Lifting Equipment Buyer's Guide: Everything You Need to Know

Buying lifting equipment is not like buying most industrial kit. If a pump is undersized you find out over a season and you buy a bigger one. If a pallet truck is undersized, or a sling is mismatched to the load, you find out in the one second when the load is in the air — and the consequence is not an invoice.

That single difference is what should shape the whole purchase. A lifting specification is a safety document as much as a commercial one, which means the questions you ask matter more than the price you negotiate, and the cheapest quote is frequently the most expensive thing in the file.

This guide walks through the purchase in the order it should actually happen: duty first, then machine type, then the specifications that decide whether the machine will do the job, then the paperwork and the supplier. It is written by a manufacturer, so it spends more time on the parts of a quotation that suppliers tend to leave vague — and it says plainly which of those you should insist on.

1. Start with the duty, not the product

Almost every bad lifting purchase traces back to a specification that was decided before the job was described. Five questions come first, and each one changes the answer.

Write the answers down before you contact anyone. A supplier who receives a described duty can give you a specification you can check; a supplier who receives "I need a pallet truck" can only guess, and the guess will be whatever is easiest to ship.

2. Match the machine to the job

With the duty described, the machine type usually follows. This is the map we use in conversation, and it covers our full range:

Two of those rows are worth pausing on, because they are the two most common mis-purchases. A manual pallet truck bought for a job that turns out to involve a ramp is not merely hard work — a hand pallet truck has no brake, which is why EN ISO 3691-5 excludes gradients from its scope, and it must never be used on a slope with a load on it. And a manual hoist bought for a lifting position that runs all day will be replaced by a powered one within the year; the comparison is worked through in our electric vs manual hoist guide.

3. The numbers that actually decide the purchase

Once you are comparing products, most of the difference between a good purchase and a bad one hides inside five numbers. Each is easy to quote and easy to quote misleadingly.

Capacity — and the load centre it was measured at

Capacity is never a single number. A truck or a hoist is rated at a stated load centre — the distance from the face of the forks or the centre of the hook to the centre of gravity of the load. Move the load further out and the capacity falls, often steeply. This is why a truck rated 2,000 kg at 600 mm does not carry 2,000 kg at 1,200 mm, and why a quotation that gives a capacity without a load centre has not told you anything you can check.

In practice, measure your heaviest real pallet, including overhang, and compare that against the rating at that load centre — not at the flattering one in the headline.

Lift height, headroom and hook-to-hook

Lift height is measured between the two extremes of the hook or the forks. It is not the same as the height you need to reach, because the machine itself occupies space at the top of the stroke. For a chain block, the body sits above the hook, so a 3 m lift cannot be used in a 3 m gap. Ask for the hook-to-hook dimension and check it against your actual headroom before ordering, not after delivery.

Speed, and what "speed" was measured at

A travel speed figure is meaningless without saying whether it is laden or unladen, and lift speed without saying at what capacity. Our own range makes the point: the 3 t electric pallet truck is deliberately slower than the 2 t, 4.5 km/h against 5.5, because the larger machine is built for weight rather than for pace. A supplier who quotes one speed for the whole range has either simplified or not measured.

Duty cycle and power supply

How hard the machine works between rests decides what it must be built for. For hoists this is usually expressed as a duty class — a percentage of running time within a defined period — and a hoist specified for occasional use will not survive continuous production, however good its capacity figure looks. For powered trucks and hoists, confirm the supply you actually have. Our PA series electric hoists run on 220 V single phase, which suits a workshop; the KD series winches are available in 220 V and 380 V. A three-phase machine ordered into a single-phase building is a problem discovered on the day of installation.

Battery chemistry, not just battery size

On electric trucks, the chemistry matters more than the amp-hour figure. All four of our CL-EPT models run 24 V LiFePO4 packs — maintenance-free, no watering, no equalising charge, and tolerant of opportunity charging. Lead-acid is still a legitimate choice for one shift a day on a tight budget, but it asks for a different routine, so the two should be compared as different products rather than as two numbers. The trade-offs are set out on our electric pallet truck page.

