I approve but I've seen them used as battering rams before. Most all the other manufacturers are admittedly overbuilt but they hold up to the abuse the receive.

The main issue with Royal booms is the way they stick out the front. Lots of times, as in standing a press, you need a short boom as the machine interferes with the boom sticking out. You can remove a portion of the horizontal on the Royal but it requires another lift to remove it and you have to pull pins and such. On the Hoist or the Versalift, you just crank the boom back, with the unneeded portion going back over the machine, out of the way. On the Hoist 60/80 I'm looking at, it's even hyd motor driven, all you have to do it push a button to extend or retract the boom.
 
No, I haven't taken a tour. I was offered, by Hoist, free airfare, pick up at airport, tour of factory, and ride back to the airport. We've just been so busy with work, I haven't had time to fit it in my schedule.

They did bring a machine down and let me demo it. I may get up to the factory during the build if I can.
 
Interesting. Funny that near the end of the video they show a huge Toyota forklift moving Hoist parts around. I wonder if in reality they make the larger Toyota's and private label them ? CAT's larger forklifts were made by Eagle Pitcher for example.
I spotted that too. I didn't catch the Toyota labeling.
Apparently the lift business is wide open.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
I spotted that too. I didn't catch the Toyota labeling.
Apparently the lift business is wide open.
Just now looked again and they do mention doing "lift testing" when showing the Toyota.... but it's strange as looks like some slight denting in the sheet metal, like it might be one they use.... but maybe that dent is an optical illusion.

Before that shot, they show workers building some redish orange trucks... but the Toyota is a lighter orange, so I don't know what to think really.
 








 
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