Some machines come to us a little behind on maintenance. This one was a lot behind. This Hyster S120FT-BCS came in for a full forklift PM service and tune up, and it had clearly been running hard for a long time with very little attention paid to it.
If you are not familiar with the BCS designation, it stands for Box Car Special. It is a low overhead guard version of Hyster’s 12,000 pound cushion tire truck, built short enough to work inside boxcars and trailers. Machines like this live indoors, run all day, and almost never get the attention that a piece of equipment working that hard deserves. As long as it keeps picking up loads, it keeps getting pushed to the back of the maintenance list.
Until it stops picking up loads.
What we found when the hood came up
The first thing I do on any machine like this is slow down and actually look at it before I start turning wrenches. Neglected equipment almost never has one problem. It has the one problem somebody finally noticed, plus a handful more sitting right behind it.
The engine bay told most of the story. Dust and grime packed into every corner, wiring and hoses buried under it, and fluids and filters that were well past due. Nothing exotic, nothing catastrophic yet, just a long list of small things that had been ignored one shift at a time until they added up.
That is usually good news. Tired is a much better diagnosis than ruined.
The forklift PM service work
This truck got the full treatment, front to back. A complete preventive maintenance service plus a proper tune up on the engine side:
- All fluids and filters brought current, including engine oil, hydraulic, transmission, coolant, fuel and air filtration
- Full tune up to get the engine running the way it is supposed to run
- Cooling system, intake and exhaust gone over and cleaned up
- Hydraulic system checked for leaks, wear and proper function
- Mast, chains, carriage and forks inspected and adjusted
- Brakes, steering, drivetrain and electrical inspected
- Grease points hit and safety items addressed
Every item on that list is something that should have been happening on a schedule. None of it was. That is the reason a job like this takes a full day instead of a couple of hours.
Why it matters
Deferred maintenance on a forklift does not feel expensive right up until the moment it becomes very expensive. Skipping oil and filters saves you a few dollars a month and eventually costs you an engine. Ignoring a weeping hydraulic fitting saves you a service call and costs you a pump or a cylinder. Letting brakes go saves you nothing at all and costs you far more than money if it lets go at the wrong moment.
A PM visit is cheap. An emergency call in the middle of a shift is not. Neither is a truck that is not safe for the person operating it. If your machine is due, an annual inspection is a good place to start.
Back to work
Fresh fluids, clean filters, a proper tune up and the right adjustments, and this Hyster runs and works the way it should again. It was not ruined. It was just tired and overdue.
That is most of what we do. Show up, do it right, get the machine back to work.
If you have a forklift, tractor, telehandler, mini excavator or anything of the sort that is overdue, or one you honestly are not sure about, give us a call at 360-220-6369. We cover Spokane and the surrounding area out of Medical Lake, and we work on most makes and models.
Here or there, give us a call. We will get you back on track.