4. Standards and paperwork: what a supplier should be able to show you

This is the section buyers skip and later wish they had not. Lifting equipment is sold into a regulated space, and a supplier who cannot produce documents is telling you something.

CE marking is a declaration, not a certificate

Start with the most widely misunderstood point in the industry. CE marking is a self-declaration by the manufacturer that the product meets the applicable requirements. It is not issued by a third party, and there is no such thing as a "CE certificate" in the way most buyers picture one. If a supplier offers "CE certification" as an assurance, ask instead for the declaration of conformity — the document that names the product, the standards applied and the responsible person — and for the test certificate covering the actual units, which is a separate document with a different job.

Both are legitimate things to require. The distinction matters because a buyer who cannot tell them apart cannot tell a well-documented supplier from one that prints the letters CE on a carton.

Check which standard is being quoted, and whether it is current

Standards are revised, replaced and withdrawn, and quotation templates are not always updated. Two concrete examples worth knowing:

• EN 1757-1 and EN 1757-2 have been withdrawn. A supplier still citing them for hand pallet trucks or stackers is working from an obsolete document, which raises the question of what else in the quotation is out of date.
• The Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC is replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, which applies from 20 January 2027 with no transition period. Any supplier shipping into the EU needs to be able to tell you how they will meet it.

Also worth knowing: check the scope of the standard being quoted, not just its name. EN ISO 3691-5, which covers pedestrian-propelled industrial trucks, runs to 300 mm of lift and 2,300 kg. A heavy hand pallet truck above that capacity is outside its scope — which is not a reason to avoid the machine, but is a reason to rely on the manufacturer's own design and test data at the top of the range rather than on a standard that does not reach that far.

Hoist chain is not sling chain

A specific technical trap that catches buyers who assume chain is chain. Hoist load chain is fine-tolerance chain to EN 818-7 (Grade T), held to a tight pitch tolerance because it has to mesh with the pocket wheel link by link. Sling chain is medium-tolerance chain to EN 818-2 (Grade 8), built for strength and abrasion resistance rather than for running over a sprocket. They are not interchangeable, and a supplier who quotes "Grade 80 chain" for a hoist has not understood the product. Our guide to choosing lifting chains goes through the grade system in detail.

5. Total cost of ownership — the lines that are not on the quote

The purchase price is the smallest number in most lifting budgets once the machine is in service. Six lines are routinely missing from a comparison:

The spares row is the one buyers most often regret. On an electric pallet truck, for instance, three items account for the overwhelming majority of stoppages — wheels, the tiller arm assembly and the charger. A supplier who can tell you the part numbers and hold those in stock is worth more than one who is marginally cheaper and cannot. The same logic applies across the range: ask which parts fail, not whether the machine fails.

Maintenance intervals belong in the same comparison, and they are not the same for every machine. A powered truck has a battery and electrical system to look after; a hand pallet truck has almost nothing; a chain block sits between the two. Our electric truck maintenance guide and chain block safety guide set out what each actually requires.

6. Warranty: read the wording, not the duration

"12 months" appears on almost every lifting quotation and means a different thing on each one. Three questions turn the number into information:

• What is covered? A warranty on the motor and battery is not a warranty on the machine. On our electric pallet trucks the standard 12-month cover is specifically on the motor and battery — which is honest about where the value sits, and tells you that wheels and the tiller arm are wear items you should plan to buy.
• Does it cover wear or only defects? Every warranty excludes wear, and the arguments at claim time are almost always about which one a failure was. A battery that has lost capacity after three years of correct use is a consumable reaching the end of its life; the same pack failing in month eight of single-shift use is a defect. Knowing the dividing line in advance is what makes a claim straightforward.
• What voids it? Overloading, unauthorised repair, using a non-standard charger, and operating outside the rated duty cycle are the usual exclusions. If you plan to run the machine at the edge of its rating, say so before you buy rather than after.

7. Evaluating the supplier

Most lifting equipment sold internationally looks similar in a photograph. What separates suppliers is who controls the process, and that is checkable.

