Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1019591
WINERY & VINEYARD EQUIPMENT September 2018 WINES&VINES 49 for rotators on the rental side of his busi- ness — even within the wine industry. Instead, typical seasonal requests are for lifts with side shifts with forks or bin dumpers attached. When the replacement machine ar- rived and didn't include the rotating function that Telli needed to dump his grape bins, he and the Cromer repairman swapped out the rotating forks from the old Yale machine onto the loaner. "If we had a bin-dumper attachment, then we wouldn't need a rotator. But that is an- other expense, and quite a large footprint when not in use," Telli said, again refer- ring to his small workspace. Telli's machine took about a week to repair and seems to be ready for the har- vest ahead. However, Betwixt is expanding to in- clude an additional warehouse space across the street from its current location, so Telli is currently looking into another forklift — one for each location. When asked what kind of machine he's looking to buy and where he'll get it, Telli's answer was simple: Buy one from a winemaker down the street who's leaving his warehouse space. "It's also pretty old. But a new one is a substantial piece of equipment to buy," Telli said. "Besides, they do last forever — if you maintain them." Propane proves multifunctional Crux Winery in Sonoma, Calif., also uses a Yale forklift — what co-owner and winemaker Brian Callahan describes as "an old beater that was new in 1982." Like Betwixt, Crux Winery is in a confined space, a 2,700-square-foot warehouse off Lytton Springs Road. Yet Crux uses a propane forklift. Ac- cording to Callahan, 60% of the ware- house is the barrel room, so he and his co-owner and fellow winemaker, Steven Gower, rarely take the machine inside their winery, as it gives off a lot of fumes. Instead, Callahan and Gower bring things out of the barrel room when they need to use the forklift. Inside the barrel room, the two wine- makers use what Callahan calls "a poor man's forklift": a walk-behind electric straddle stacker. "It doesn't have the lift- ing capacity of a forklift but can handle a lot of jobs and is easier to maneuver in our small space," he said. Callahan and Gower use their forklift the most during harvest season to unload arriving grapes, dump grapes onto the sorting table or into the press, and to load bins of stems and skins that they send back to the source vineyards to compost. BYD Exclusively sold through Cromer Material Handling, the new line of BYD FE electric lift trucks features a lithium-ion battery that charges within one hour and lasts for eight to 10 hours. Unlike with traditional lead- acid batteries, there's no need for regular maintenance, thus reducing the risk of chemical exposure to both wines and win- ery workers. Various BYD models are avail- able in different sizes with lift capacities ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 pounds. All models come with pneumatic tires, to ac- commodate indoor and outdoor jobs. Cromer is offering free demos and an on- site survey to match the appropriate model to a winery's needs. cromer.com TOYOTA The propane-powered Toyota 8FG35U is de- signed specifically for outdoor use and is one of Toyota's recommended harvest rentals. Be- cause it's fitted with a rotator attachment, users can lift, rotate and dump bins or pressed pomace. The 5,000-pound capacity forklifts are equipped with solid, pneumatic tires that are bigger with more ground clearance and can handle loose gravel and uneven surfaces. Geared for indoor use, the electric, four-wheel Toyota 7FBCU35 features cushion tires and can lift up to four-barrel racks, or eight bar- rels at a time. The forklift has a 6,000 to 8,000-pound capacity and a 12-foot clearance radius. Toyota also manufactures three-wheel forklifts with 3,000 to 4,000 pound capacity. These provide a smaller footprint and are able to turn inside their own radius, needing only about 10-foot clearance. tmhnc.com YALE The Yale GP050MX can be used on indoor or outdoor jobs and features a PSI engine avail- able in LPG or dual fuel. The forklift can lift approximately 5,000 pounds and comes with Yale Flex Performance Technology that is de- signed to maximize fuel use for longer run times. An optional side-shifting fork posi- tioner enables the operator to quickly change fork position. yale.com Yale BYD