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What Do Forklift Truck Warranties Actually Cover?
Your new industrial unit is being customized to your exacting requirements and you have chosen to purchase a brand new forklift truck for the heavy lifting and moving work. As you are buying brand new you shouldn't be hit with any unexpected maintenance costs, surely its all covered by the warranty and you only need to budget for fuel, the driver and licensing? Well maybe before pen is put to paper and the new truck is ordered it would be worth reading, at least once, the warranty document.
As with most warranties, licenses and even instructions, is is long winded and full of words used purely to justify their existence in the dictionary. However the warranty must clearly spell out exactly what is covered and how it is covered - losing your truck for 3 months while it is repaired without a free replacement is going to hit your business hard in any year. Most fork lift truck warranties exist to help differentiate purchasing a new forktruck from a used one. The major components of the truck and all of the parts that do not wear with use, or are expected to wear of use, should be covered. A whole list of forklift parts are considered to be wearable, and in essence have a life span dictated by the usage and environment of the truck. It is these parts that will most probably not be covered by your warranty. An easy way to understand the warranty is more of a guarantee that the fork truck has been created correctly and the major components are sound, it is not a guarantee that the tyres will not wear, nor the battery will not need replacing.
The best way to find out what is not included is by asking about a maintenance contract and find out what is included in that. As maintenance contracts usually cover items not included in the warranty you can get a clear picture of the servicing requirements and which forklift parts are most likely to need replacing after x number of hours. Highlighting these wearable parts and cost factoring this into the annual budget of the forktruck will ensure no unexpected cost surges throughout the year.
Forklift truck warranties are an essential tool to give you peace and mind that your truck is sound and will operate correctly for at least a few years however ongoing costs are still going to be incurred even with a brand new machine and hence a budget allocation or maintenance contract needs to be looked at and is as important.