Caterpillar Forklift Trucks - Are They Stiill The Best?

The company known as Caterpillar entered the forklift truck business back in 1966 when they acquired Towmotor Corporation. But because of difficulties during the 1980's the company closed down it plant in Mentor, Ohio and carried out its manufacturing operations instead in England and Korea. However by 1992 the number of Caterpillar forklift trucks being produced through these 2 plants had reached 10,000 per year.

It was at this time that Caterpillar then when into partnership with Mitsubishi who had been building forklift trucks for the North American market back in 1982. Mitsubishi had their manufacturing plant in Houston Texas and Japan and it was by 1988 they shipping around about 4,000 of their trucks from Japan and Houston to companies around the world.

In fact by the time Caterpillar set up partnership with Mitsubishi in America to build forklift trucks they had already been in partnership for 26 years with them. They had been reaping the benefits of setting up a company called Shin Caterpillar which had been producing small loaders and excavators and so it only seemed natural for the two companies to then go into partnership in order to gain a foothold in the market in North America.

Today most of the manufacturing of Caterpillar forklift trucks now takes place at the plant in Houston that was originally set up by Mitsubishi. The plant is located on a 35 acre site and of this 565,651 sq ft consists of the production plant, the technical and administration buildings where they employ 900 people to work in this very competitive but lucrative field.

The most typical advances to be made in the design of Caterpillar forklift trucks in recent years has been to focus on the ergonomics and the comfort of those operating their vehicles. Most of their vehicles now come with a low open step that has a grab bar located in a convenient position which makes it much easier for the operator to both enter and exit the truck. They come with a cowel cover that has been integrated into the cab design to prevent wires or hoses from gaining access into the compartment where the operator is located.

The seat has been designed to provide improved support for both the thigh and lumbar regions of the operators body as well as a support for the operators arm when carrying out reversing maneuveurs. Plus most important of all is they have been able to advance the design of their masts which provides the driver with much better visibility when operating any type of Caterpillar forklift truck.

Electric Forklift