• Ask who makes the critical components. The load chain, the hooks, the motor, the brake. A supplier who manufactures has answers; a supplier who assembles has a supplier list. Neither answer is disqualifying on its own, but the inability to answer either way is.
• Ask for the load test figure, then check it against the certificate. Every unit we ship is proof-load tested at 1.5× rated capacity before dispatch and comes with its documentation. If a supplier cannot tell you what their units are tested at, that is the answer.
• Ask about documentation for your market. Declaration of conformity, test certificate, packing list, and the commercial documents for your destination. Export experience shows up here rather than in a brochure.
• Ask what happens when something goes wrong. Who do you contact, how fast is the response, and how are spares shipped? Ask this before the order, when you still have leverage.
• Ask for the specification in writing, in a form you can compare. Any serious supplier will send a dimensioned drawing or a full data table. A quotation that consists of a price and a photograph is not a specification.
• Ask about customisation. Extended lift heights, alternative fork lengths, custom hand chain drops, explosion-proof and stainless variants. A manufacturer can build to a specification; a trader can only pass the request on.

8. The questions to have ready before you ask for a quote

Send this list and you will get a quotation you can actually evaluate rather than a price you have to interpret.

Two of those rows get skipped constantly and cause most of the rework: headroom, and the centre of gravity distance. Both decide whether the machine you are quoted can do the job at all, and neither can be recovered from once the unit is built.

9. The mistakes that cost the most

• Buying at the headline capacity. A capacity quoted without a load centre, or a lift height quoted without headroom, has not been specified — it has been advertised.
• Leaving the hand chain drop or fork length to be decided later. These are cheap options at the order stage and awkward retrofits. A 10 m lift supplied with a 3 m hand chain is not a usable machine.
• Assuming a hand pallet truck can go up a ramp. It has no brake, and using one on a gradient with a load is outside the scope of its standard. If there is a ramp in the route, that is a powered truck, and the comparison is set out in our manual vs electric pallet truck guide.
• Specifying for the average load rather than the heaviest one. The machine is judged on the worst lift of the year, not the typical one.
• Treating the certificate as the safety system. Documentation proves the machine was correct when it left the factory. Pre-use checks and periodic examination are what keep it correct afterwards, and every jurisdiction requires them.
• Buying the whole fleet at once. Order one machine, run it for a month on your real duty, and let what you learn inform the rest of the order. The second purchase is always better specified than the first.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much safety margin should I leave on capacity?

Buy for the heaviest load you will ever lift, including the rigging, and then operate below that figure — not at it. The design factor built into lifting equipment is there to absorb the unexpected, not to be spent as extra capacity, and a machine run habitually at 100% of its rating wears faster and has nothing left for the day something shifts. In practice: specify on the worst case, and treat the rated figure as a ceiling rather than a target.

Is CE marking the same as a certificate?

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding in the trade. CE marking is a self-declaration by the manufacturer that the product meets the applicable requirements. It is not issued or verified by a third party, and there is no certificate behind it in the way most buyers assume. What you should ask for instead are the two documents that do exist and do mean something: the declaration of conformity, which names the product, the standards applied and the responsible person, and the test certificate for the units, which records the actual proof load applied.

Why is a 3-tonne pallet truck slower than a 2-tonne one?

Because it is built for weight rather than speed, and that is a deliberate design choice rather than a limitation. In our CL-EPT range the 2 t truck travels at 5.5 km/h and the 3 t at 4.5 km/h, with the larger machine also carrying a bigger battery and a heavier frame. If throughput is the priority rather than maximum capacity, buy the smaller truck and make more trips — it will usually be the faster operation overall.

How do I compare two quotes that look identical?

Normalise them until they are not identical. Check that both capacities are quoted at the same load centre, that both lift heights are hook-to-hook rather than nominal, that both chains are quoted to the same standard, that both warranties say what they cover and exclude, and that both list which spares are held in stock. In our experience a difference usually appears within those five, and it is almost never in the supplier's favour.

Should I buy from a manufacturer or a trading company?

The question that matters is not the label but who controls the process. Ask who makes the load chain, where the motor and brake come from, who performs the proof load test, and who handles a warranty claim. A supplier who can answer all four — whether they describe themselves as a factory or not — is a supplier you can hold to something. A supplier who cannot answer any of them is a price, not a partner, and the difference only becomes visible the first time something needs fixing.