The Classic Machinery Network

Following on from Steve's excellent thread about dodge and commer trucks a Sambron s25 forklift was seen in the background. Elsewhere Chris posted a photo of a hymac overlander. This has got me thinking about old forklifts.Surely there are lots of photos and info about the many makes and models from manufacturers such as manatou, bonser, jcb, sanderson, case, matbro etc. do you remember a brocure from sambron called The house that jac built? Do you remember the liner giraffe?

A interesting thought


We had Matbro and Collins designing early teleporters / telescopics. WHO Invented the Forklift idea Matbro built a rough terrain style forklift just after the war based on the fordson tractor skid. But were was the original idea from.

Any ideas ?

Also anybody know anything about Bonser ? I've no info on them yet for the Tractor Wiki were were they based ?, what models did they build ? etc. Any help appreciated.

Dave

Here are a series of photos of one such machine which was built in Omagh in N Ireland from 1974 to 1995 by MHM International Ltd. It was the MHM 2.5 Masterhandier.

Interesting ,never seen a forkdump before !

pk1200 wrote:Here are a series of photos of one such machine which was built in Omagh in N Ireland from 1974 to 1995 by MHM International Ltd. It was the MHM 2.5 Masterhandier.

Hi Brian

Interesting never heard of that one .
Did they build anthing else ? and any details on the firm ?

Have a vauge recolction of that there was a NI firm building forklifts mentioned in an article about a collector over there that had several machines from with a RT forklift based on a DB skid unit (will have to look through collection of mags to find it but it was only a 1 paragraph bit and photo IIRC).

Dave

Hi Dave
the MHM 2.5 was designed by Noel Kelly [RIP] and he was backed by Powerscreen.After a few years it became solely owned by Paddy Douglas who went on to form the Extec screening company.Extec,who are now part of the Sandvik group still operate from this Omagh factory. John finlay Engineering,now Finlay Terex,used to built semi R T Forklifts based on DB skid units, for use in block yards etc.They also built a very early telehandler.I'll try to get a photo of one of these and post it on here.
Cheers
Brian

Thanks Brian

Is it Powerscreen thats based in Dundalk ?

Did the initials MHM stand for anything.

I seem to think Extec had a place near the M1 by sheffeild at one time as well.

Must have been the Finlay m/c Id read about then for the DB based forklift.

Just noticed that the Last photo looks like the unit has a fifth wheel hitch plate in place of the dumper skip.

cheers

Seeing those photos of the MHM above, has remined me of another Irish machine- the Dumphoe:
http://www.keltec.ie/product5.html and www.dumphoe.com

Great IBH

Just goes to show that half the "New" ideas that appear are not new. There was a European machine like that but with a loading shovel at one end in "Earthmovers mag" once.

Or is it that great minds think alike in the engineering field, but marketing and publicity actually sell machines rather than good ideas. As most of the big names did not actually invent the machines associated with them.
i.e Cat & JCB

Dave

Hi Steve
thanks for the interest shown and here is some answers.
Powerscreen are based at Dungannon in N. I. but they aquired the inventive family run business of Moffett engineering,best known for the Moffett Mounty piggyback forklift who are based at Dundalk.Soon after,Powerscreen were taken over by Terex who quickly sold off the moffett division to the Cargotec group=[HIAB]
Extec did have their main factory in Sheffield.
MHM = Muiltipurpose Handling MACHINE.
Some machines did have fifth wheels fitted for short flatbed trailers and dumpers as seen below.