Roy Jr., my stepbrother, is a MASTER INDUSTRIAL MECHANIC.

This page is mostly of his experience and travels.

THIS EQUIPMENT IS FROM HIS PRESENT SHOP IN TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

The private company that Roy is with, has branches across Canada. In total they have 12 of the heavy SILENT HOIST brand, lift trucks. All units are sent to Roy's shop for complete rebuilding.

This is a resurrection of one of the companies SILENT HOIST. At this point, the refurbished 318, V-8 Chrysler is being reinstalled.

Not all of his equipment is on the heavy duty side. If it is on wheels, and is a worker, it gets looked after. Such as this little lift truck, on the far left photo with a 5,000 lb. lifting capacity, is headed for major surgery. The 10,000 lb. capacity YALE on the centre and right photos, is on it's way to full recovery.

Roy does all of this work himself. He brings in an assistant only when a situation arises that an extra pair of hands are truly necessary, and cannot be handled alone. And then there are times that the ceiling is too low in the shop, and an outside long arm is needed to help separate a telescopic boom.

When Roy needs a machine transported between any of their plants, he calls on Scott Woods Transport, based in MAPLE, ONTARIO, CANADA. (Just a few miles north of Toronto) These people have experience galore. Their equipment is nothing but the best, strictly a Class Act. Their Operating drivers have a special expertise that few can match. Not are they only Class A drivers, but movers of stationary machinery, as well as self propelled, wheeled vehicles. When picking up machines, such as lift trucks, and are alone, they have to be able to operate the equipment, and control the loading, at the same time.

The trailer is specially built for the job. The trailer's deck is able to tilt when necessary, to load from the ground or various levels. Similar to a highboy float, where the nose sits on the ground. A Cat is driven up onto the deck, then the nose is winched up onto the tractor and pulled into the coupler. This tilt deck is the same idea, but is in reverse, loading from the rear, and hydraulically controlled. The winch is used to drag stationary equipment, up onto the tilted deck. All of the controls are remote, and the driver walks safely around the loading job, in complete control of the operation.

It really doesn't matter when Roy may need their services, they are available 24/7, all year, and can pickup whatever they need moved, then transport it, to or from anywhere in CANADA, or the UNITED STATES.

BELOW, --- LOADING AND DELIVERING  THE EQUIPMENT.

The transport arrives for the pickup of a 35,000 lb. Silent Hoist Lift Truck, at a branch plant. During the loading, the driver carries the remote control and tilts the deck, lowers, or raises the suspension, and even winching when necessary, all while guiding Roy, backing up the ramp. Once the unit is loaded and secured down, he heads out, for Roy's shop.

After the transport arrives at the head plant, the unloading goes smoothly. Once in Roy's shop, the engine, a (318 Chrysler V-8) will be pulled and completely rebuilt. When finished, Scott Woods Transport will be called back to return the lift truck to its original location.

There is one last major job Roy will do before leaving, and that is to completely overhaul a 42 year old Silent Hoist lift truck. Work life has come full circle, and this particular fork lift truck entered service the same year as Roy did in 1965.

(Click on photos for enlargement)

Hopefully this is the last BIG  job before moving on to retirement.

Roy got a call from a branch plant about a fork lift truck that they were having trouble with. Apparently they found some ball bearings on the floor, and everything just got worse from there on. In a steel can manufacturing plant, the surrounding noise is so bad you can not hear the beginning sound of a problem. With the weight of the truck at 35,000 lb (empty) coupled with the truck's operating noise and you discover something is wrong, it is usually too late.

The steer axle thrust bearings let go & did major damage to the axle. He then had it transported to his shop. They unloaded outside at ground level, and then drove it up a ramp. That's when Roy discovered that the low range in the Allison transmission was gone. They told him later that yes, they did have to drive it in high range but even then it was slipping. Well, so much for pre-inspection reports.

(Left Photo) This is the axle spindle. It & the axle will have to be welded & re-machined in their own machine shop. They are equipped to handle some fair sized jobs (Right Photo) This is the steer axle block. Weight is 1,400 LB with out the wheels

Axle out & getting ready to pull the trans

 Roy hasn't got a price on the transmission as yet, but figures this job is going to be in the $15,000 to $18,000 range (Cdn).

(Left Photo) Stripping it down. (Centre Photo) Roy hoisting out the 1,000 + lb transmission which has a capacity of 36 litres of oil. (Right Photo) This is an overhead view. Roy is now waiting for parts to come back. The machine shop labour will be approximately 40 hours.

(Left Photo) Roy is just starting to install the rebuilt steer axel. (Centre Photo) The transmission had a broken shaft, and the torque converter was almost gone. The high cost to rebuild was $14,680 because of its 42 year age and the scarcity of available parts. (Right Photo) Roy had rebuilt the engine last year, so all it required was a good tune up.

(Left Photo) Roy finally got it to the point where he could test run it, and check for any leaks, and to make sure all parts are working properly. ( Right Photo) Tested, completely repainted, and ready to ship back to the branch plant.

SCOTT WOODS Transport is their dedicated machinery mover, shown here picking up the rebuilt Silent Hoist fork lift truck for return delivery to the branch plant. Roy can now walk away into retirement after 42 years of first class dedicated work.

A NOTE OF INTEREST FROM ROY ABOUT THE CHANGING TIMES;

This truck was bought when I first started in 1965. The original cost was $35,000, which was a dollar a pound!! The same truck today is $145,000. I recently found an invoice for a wheel cylinder in 1966 & the cost at that time was $27.50. The same cylinder today is $585.00.

It has been fun but now is the time to walk away.

MORE HEAVY EQUIPMENT ON PAGE 2 CLICK HERE AND GO DIRECT.

    --------- William (Diesel Gypsy) Weatherstone