I believe that the original question was which was the better dealer of two in the Atplanta area NOT what truck do I purchase etc. Sadly this post seems to have gotten totally off track.
Everyone has their own brand and loyalty.. I suspect that people reading this forum would be put off by some of the more zelous posts by people pushing their own agenda vs offering support and constructive help to other people.

Mr. Bobm do you know what a terrible sexist statement you just made in your post ? You somehow feel babbling equates femininity ? Excuse me , but your lack of professionalism is showing in a public forum.
It seems to concern you so...
I am 6 feet 3 inches tall 245 pounds.I am father to two sons and a daughter.I am also a grandfather.I have been happily married to my wife for 25 years.I raised my family by the sweat of my brow in this industry.
I was expecting to hear defense of product and depate on the strengths and weaknesses in the offerings of the various manufacturers and quality of such. In partucular the red and Gray.There still is not much of that being offered.
I am getting board.

All I know about lift-trucks I learned from a lift truck salesman while eating at Harbor Sixty Steakhouse

I always base all my decisions on the most entertaining anecdotes I hear from biased individuals. And all I ever eat is steak because I just can't resist that sizzle. Wanna ride bikes?

bob m
U B Rite On Bro'!!
Just want to see if he had facts to back up the claims.

Wow. Never in 28 years in MHE have I heard such a Babbler as "Madman". Change your name to "MadWoman" Please Enough of your Babble. Please everyone, Stop encouraging "MadWoman"

Thanks for that babble.
I am not nor have I ever been in sales.I do not need the charts ,graphs , or babblespeak to support the facts.I have always worked with the end user of the Hyster product.My hands on the machines.My body in the building the truck was actually being used in.
Don't get me wrong I know full well how to use the charts and graphs of the coorperate world.I could ,for example, present a very convincing arguement that you are taller or shorter than you actually are using charts and graphs.
I still hear Billions and Billions of our burgers sold.Buy our same old burgers.Everyone else does.
More on your babble........
Your "quantitive data" comment moves into the world of the " Scientific Method" by which things are (supposedly)proved to be a scientific fact.The scientific method is a flawed device that only proves the existance of scientific theory with no absolute truth.Only truely useful in pointing out general direction such as saying " oh , that away".Scientific proven fact is overturned on a minute to minute basis.
My babble.

Madman - be quantitative to validate you claims. Words without supporting quantitative data is like trying to hold jello in your hands when it is 90 degrees F outside.
What was the maintenance cost/hour over a 5 year year period of this Hyster unit(s) you speak of, operating in a normal & clean single shift operation, 1080 hours/year usage ten year ago? Then do the same for 5 years ago. Assume a new units for each of these time periods. Not interested in info on a unit less than 5 years old - initial warranty coverage seems to distort the information as well as units covered under extended warranty programs. Then do the same for two shift operations or 2200/year same or similar operations.

What you stated is similar to the descriptive adjective, heavy duty,commonly used in brochures - that is the xyx lift truck is equipped with a HEAVY DUTY bearing, axle, reach assembly, carriage, drive axle, air cleaner. In 41 years, I never read anyone that said there truck had a light duty. Yale came close to doing it when they described their small wheel base 4K lift truck (ICE cushion pneumatic & elctric sitdowns & one some reach models too) - they said it was designed for intermediate operations - but sales folks sold them into the wrong operations - then the hoops came off the barrel.

I once had a customer in the mid 70's that had "fleet management" responsibilites of 3500 forklifts operating in wood products (plywood & lumber) manufacturing & distribution facilities in all 50 states. On my first call he stated his phiosophy on sales people & it was "If a sales person states his claim verbally - I believe nothing he said. If he puts it in writing, I believe only 50% of what is stated & it is always hard to figure out what 50% he should believe." His name J.D. Mills. Never forgot that comment & what it meant.

What I am reading is...
I make hamburgers every day.I sell billions and billions of hamburgers.You will like my hamburgers.They never change.My people are out on overtime pushin those hamburgers.Don't look at those steaks over there.
The up to date GE technology is the best there is.Package that with the materials handling experiance of Hyster and you get the best.The maintenance cost of the Hyster continues to go down because of refinements that have that as one of the primary goals.

chublil, hint on the overmast hoses/cables. I keep a 8" 2X4 (to block the reach out with), a 4' 2X4 (to block the 2nd stage with), and a 8' 2X4 (to block the carriage with). You put all these in place, do as the service manual says....but backwards. I can do most of the work from right in the operators compartment. I've got cables down to less than 2 hours and hoses to less than 3 and I ain't rushin'.

sporto5 - Well stated. Crown & Raymond dealers & manufactuer main focus is Class I, II & III products - yes Crown is now into the engine powered stuff & have offered Komatsu, Daewoo (Doodan) products for many years. But their main focus is on warehouse products & warehouse systems or this is where these dogs eat.
Other forklift companies/dealers offer products in all 5 five classifications - their resources (financical, buildings, support equipment, personnel knowledge/training,) customer /application expertice to support those are spread overall 5 differnt types of products - sort of like the "jack of all trades" syndrome or going to a general practice doctor for heart surgery.
In the Southeast - Carolina Handling would be my selection. A simple example - last Friday at 6:30 PM I saw one of ther service vans leaving and industrial park near where I live (45 miles east of downtwown Atlanta)- their home office is NE of Atlanta. One of two things happened - the service tech was seeing a girlfriend in that park or was taking care of a customer (which I do know they have in that park).
When I was in sales working the south side of Atlanta it was not uncommon to see theirservice van's in the Industrial parks there early in the am 6 or 7 am. Their location is closer to the north east side of Atlanta.
No, I don't work or every had for either company - I did work for several of those "jack of all trades" companies - dealers & manufacturer

Bob m the only down fall on the 7400 is the over the mast hoses. Talk about a pain to replace. Other than that I like them.

Carolina Handling is the hands down winner here.

Hyster hired a Raymond Engineer and designer about 5 years ago. The New product looks interesting? But I will go with the Reliability of Raymond product. They deleloped the Reach from day one and continue to improve the durability. The New 7400 AC unit is still the Industry leader. As for the Hyster, This is the newest design, I've seen 10 "New" Hyster Reach models in the last 28 years. Don't be a "Pioneer" i.e.: People on the side of the road with arrows in their back.

As you cans see there is a lot of bias based on the brands people seel. This does not hslp answer your question in a maaner that helps you in your decision. I am not a sales person for any brand and have had experience with them all. First to you question on which dealer is better in terms of service. The answer is both are good however there are som areas that you need to investigate. One would be what iseach of their average respomse time for service calls, Second is how far is their nearest location to your facility in case additional parts are needed for a repair. Third is what is the size and make up of their rental fleets. Some dealers will tell you that they have hundreds of trucks avaible in their rentsl fleets however, if they do not have enough models of the type you use with the specs that you need the size of their fleets do not matter. If you are purchasing reach trucks, order pickers, tuuret trucks, and or walkies my experience has been that Raymond dealers tend to have better equipped rental fleets for those models. Crown would be second and Hyster and Yale a distant third. This means that if one of your trucks goes down and you need a replacement truck or if you need addional trucks for peak seasons, inventory etc.. the dealer with the based match of rental trucks to your needs will be able to help you more. Both Crown and Raymond make good trucks from a mechanical standpoint and they would not have the majority of the market if they did not. I would also suggest you look at their energy efficiency as this will effect your costs and productivity and the trucks productivity. The truck that get's the most work done for you, consumes the least amount of energy and costs the least to maintain is what you want to look at. I hope this helps!