Crown's new C-5

Crown Equipment Corp has rolled out a Class V pneumatic-tyre forklift that claims to overcome frequent detriments stemming from use in heavy-duty outdoor applications.

Design of the Crown internal combustion C-5 Series pneumatic model aims to eliminate frequent maintenance, excessive downtime and shortened lifespan characteristics bedeviling forklifts operating in extremely dirty environments.

The pneumatic version represents mostly a product extension of the slightly shorter Class IV warehouse-oriented C-5 Series cushion-tyre model that Crown introduced in 2009. Again, the power comes from a codeveloped liquefied petroleum gas-fueled 2.4-litre engine from the John Deere Power Systems unit of Deere & Co. Both the cushion and pneumatic trucks have the same cooling features with the dual open-core radiator providing separate cooling for the engine and transmission.

Crown incorporated minor modifications. "As a new product (in 2009), there are some things you learn in the first year of production," says Tim Quellhorst, Crown vice president of engineering. "We made some minor tweaks but no major changes." Some elements of cushion-tyre pre-market testing "carried over into the pneumatic-tyred truck".

The new model "does experience inclement weather, so we want the cab to be ready", says Andy Smith, Crown C-5 Series product manager. "We made adjustments to the overhead guard" to provide protection from environmental elements.

Crown touts lower maintenance costs than competing forklifts. "If you service the trucks based on the manuals, the (annual) savings could be as much as USD4,500," Smith says. "Competitors require as many as 600 tasks within 2,000 (operational) hours. Crown has 76 routine tasks. That is 524 fewer routine maintenance tasks."

Crown says the self-adjusting power brake has fewer moving parts and a 90% larger brake pad surface than traditional drum brakes.

Extensive field testing has occurred. "We have a significant number of C-5 Series trucks onsite in a variety of customer locations," Smith notes. "This allowed us to use cushion test sites to validate the component design of the pneumatic model. This means we have hundreds of thousands of hours logged and numerous customer locations. We have also conducted a number of tests over the last few years on the pneumatic model at multiple harsh outdoor environments."