The honest answer is "more often than most fleets do it." A forklift that runs one shift a day puts on roughly 2,000 hours a year, which is the equivalent of driving a car about 100,000 km with a load on the front. Here is the schedule the manufacturers, CSA B335, and Ontario law actually expect — and how to adjust it for your operation.
The three layers of forklift maintenance
Every forklift program has three layers, and skipping any one of them is where breakdowns come from.
- Daily pre-shift inspection — the operator walks around the truck before use: tires, forks, mast, leaks, horn, lights, brakes, seat belt, and the capacity plate. CSA B335 expects this every shift, documented.
- Periodic preventative maintenance (PM) — a technician services the truck every 250 hours or every three months, whichever comes first. This is where wear gets caught before it becomes a failure.
- Annual thorough examination — Ontario Regulation 851 requires every lifting device to be thoroughly examined by a competent person at least once a year, with a permanent signed record kept on file.
What a 250-hour service actually includes
A proper PM is not an oil change with a sticker. On a propane or diesel counterbalance truck, a 250-hour service from a competent tech covers:
- Engine oil and filter, air filter, coolant level and condition
- Propane system — tank fittings, hoses, regulator and lockoff, leak check
- Hydraulic oil level, filter condition, and a full leak inspection of hoses, fittings, and cylinders
- Mast chains (lubrication and elongation check), mast rollers, carriage, and fork heel wear
- Brakes — pedal travel, parking brake hold, master cylinder and fluid
- Steering play, tie rods, and drive axle
- Tires — wear line, chunking, and wheel-nut torque
- Safety systems — horn, lights, backup alarm, seat switch, seat belt, overhead guard
- Capacity plate legibility and any attachment plate
Adjust for hours, not the calendar
The 250-hour interval is the real trigger. A single-shift truck hits it every six weeks or so. A two-shift operation hits it monthly, and a three-shift distribution centre can burn through 250 hours in three weeks. If you only service "every quarter," a busy truck is running two or three intervals past due.
Low-use trucks are the other trap. A forklift that only moves a few pallets a week still needs quarterly attention — seals dry out, batteries sulfate, and propane fittings loosen whether the hour meter moves or not.
Environment changes the schedule
Where the truck works matters as much as how long. Outdoor yards with gravel and road salt eat tires, brakes, and wiring. Food plants with washdowns push water into bearings and electrical connectors. Lumber yards, recycling, and dusty manufacturing plug air filters and radiators fast. Cold-storage and freezer work is brutal on hydraulics, batteries, and seals.
In any of those environments, shorten the intervals for the affected systems: air filters and radiator cleaning monthly in dust, extra lubrication in washdown, and more frequent battery and hydraulic checks in the cold.
Electric forklifts: less oil, not less maintenance
Electric trucks skip the engine work, but they trade it for battery care. Lead-acid batteries need water levels checked weekly, an equalize charge on schedule, and clean, tight terminals and connectors. Lithium packs need less hands-on care but still need their battery-management diagnostics read.
Everything else — hydraulics, mast, chains, brakes, steering, tires, and safety devices — wears exactly like it does on a propane truck. Plan a 250 to 500-hour PM for electrics, plus a look at contactor tips, motor brushes on older DC trucks, and cable condition.
Keep the paper
Ontario wants a permanent, signed record of the annual examination. Keep the PM records and pre-shift checklists too. They protect you during a Ministry visit, support warranty claims, and add real money to the truck at resale. A fleet with a paper trail is a fleet a buyer trusts.
How Bailey handles it
We set up scheduled PM programs by the hour meter, come to your site, keep the records, and call you before the next one is due. No contract lock-in — if you would rather book each visit yourself, that works too. Either way, the truck gets the same tech who knows its history.