So, the pair of Yales, that I have serviced, just turned 15K hours. I thought I would write up a little review on them. They have the Mazda 2.2 motors and tier 3 Impco LP systems. They run 24/7 and are not quite 2 1/2 years old.
Right off the bat, when they were new, they had backfire problems that broke the diaphragm in the mixers and broke the air filters. That was fixed by insulating the ignition coils better (I guess) and making sure the spark plugs are changed regularly. They have been ok for some time now.
Around 6K hours the transmission pumps started to leak. That was not too bad of a fix by just replacing the o ring on the pump cover. You can get to that under the truck. Both radiators needed to be replaced about at the 10K mark due to cracks in the plastic tanks. The lock offs failed I think due to the fact that the motors vibrate quite a bit and fatigued the wires where they enter the coil. The wires to the ignition coils do the same thing, vibrate and break at the plug where it connects to the coil. Both of them had tilt cylinder trouble when the piston seals would let the mast drift forward on it's own. Those very easy and quick repairs also. The forward and reverse levers have been broke off probably due to the drivers. That is about as easy as it gets to fix, just pop the old one out and the new one in. The electonic horns seem to have a major problem, they don't last very long. I hope there is a updated horn that will solve this. Oh, one of them appeared to have bullet holes in it one day, but they were just decals.
Now the good things. Motors run great, transmissions have no problems, no brake trouble, mast and rollers no problems, never touched the steer axles. The fuel regulators and all the electronics have had no issue at all.
Normal service parts that have been replaced are the batteries, starters, one alternator, seats, tires, lift chains, lights. They have a closely monitored check up, blow out, and PM schedule.
Not too bad, eh? The Toyotas that they had before these Yales went 28,000 hours before they started to become unreliable for 24/7 use and maybe the Yales will do just as well.