Here is my story as a fork truck engineer, fairly long but here goes

When I was a kid my dad messed about with cars, engines, motor bikes, he was not qualified, he also has very little tools, he was a ex army truck driver Royal Corps of Signals , but knew all about mechanics, self trained, he also invented/made the worlds first agricultural carrot lifter, that machine sat for years on a farm till it was scrapped but he never patented it.
He would buy Triumph twin motor cycle engines and join 2 engines together to make engine driven welders, this was in the early 50's, he brought home aeroplane propellers to alloy weld them, his boss had a couple of aeroplanes, but he was not a qualified welder but knew how to do it

kids used to come round to the back yard of our house and watch dad repairing and tuning cars, motor bikes, asking about what he was doing and he showed them. I also watched and read books about mechanics as a kid
a good few of the kids went onto to be successful car mechanics using my Dad's knowledge


I left school after living out in the sticks, I wanted to join the British Navy, but ended up in the British army.

I joined the British army and was trade trained with generators and power supply in the Royal Corps of Signals

After I came out of the military I nearly went back in to join The Royal Engineers as a Heavy Plant Mechanic, but I met my wife. something to this day I regret,, no, not the wife, but the military, I had to settle down, so civvy street it was.

I got a job with a large company, some in the UK will recall the company, The 600 group, everything from generators, cranes, shovels, lift trucks

I worked the generator repair department.

What I noticed was that the company had service engineers going out to repair, so I enquired, no chance of getting that job, but I noticed that the engineers in the fork truck department got out more, I eventually got a transfer to the lift truck department, all Coventry Climax fork trucks, they would not let me go out on the road

I left,

I applied for a job with a lift truck hire company called L Lipton fork trucks, they also manufactured the Lipton gas system for lift trucks, their main trucks was Komatsu, they gave me a pair of overhauls suit, service van keys and sent me out on a job the same day.
The firm went bust

I then joined Matbro fork trucks, a company formed by 2 brothers called Mathews Brothers, Matbro for short, Horley Surry it was they who invented the articulation pivot system of the front end loader, they too went bust

I then left a joined Clark Equipment Industrial Truck, best company I have every worked for as a Service Engineer

Clark Equipment was I believe the first to offer Preventative Maintainance procedure for lift trucks and also to produce the first paper work to be issued to customers if the machine was in dangerous order, before, ie Forklift Truck LOLER Certification

how about you???????

was you a lift truck engineer, did you go on to be a company, still trading?

On looking back I miss Fork lift trucks, but todays engineers are not what they used to be, the files, reamers, micro meter, the spill timing of the injection system is gone, its computers, plug it in and it tells you what is wrong, we found the fault with out computers

I am glad I did that job, and I miss it, maybe that's why I get ForkliftAction on my pc

The old Mr Clark got it right from the start, quality and a good product, most grateful to him and his historical lift truck company