[remy_martian]

I've found a scrap yard in the middle of nowhere Utah that has a bunch of Hyster e50x forklifts. I bought one motor already. Hearing how rare they are I just asked him and he still has some. I'll head down there in a couple weeks and grab as many as I can can

Cool. PM me who and where they are. I promise I'm not after any of those heavy, underpowered, motors. I'm a Westinghouse, not Edison, kinda guy, lol. I need to go out to grab some stuff out that way, anyway, and you got me thinking about picking up a mast and forks.

That said, back to OP. Yes, you can gang them. Something like this, as an idea: https://www.evwest.com/catalog/prod...ucts_id=441&osCsid=knaot6qlp9lc6kv3hvbkf0vu24

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Imagine have a load of motors on the floor taking up space or a big wad of cash in your hand?

That's not how it works.

Here's a better picture:

1 - Forklift repair shop has a warehouse customer saying their battery doesn't last a full shift anymore.

2 - Forklift repair shop looks around and finds a broken down forklift being sold cheap because they can't get it off the lot (it weighs 5x as much as a car). They buy it and transport it back to the shop.

3 - Forklift repair shop lifts out the battery which is near the end of its life, but still has another year or two on it. They swap it with the warehouse customer's battery.

4 - The dead battery might go in storage for someone even more desperate, or, if completely dead, the battery is still worth $0.30/lb, for 1000 lbs that's worth yanking.

5 - The Anderson connectors and some of the safety gear that's expensive to replace and often smashed gets yanked off. The mast and forks get removed, it can be put onto any other lift no problem.

6 - They dump the carcass in a field until there's a slow enough day to haul 3 or 4 of them to the scrapyard.

...

What they don't do is carefully disassemble every component from every junk forklift and then warehouse it all. It's not worth the labor. It's generally not even worth anyone's time to yank the motor out (poorer areas it will be). It's probably been a decade since anyone even asked for one, and if they do need one, they just wait a few weeks until the next scrap heap comes in.

...

I sent the emails to 40 places. 6 people have called me all saying the same.

People keep telling you, no one is going to take the time to answer an email to help you out on a project. They deal with people interested in spending $20,000-$80,000 at a time.

Its hard to drive to all these places. They are scattered here there and everywhere.

At the very least, pick up the telephone and call and ask if it's okay if you stop by and can have a look through their junkyard for a motor that you could use for a project.

Then drive out to just the one repair place that seemed friendliest. Literally the first one I called hooked me up, twice.

Again, you're ordering salad and struggling with why it doesn't taste like the steak we're suggesting.

 

[Duncan]

Around here farmers buy the mast and forks - they bolt them to the back of a tractor - voila an instant forklift

 

[Squidlings]

Hey matt, not sure we are on the same page here. Yes ive sent 40 emails, ive driven to 3 of these places, ive directly called several and they are all saying the same thing.

So ebay appears to be the best place looking for a full fork lift, advertised as spares and repairs.

Your telling me thats not how it works and your probably right, but im telling you my experiences. Your making me sound like im sat at a computer all day, its pretty funny.

Since scrap metal prices are/were so good, whenever a fork breaks down, the dealers say...look at this shiny new forklift with a lithium battery. Youll not have any issues with this sir.

Anyway...uk isnt as big as US and most of the popular places dont have anything lying around.

Ive found this place which is selling 2 catapillar forks. Both for £850 for spares after their batteries failed. If i can get 4 motors, ill recondition 3 and sell them on 😏

Im loving this project, however, sourcing old items takes time. You need to keep an eye out for months not days.

Batteries is the next big sticking point. Ive made a 15kw lipo pack, but want to double it. I build with old 18650's sourced from laptaps and thats a big long job.

Maybe i should have just bought a model x? Wheres the fun in that though? My mates think im nuts building this rx8, but that shouts pride. A model x shouts...ahhh model x's are cool as well.

Just woke up, 8am here.

 

[Squidlings]

Just wanna say, i appreciate all your help and ideas. Im getting there, im working hard but im simply expressing my experiences.

I cant help it if im being told 1 thing and the market works in another way.

Like somebody said these people want $20-100k customers, not mr i want 4x motors for £400 🤪

 

[remy_martian]

Around here farmers buy the mast and forks - they bolt them to the back of a tractor - voila an instant forklift

Bingo! The man gets the Quewpie Doll.

That is EXACTLY what I want to do to my farm tractor - I'm getting tired of being burned by freight people for "liftgate service"

OK, that plus it's another toy, not to mention a great way to pick stuff up.

Have welder, willing to hack.

 

[remy_martian]

Just wanna say, i appreciate all your help and ideas. Im getting there, im working hard but im simply expressing my experiences.

I cant help it if im being told 1 thing and the market works in another way.

Like somebody said these people want $20-100k customers, not mr i want 4x motors for £400 🤪

If you're not in a super hurry, wait a year or two and save your cash. Industrial companies will be liquidating all kinds of stuff for the cash they're running out of. Best time to pick up stuff is deep in a recession. It's also when your own stuff becomes fairly worthless, lol.

