altlift, I've heard decent things about Carolina Handling (we hired a guy from there a few years back) but, if you haven;t already, you my ask around of your customers/suppliers as to who they use in that area to get a feel not only for the equipment but the level of service. As for brands (as you can see) I'm partial to Raymonds. For many years (until Toyota bought BT-Raymond) Raymond components were being used in Clarks, Toyotas, Yales and Mitsubishis (Mitsi went so far as to just repaint 1998 112 walkie-riders green, slap Mitsi stickers on em and call them "new" 2002 Mitsi walkie-riders...when the paint on the forks wore off it was red underneath). I think that says alot for the product.