How to find a Yale forklift serial number

Yale forklift serial number guide

This Yale forklift serial number guide will be useful to you if you bought a used forklift, but don’t know the model number or year of manufacture. Without it, it will be tough to repair or maintain your Yale forklift because you’ll need a repair, parts or operators manual. And to get a Yale forklift manual (or any brand of lift truck manual, for that matter), you’ll need model and serial number information to locate the correct publication.

This article will show you find that information for a Yale forklift truck. Specifically, we’ll show you how to locate the serial number of the forklift which unlocks access to all the information you’ll need to keep your forklift running, as well as the year of manufacture.

What is my Yale forklift’s serial number?

The easiest  method to find the serial number of a Yale forklift is to check the name plate (sometimes called a forklift data tag or info plate). This metal  plate provides key information that you’ll need about your forklift.

The forklift nameplate or data tag provides the following information:

• Forklift model (See A in image)
• Serial number. (See B in image)
• Forklift weight (See C in image)
• Lifting capacity (See D in image)

The nameplate on a Yale lift truck looks like the picture on the right. It is typically found somewhere near the dashboard.

What to do if the nameplate is unreadable

Locating and reading the data plate is the best way to find a forklift serial number. However, on older lift trucks if the plate has rusted out or worn down or damaged  so badly that it cannot be read, then you can still find the truck’s serial number in two other places.

1. For newer forklifts it can be found in the electronics system.
2. It can also be found stamped into the forklift’s frame.

How to find the Yale lift truck year of manufacuturer

(For Hyster forklift year of manufacture decoding instructions, please scroll down)

To figure out the year your Yale forklift was manufactured, you’ll need to read the serial number and look for a letter in the last position.

In the example image the serial number is B875B04662D. The last letter in the serial number is D so using the legend below, the year of manufacture is 2006.

Here is a legend to this letting system to determine the Yale forklift year of manufacturing :

Note: There is no letter “I” because it is to avoid confusion with the number one (1). There is also no O to avoid confusion with zero (0).

In the the years before 1995, Yale forklift serial number was not contained in the serial number. So if you have a Yale forklift that has a serial number before 1995, then contact Yale or your local Yale forklift dealership fro help and give them the serial number so they can look it up for you.

Hyster forklift serial number guide

Because Hyster and Yale are both owned and manufactured by NACCO, a lot of tools and processes that identify both brands of trucks are similar.  Hyster Company began its truck lettering system in 1957 – much earlier than Yale Materials Handling. The Hyster lettering system uses the last letter to calculate the year and is as follows:

Note: The  letters “I”, “O”, and “Q” are skipped.

The process repeats beginning with A (1980) until Z (2002), currently in 2018 Hyster is manufacturing trucks with “S” as the last digit in the serial number. If your Hyster forklift was manufactured before 1957 be sure to contact your local Hyster forklift dealer.