OK I just acquired this lift and it would more useful to me if it had pneumatic tires. I need to know if its possible to convert a hyster S50XM to pneumatic tires. thanks.
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Ed T,
See what happens when one retires from an industry after 41 years as I did in 2007, new stuff keeps comes along.
Certainly, there are & have been conversions for the 3 electric wheel truck where it is relatively easy to switch from a pneumatic style to cushion tire & vice versa but not inexpensive - but three wheelers units were initially designed to "go both way".
And while working with a Japanese F/L company we "toyed" with the idea of installing cushion press-ons on to a pneumatic electric chassis, even had prototype unit. This is feasible as you are dealing with a longer wheel base & wider frame & installing a tire that will deflect less ( lift capacity rating is not compromised).
But the initial question asked in this thread was about converting/modifying a "cushion tire unit" to incorporate "pneumatic" tires. The major issues are smaller frame (width & wheel base length) & installing a tire that has more deflection (i.e. pneumatic) - plus a host of working clearance issues both at the drive tire & steering tire end. Pneumatic tires of comparable load capacity rating tend to be significantly larger in diameter & wider than a press-on cushion.
John, I would have agreed with "I have yet to see a 'factory authorized' conversion kit from cushion to pneumatic" about a year ago, but I recently had a traded in Toyota (my memory has it a 6 series) with a pneumatic frame, and solid tires that was what I would have called cushion, (not a press on replaceable tire, but a hard poly tire molded to a wheel, replacement was the whole wheel and tire =1 piece), and was from and recognized by the local Toyota dealer as a "special option". In this case it was a factory option to make a pneumatic a cushion, and the "conversion was to get the pneumatic wheels and mount regular tire back on them
Yeah it's definitely possible I agree with this.
In the 41 years I was in the lift truck business with 3 different manufacturers - I have yet to see a "factory authorized" conversion kit from cushion to pneumatic - other than on 3 wheel electrics. Once upon a time Clark & Allis-Chalmers offer a "hybrid" pneumatic unit that had cushion steer tires as an option - not a real popular unit..
If there was such a thing as a conversion, it was developed by a "shade tree" & not a professional shade tree (did not want to take a shot at proshadetree a good FAC contributor).
As everyone else has said here, it isn't practical or suggested by the manufacturer, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't find a conversion kit for your new equipment.
thought I would post a short update. the mast has been put back on. it looks like a forklift again. I ran out of paint so I still have a few minor items that I cant put on yet. mostly the fiberglass parts. the wiring has been sorted out now. all the lights are now in working order which took a while since I didnt have a schematic available. does anyone know if hyster will sell you a schematic?
thanks ed for the offer, and admin for the action.
Like I said the forklift action, Admin blokes & blokettes are good folks & have been responsive to issues. Plus, they are better to celebrate the New Year with - you can start at 9 am EST and go to bed at 9 pm EST. Us more experienced folks can't stay up 'til midnite any more. And the celbration is fun to watch at little more intersting than the Ball or Peach drop we have on the eastside of teh states..
Avatars are now active...sorry it appears that Admin was not up to the pace.
Thank you....Good idea Edward t , deleted and we will see what happend with the Avatar
Steponmebbbboom, can you e-mail me the pic you wanted for your avatar here? it seems rather odd (to me) that you have not heard back from the Admin about getting your pic set up, maybe I can figure out what the problem is and how to get it corrected to get the pic accepted, or at least some reply from forkliftaction about it?
very good point. didnt consider the touch up aspect. as far as the "body work" required for a metallic to look good. I already did all of that. I stripped the counter weight back down to the bare casting and skim coated the entire thing with body filler to get it back to where its presentable again. like I said in a previous post this thing looked like it had been in a few demo derby's or perhaps owned by and axe murderer who used it for practice. I have repaired the fiberglass panels on the truck and got those back into respectable shape as well. whoever owned this truck prior to me literally beat the snot out of it. but the price was right and I love "projects" especially ones that arent really that difficult to bring back to like new condition.
as for the posting pics. I do have a website I can post them on. so maybe when Im done I will just do that or on my facebook page. I actually have pics of it in its current condition there. cforcht at g mail dot com on facebook. for anyone whos interested in seeing what a hyster S50XM looks like all torn apart.
