A few weeks back, I set an ad out on CraigsList for a wanted to buy for assorted cheap parts to do a budget electric car conversion.
A few days ago, I got a call from a guy who is selling a forklift.
I got to go take a look at it today at lunch.
It is a Raymond 36V electric stand-on forklift. It is supposedly in working condition, but does not include battery pack.
The lift has a 7" diameter motor for the pumps and a 10" for the drive wheels.
Both motors look to be in good clean condition.
The weird part is that the forklift is at a crash-testing facility. I didn't even know we had one in town!
The sister forklift of this one was involved in a lawsuit. Lawyers sent this one to the facility to run over some crash test dummies and has been there ever since, not worth the cost to ship it back! So, they are selling it because it is just taking up space. (The facility already has a HUGE gas forklift they use for moving SUVs onto there test crash area...)
The unit also includes a 65 amp 36V charger.
The guy is asking $500 for it, including the charger.
It's gotta be worth more than that in scrap.
Besides the motors, it looks like there are all sorts of good levers, cable, hoses, and other bits useful for building things from.
The couple of catches are:
I need to haul it out - they won't deliver.
I have no place to put it right now other than my driveway.
How do I keep it from sinking into my driveway? Might be ok while it is this cold, but it will sink right into the asphalt as soon as it warms up at all.
I still don't know what vehicle I am going to convert. All I know it that it needs to be cheap, have as little rust as one can expect for the area, and must roll well!
I have some photos of the forklift
HERE
All I need is $500 and a way to move it, and the forklift is all mine.
Any thoughts?
PS: If I put a FORKlift motor in an S10 pickup, I am calling it the SPORK!