That's a good point; I will look into the battery weights and see if it's a factor. Thanks for your help.

I don't know about the toyota, but it's generally pretty easy to convert a shyster/yale unit from 36 to 48V.

Is it worth it? That's up to you. Your comment kind of concerns me, in that the battery is part of the counter weight of the truck. If your 36V battery is too small, it will affect the saftey of the unit. There is a minimum weight listed on the number plate, please ensure that you are over that.

Yeah, fortunately we have our own battery we'd be keeping, so at least that's a known good. The only issue is the truck is a 48V and our battery/charger is 36V, so it would have to be changed over. Don't know if this presents any other issues....

Got it narrowed down between this truck (or maybe the Hyster equivalent) and a Toyota, which also seems to have a great reputation. It's a little more money but maybe worth the extra investment for the brand.

Thanks much for the good help!

That model should have a GE SX controller.
when you turn the key off, the display will give the traction hours followed by the lift hours (assuming it has transistor lift) on the dash display.

There is a slight possibility that the unit has EV100 controls, the hours will display the same way, just the display is different. (LED vs. LCD on the SX's)

I'm afraid that there is no way to be absolutley sure of total truck hours, since the hour meters reset when you change controllers and it's up to the tech to set the hours that are displayed. (so obviously any iffy dealer could set whatever hours they felt like)

*note if the unit has contactor hydraulics, then only traction hours are displayed

They are a great series of trucks, just watch out for the batteries.

You can expect to replace the battery @ about 5yrs of age.
The age of the battery is a little more difficult to figure out.
I believe only GNB puts a proper date on a label.
The rest have stamps on the first inter-cell connector from the positive post.
Some are stamped with dates, but most have codes that have to be deciphered by the respective battery supplier.


Hope this helps...