hi craig,
in my experience custom colors (esp. metallic) are difficult to get to look right on a forklift without a LOT of paint prep and blocking work---one of the advantages to painting trucks in primary colours is they hide imperfections in the frame well. they are also impossible to touch-up without blowing in whole panels---the nissan rental platinums when i worked for a dealer were so troublesome we resorted to repainting the silver in a matching gray. I would choose a colour readily available in spray-bomb to touch-up the inevitable scrapes your truck will get over the next few years.
john - FYI - several months ago my avatar was a cassette tape. I submitted a new avatar for approval and after several months, and emails to the admin of the site, nothing has been done. shrug?
ive seen people post links to external photo hosting sites by modifying the link slightly to defeat the site spam filters, that would be about the only way to show images on this site.
There is a way but I am not certain how but if you go to "Contact US" teh folks at Forklift Action can guide you. Send them a message - they are good about getting back to you - they are in Austrailia - so there is a bid time differnce - like 12-13 hours & it is already tommorow there.
Johnr... not a problem its easy to do unless youve been following it since the beginning.
I am getting closer to having this thing done. its in primer now. I have a couple small areas I need to address before I top coat it with the actual paint. my son keeps trying to get me to paint it some custom color. I am still leaning toward the std yellow but have considered making it a metallic yellow instead. still undecided. The mast is painted and done. I had custom HYSTER logos made for it instead of going with the factory ones from hyster. funny thing was they cost me less than the OEM stickers. but I maximized them in size to take advantage of the available area they were to be applied to. the yellow "hyster" letters on the side of the mast are 5" high compared to approx 3" factory letters. gotta say it looks very nice. finding the correct font was a bit of a challenge but I found it.
heres the items I have replaced on this unit. dash panel, steering wheel, seat, front/rear tires, 2 hyd lines, the side shift assy, lever boots, main chain guides, mast mounting pin bushings, all bearings and seals in the steering gear. I have completely blasted and painted the entire mast assy. the counterweight has been refinished, the cage and all other exterior parts have been refinished and are now in primer. all the lights have been replaced or repaired. its starting to take shape. is there a way I can post a picture when Im done?
CRAIG - U B rite - I didn't read far back enough to see you were refering to steer tires. I ASSUMED, based on a more recent discussion of tires affect lift capacity rating it was the drive tires as the steer tread width has no affect on lift capacit as the axle articulates.
craig,
it is not dangerous (nor uncommon) to have the tires overhanging the wheels on a cushion-tired truck. the tire size on your capacity plate is the tire size you go with. Yes the tires overhang your rim but they do not mechanically interfere and they are the size called for on the cap plate. by your description they were overhung on the correct side of the rim. Enjoy your new tires.
Someone probably put the 5" tires on it just to save money.
Johnr I think you misunderstood something. the tires in question are the steering axle tires. the front drive tires are flush on both sides as the original ones were and are the same size as the ones that were replaced. thanks for the input though.
Just for the record the tire size (width) selected for a given counterbalanced lift truck is based on two factors 1.) the load capacity rating of the tire per the tire manufactuer, meaning when the tire is carrying a max capacity load the tire (axle) loading should not exceed this tire rating. 2.) to improve lift truck's lateral load capacity capabilty, by increasing the base of the stability triangle or tread width (measured from center to center of the front drive tires tread. As duodeluxe pointed out teh tires must be pressed on to assure the correct tread width is achieved and to insure that the inside of the tire does not extend to far inward to cause interference with the mast at it is tilted backards. Typical when tires are presson the max amount of tire ring over extending the wheel rim is 1" in one direction.
My reason for mentioning the last part is that "most" tires extend over the outside of the wheel and the inside is flush with the wheel. So when you remount the mast, becareful & watch for interfernece or pinch points between the mast & tires as you install the mast & then when the mast is back tilted.
Plus, it would be a good idea to verify what teh front tread width should be with the 6" wide tires & meaures what you have.
If you need adjustment the tires would need to be repressed by 1/2 of the difference of what you measured as tread width to what the spec sheets of teh truck states as the tread width.
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