At that time, there also will be all sorts of EVs in the junkyard, so you can get a drive unit for cheap - the Tesla units were ten grand not too long ago...they're about $3k now. As they add range, the older models are quickly depreciating. Bolt, Leaf...many have buyer's remorse for the extra range they'll almost never use, lol.

YOU can also buy a forklift at an industrial auction and part it out yourself to where you might walk away with a free motor.

 

[Squidlings]

Thx Remy, Your feeling this global ecomomic crash too? Im a bitcoin boy. I carefully watch the markets. I hadnt added the thought of an economic crash to getting cheap ev parts though. Thanks for that. I suppose another key is holfing some assets which people will be willing to exchange because its sounding bad for the USD. Maybe some gold, silver or crypto.

Right, hold tight, im off to salvage me some speed.

 

[Squidlings]

The catapillar forks had 7" dc series wound. Each had 3. 2 drive and 1 pump. Super gutted, but he was a good guy, and said he would keep an eye out.

The search continues... and the theme that the old big motors are hard to come by rings true. Ill find one of these babies... ill find one. But tonight, its extra lettuce on that salad.

 

[Cor]

Thx. Ok my hopes are increasing slightly. Im starting to see old forks landing on ebay. Nothing local enough to me to jump on.

All the breakers dont stock traction motors. One guy phoned me from my email send out. He said he has a supplier and will get me some quote...he wouldnt give me his suppliers name though.

I think im going down the buy an old fork truck, take out the fun bits and scrap the rest. Hell, i might even build my own foundary and use the steel to make some new sils for my car.

But i started another thread with my experience procuring a dc motor in the uk. Your right, i beleive patience is the key here.

Are you interested in something like a Netgain Warp? I need to measure it, it is at least 11" but eyeballing it, it seems to be a 13".
Cor.

 

[Squidlings]

sure man, whats the deal? Sounds good.

 

[mike.gamble]

I seem to be struggling as well to fine a motor in the UK.
I’ve tried all the obvious places online with no luck.
On Monday I’m going to try a couple of the local scrapyards but, I’m very limited as I’m right down the very bottom in the South West (the nearest city on my west is New York!).
I’ve no idea why this is but, it does seem to be a genuine struggle to find one!!

 

[Tremelune]

In the US, you can get a Leaf motor on eBay for $500 all day. There will be less in the UK, but I'm sure people are still crashing EVs out there...If you have the time and the scratch, you might be able to pick up a wrecked car and part it out profitably.

Is the allure of a DC forklift motor that it's cheaper to control? On paper, it seems like used factory EV motors are better in every way for the same money.

 

[DrGee]

Here's a link to a 12" motor on the US ebay. Shipping to the UK may be a couple of hundred quid. There are quite a few motors like this on the US site.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/362702124721

 

[brian_]

Is the allure of a DC forklift motor that it's cheaper to control?

I think that's a huge part of it. The function of a DC controller is trivial compared to an AC controller/inverter, with no tuning or matching of the controller to the motor required.

Random industrial motors (including many from forklifts) are also likely to have plain (or keyed) output shafts, which are not good for power transmission but are sort of generically manageable (whatever someone else did with a forklift motor will probably work for another builder of a similar configuration), in contrast to the splined output shafts of salvaged production EV motors.

 

[bigpie]

There's a few forklift breakers in the UK that I know of. I contacted a couple and they both wanted £350ish for a DC motor, I didn't want to pay that much for one.

http://www.forktruckbreakers.com/about.html there was another near Skegness.

 

[Duncan]

350 pounds - if its in decent condition that is a good price

The two ends would be Scrap at about 100 and NEW at about 1500 - so 350 is not extortion - try and get some extra (not new) brushes thrown in with it

 

[brian_]

350 pounds - if its in decent condition that is a good price

The two ends would be Scrap at about 100 and NEW at about 1500 - so 350 is not extortion - try and get some extra (not new) brushes thrown in with it

I understand how this can reasonably be considered a good deal, but I find it hard to reconcile the "get a forklift motor, because they're just surplus metal so they're cheap" message with a scrap motor costing $570 CAD. That's a lot better than a few thousand dollars, but not small change.

 

[Duncan]

I understand how this can reasonably be considered a good deal, but I find it hard to reconcile the "get a forklift motor, because they're just surplus metal so they're cheap" message with a scrap motor costing $570 CAD. That's a lot better than a few thousand dollars, but not small change.

Brian
I thought even you would have understood that $500 is LESS than a LOT less than $3000

And as far as buying ANY major car part $570 is cheap!!!

Here I have bought several for less than 100 pounds each - but if I had to pay 350 pounds I would have - and still thought it was a good deal

Keep looking for the "Bargain" - but if you can't find the super good deal 350 is still a good deal

 

[brian_]

... $500 is LESS than a LOT less than $3000

And as far as buying ANY major car part $570 is cheap!

I certainly do understand that (and explicitly said so), but the impression in the thousands of "forklift" posts in this forum is that buying such a motor is like picking up scrap, not buying typical major car parts.

Here I have bought several for less than 100 pounds each - but if I had to pay 350 pounds I would have - and still thought it was a good deal

This illustrates the issue well - the expectation usually given is of £100, but the reality in this case is £350. I understand the shopper's disappointment.