The Classic Machinery Network

As the title, I'm looking for some schooling on forklifts, my budget as usual is really small (probably about 2000e) but I want to be able to shift things on a pallet or lift heavy components/machines about with a bit more control and in tighter spaces than using my 3c3 with lifting forks or pestering my neighbor to use his telehandler. For that money I'm anticipating it needing some work. The plan is to pallet rack part of the new barn to store lumps of car/machine etc in to give me more ground level space. 1.5t lift capacity seems like a sensible size to search for.
It'd be handy if once sorted it could cope with traversing our yard done with stone chippings but I don't think I need rough terrain capability as it seems this would make it more cumbersome inside?
I've operated a 'normal' fork truck round a lorry yard many years ago, but my only involvement with working on one was changing a wheel and helping fix the brakes on the yards old one, so I'm starting from scratch in terms of experience of repair, and whatever I get in my price range will need tlc of some kind.
I'm not writing off electric powered units because they're cheaper on average, but likelyhood theyre going to have bad battery packs in this price range, so how do they fail? do they just stop working or just require more frequent charging before use as they go bad? I have 3 phase to run a commercial charger off if needs be.
So, anyone wanting to share experience on this?

Phil, it's like anything the main issue is the intended use of the said forklift, as you have stated you don't need a rough terrain truck, we use electric or diesel trucks at work but gas is not an option I would rule out, do a bit of online research at used truck prices, battery powered trucks may not necessarily require a whole battery pack changing if you bought one with a suspect battery, it is possible to change individual battery cells.

You also need to consider what weight you are lifting which in turn will be dependent upon the weight your shelves are capable of holding, don't overload them, I have seen one collapse, not good.

If the truck would only be used on an occasional basis most types would be usable if the price was right, if your storage area has a concrete floor then solid tyres are good but not for outside use.

Hope these pointers help out.

Jeremy

Yes thanks, the 1.5t wont be to lift stuff onto the racking, thats for the general jobbing sort of jobs like lifting engine/transmissions out of things etc. Ok on pneumatic tires needed and yes I'd love to find a lpg powered one in my price range and use will be really infrequent I imagine. Everything I own with a battery on except the mrs's car and the mower has battery issues and I'm constantly hooking up chargers when I'm moving stuff, so perhaps not adding to that would be for the best on reflection.
Just watching prices, trying to learn a bit and waiting until I get vaccinated before jumping in at the moment.

Phil, just how rough/soft is your chippings covered yard?

The fruit packing/cold store next to us when still doing fruit used to have a little Yale lpg powered forklift of late 60's vintage running on solid tyres. It could cope with our driveway which, while tarmac, was tarmac of 40's vintage laid on mud, so the surface of the moon, along with our rather uneven broken concrete and chippings yard, and on top of that the river bed gravel track that ran around the cold store. Granted the ground was solid, but it was loose or cratered on top. Mind you I wouldn't have wanted to carry anything at height on those surfaces, other than off the back of a lorry and straight to low level!

It was tarmac but it was a terrible job so we picked off the tarmac about 8 years ago, added some drainage & and overlaid with a skin of rough quarry chippings to stop it turning into mud & now years later Its solid and level enough to be able to roll things around on without any sinkage, though the sack truck with solid wheels struggles with the size of the chips when it has a heavy weight on it. My mrs is always on about getting some 'nice' gravel, but I've managed to avoid that so far.

I hear you on the not traveling with the weight at height, I like to get it down near the ground asap when unloading where it can't fall from a great height, especially with the jcb as it tends to bounce around a bit and I don't really trust the secondhand forks.

Sounds about as stable as our yard so I think you could get away with solid tyres, although you will probably want something with fairly large diameter wheels to be sure, certainly bigger than the rear steering wheels on the Yale