Engine rebuilder Advanced Engines has found an expanding market for its customised services.

Owner Tom Rohr Rohr projects the 2012 sales for Advanced Engines will increase 5-8% above last year's result.

Advanced Engines says it will launch a national service, effective from 1 September, offering parts for forklift and skid loader engines to do-it-yourself enthusiasts and small engine service shops across the US.

About 50% of the firm's business involves work on engines for forklifts, with the remainder on engines for skid steer loaders and sales of new equipment and engine parts.

"A lot of people do not offer custom services," he notes. "We can do custom to meet lift truck needs."

Among its customer locations, "we ship to Texas, Colorado and Iowa", Rohr says.

Rohr says the economy slowdown beginning in 2008 prompted many consumers to change the way they made purchasing decisions and to seriously consider buying used equipment, including forklifts.

"People began requesting rebuilt engines for their lift trucks and skid loaders," he reports. "We started with Bobcat engines and continued right down the alphabet", including work involving the Kubota and Perkins brands.

Advanced Engines is becoming familiar with the 2013 final Tier 4 requirements of the US Environmental Protection Agency for reduced exhaust emissions from diesel engines in off-road applications. An interim less-stringent version of the rule, known as Tier 4i, expires on 31 December.

"We just started on Tier 4 with Bobcat and Kubota engines" and will pursue the subject as information on emission-control devices and related technologies and equipment becomes available for diesel engines exceeding 25 hp, he says.

Advanced Engines was founded 1982, employs five staff and occupies 5,000 sqft. (465 sqm) in Plymouth in north-central Indiana.