They are both good companies & support their customers well. but I would give the nod to Carolina Handling.
No I do not ,nor ever have worked for either company.

I will add I am partial to Raymond, but as mentioned both dealers are good.

BUT

It depends on the equipment you are purchasing. Both make the same styles of equipment, but each has some different equipment strengths. I would need more info on your application before I could offer a better opinion

We're looking at reach trucks and rider pallet trucks.

I must stress I am a Raymond Fan

With that said I believe that Raymond makes the better reach truck (specify AC lift and drove motors), crown the better pallet jack, raymond had some issues with their pallet jacks and annoying switch issues. If you are under a full maintenance plan these would not be a problem for you. I would suspect that your in a dry regular environment.. If its a freezer then in my experience either color will work - they all will have condensation issues.

As with all service companies what you receive is only as good as the support team in place. Ask to meet the area techs and the service manager. I know that Carolina Handling has a strong senior managent presence in Atlanta, as well as a large parts department and you may be better of because of that.

crown has great support in the area. the new 5700 rr is much improved as well

acording with chris_j, the new RR/RD5700 or RR/RD5700S
are the best machines, in AC or DC motors.

by other side, the mast of raymond crack too soon.
and the load wheels are the best against raymond load wheels.

but you are the best judge.

something to consider: crown atlanta has been getting rid of their experienced techs for new hires straight out of tech schools, several from MMI out of daytona, and carolina handling let go of several of their experienced techs over the past couple of years. I don't work for either and have nothing negative to say about either product, and have friends at both dealers, but don't rule out hyster's line of AC narrow aisle and pallet units.

Grumpy:
No doubt in my mind the Hyster dealer in Atlanta has changed some folks (including technical types) in the recent past as well. Just take a look at the position openings on this website. Guess this means this also something to consider.

the job postings for barloworld are not for the atlanta area, they are for the entire barloworld network. and yes, we got rid of dead weight people, techs AND managers.

Whatever - guess the old adage" Folks in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" applies here.

And all this time I thought the saying was really that people in grass houses should not store thrones, as a result of the guy who collected toilettes having his ceiling crush in on his sod house.
:-)

Isn't "[url removed]*" such an interesting (yet unscrupulous and difficult to combat) sales tactic?
*= Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt

I would also like to note that the more experienced people around here might notice that while we all know plenty of things "less than perfect" with many forklift designs, we rarely notice what is good, since we don't have to fix the good parts. kind of like asking us what is a good forklift, since no one ever calls and says "come over for a service call, I Have a really -good- forklift for you to look at", all we get is; "this piece of stuff...."

---

that saying works too - just never heard it in my neighborhoods being nomadic I moved quite a bit.

I heard that your kids almost always caught up to you...

;-)

---

never worried about the kids, its the Xs that I worried about. they always wanted more than teh contract agreed to - kinda like some lift truck dealers don't you know.

The Hyster narrow aisle and walkie rider is the most dependable warehouse product out there right [url removed] are not getting the attention they should because red and gray have been getting all the [url removed] AC motors are rock [url removed] can bus communication system left the world of large harnesses all over the truck behind years [url removed] Hyster, Crown and Raymond continued to spread electronic components all over their machines. Hyster (made in North Carolina by the way) started pulling ahead in warehouse technology about 5 years [url removed] controls and dependability to [url removed] also demands that all technicians ,even veterans,continue their factory [url removed] and Gray hope to keep them at bay.

Hey Madman. Being a former Certified Raymond tech, I can honestly say that we had to be re-certifed by factory exam every 3 years after passing the level II test. As for can bus communication, Raymond has been using it for years. Now instead of power card, sytem card, vfc card, carriage control card, etc., you only have a couple of power amps and a vehicle manager (and carriage control card on OPs). I took care of a very large customer (approx. 200 pcs. of equipment) for many years. They were a diverse mixture of brands but I still found the Raymond (and Mitsi/Raymonds) easier to repair and more dependable. Where I work now we have a fleet of 98 with 55 of them Raymonds. As long as the maintenance (my job) is kept up, the only breakdowns I see is due to age and operator error.

---

Just for the record when it comes to narrow aisle, class II products both Raymond & Crown have the market wrapped up 60%. Yale has been in the market a long time & Hyster first got into class II when they bought Lewis Sheppard. Neither the Nacco twins market share added together come close to either Raymond or Crown individually. Greater market share translates to greater customer acceptance. Customer make teh lift truck world go around - buy trucks, pay for service, buy parts In Class III ,Yale many, many moons ago had the lions share but Crown leap frogged them in a big way with better product & quality & not by low $$ (like MPB or what ver Hyster calls it)).

Once again red and gray talk about [url removed] we see their sales people in the field they compare their today product with our yesterday [url removed] worked in the field years ago at an account where the red guys came in and compaired their newest stand up with a proud 10 year old Hyster with 60,ooo hours on [url removed] brought up our modern [url removed] thing [url removed] funny thing was.... They were promising a NEW [url removed] product to be out [url removed] Hyster [url removed] stand up was already out there [url removed] couldn't compete with [url removed] they have an [url removed]
The next thing I observed with red and gray is that they come into an account with low , low, machine prices and parts [url removed] how temporary those prices [url removed] have a way of sneaking up over time.
The Naaco twins have lots of room to grow in market [url removed] their superior product I am sure they [url removed] one offers more equipment variety than [url removed] and gray are ONLY [url removed] like to lock in a national account with charts and [url removed] "OOOHHH look at me, I've got market share"."I must be the best".
I watched a team of slick talking saleman talk a group of executives at a factory into buying two of their trucks to replace one [url removed] did not offer a truck the size of a Hyster 50,000 pound [url removed] had charts and graphs that they said PROVED they could do twice the work in the same amount of [url removed] would save money! ooohhh aHHHH !
I personally had the delighted pleasure to watch that ten year old Hyster 500 rumble into the building and get down to business while those two (replacement trucks) sat in the shop with busted transmissions and torque [url removed] newbies were never able to do the [url removed] [url removed] Hyster is still carrying on [url removed] twice the load hour after [url removed] after [url removed] [url removed] intruders are gone.
I've got a 1944 Hyster out back right now that could be put to work this afternoon if need be.
You see I can talk about yesterday [url removed] my competition wants [url removed] and graphs, Bahh ! Lets talk about work.

Let see Yale used to sell MBP to Kroger but now it is what band? Large Nationa Accounts aren't stupid - if the truck don't work out and the cost to operate them & down time are excessive, service is non responsive to their needs (in teh customers viewpoint) - then they change. Look at Home Depot, Wal-Mart (here I'm referring to ICE units) they have changed. Lowes is a along time National Account 4 Yale right now - some day they could change - if someone wanted to buy into the account.

Coke Cola (CCE) used to be a Yale that changed for some reason, eh.
Every brand of forklift can point to an account/model that ran many hours past the "norm". I worked for Mitsubishi at a point in time a nation wide trucking company out of Ohio that had hundreds in there fleet found the engines to run over 20,000 in there break bult terminal that run 7/24/365 & the cross hatch on the engine cylinder walls was still visible. Then they went to the 4G63/64 engine - the romance ended & opened teh door to a competitor.
Certainly you would find it difficult to find parts for a 66 year old truck - my doctor is have a hard time to find OEM parts for my 1944 knee - so its a plastic one.
Yale & Hyste have & had extensive National / Major Accounts staff for many years (Hyster & Clark used to have the best NA programs going), right? Or they did then along came 2007. The year I hung up my lift spurs.
Have a great day.

Thank you for helping me make my point.