Container forklifts sure have come a long way.
Gone are the days of operators exposed to the elements and suffering their shifts no matter how hot or cold the operating conditions.
Operators no longer have to prove their toughness by surviving the elements.
Modern trucks have a fully enclosed cab that provide real comfort during a shift and that sure isn’t a bad thing.
Not only do the cabs provide all weather protection but the ergonomics nowadays are just incredible.
Suspension seats, excellent vision all around the truck and fingertip controls to reduce fatigue.
Sany’s smallest forklift, the German-made 160C, is no exception.
But its cab goes way further than most with a windscreen wiper/washer system atop the cab so that operators can clearly see a raised load.
Combine this with front and back wipers and washers and a 180-degree glass front and there’s no excuse for operators not seeing exactly what the load is doing.
Apart from air-conditioning and heating the cab has the joystick control favoured by European operators.
The joysticks must have been designed by ex-Airbus first officers who for whatever reason didn’t make the grade to captain.
The joystick has all the normal functions such as fork tine raise/lower, mast rake, fork tine side shift and individual in/out for accurate positioning relative to load, achieved through a combination by sideways and forward and back movement and thumb switches atop the joystick.
Steps and handholds make the climb up straightforward and sensibly MLA, the Sany importer, fitted extra railings around the engine hatch (which accesses the dipsticks and radiator), because falling from this is a fair distance to terra firma.
The cab tilts up to one side to access the engine and transmission after the railing on the hinge side has been lowered.
Features such as automatic revs increase without touching the accelerator pedal make such a difference to rapid materials handling and, overall, the build quality of the machine was excellent.
The massive torque at low revs saves having to rev the engine hard with a load aboard and there’s no reason providing the Volvo is regularly maintained it shouldn’t provide thousands of hours of reliable performance.