The NB-NK Rotary Club Gets A Look At The Newest Crown Equipment Corporation Industrial Truck.

Members of the New Bremen-New Knoxville Rotary Club had an opportunity to see Crown Equipment Corporation’s newest product, the C-5 Series internal combustion (IC) lift truck at their weekly meeting. The meeting took place at Crown’s Plant 12 Customer Presentation Center in New Bremen.  

Crown Marketing Product Manager Andrew Smith provided an overview of the company’s first IC manufactured product. “Crown is the largest manufacturer of electric lift trucks in the United States and half of the overall industrial lift truck market is driven by IC engines. This means that we’re tapping into a new, large market of industrial trucks for Crown, “said Smith. 

Smith also said Crown customers encouraged the company to develop an IC truck that offered the same level of quality, performance and comfort they had come to expect with Crown’s electric trucks. “Our response is the new Crown C-5 Series,” he said.  

The Crown C-5 Series features the John Deere 2.4 liter propane driven industrial engine.  This particular engine started out as a diesel engine in John Deere’s construction equipment applications.  Crown engineers collaborated with John Deere to co-develop the engine for the industrial truck industry, uniquely integrating the engine specifically into the Crown C-5 Series truck.  

Smith said the C-5 Series is the only lift truck in the industry to feature John Deere power, a major plus for customers because of the engine’s advantages.  “The engine offers several new features that competitors cannot match including 1,000 hour intervals between oil changes (versus an estimated 250 hrs for competitors’ trucks) and auto belt tensioners (versus manual tension controls on competitors’ trucks).  These and other advanced mechanical features take our engine from the industry standard of 10,000 hours of operation to an unprecedented 20,000 hours of operation over the life of the engine,” said Smith.  

Smith also pointed out Crown’s revolutionary design advances have translated to increases in value and productivity, especially with the C-5’s Power Brake System. The new braking system offers over 80% more friction area with a large brake pad, rather than the industry standard drum brake.  “This new system of hydraulic braking provides the truck owner with fewer maintenance requirements, less down time, and greater consistency of brake feel and performance between trucks,” said Smith.

Another important feature, according to Smith, the C-5’s On-Demand Cooling system, blows air backwards through the radiator each time the engine is started, reducing the amount of downtime spent blowing out the radiator, improving performance and the life expectancy of the radiator, engine and transmission.    “We looked at how heavy agricultural equipment like the combine keeps its radiator clean and based our design concept on that cooling system.  There’s nothing like this anywhere else in the lift truck industry,” said Smith.  

Smith said Crown customers expect superior ergonomic features in their trucks, and the Crown C-5 Series provides a safe, highly visible, efficient, and comfortable operator office.  Crown is the only industrial lift truck manufacturer in the industry who designs and builds its own operator seats.  Their “FlexSeat” design utilizes features are similar to the seats in an automobile.  The seat suspension doesn’t require adjustments, and is elevated to a higher position in the operator’s work area so that the operator can clearly see behind the truck, adding up to five more feet of visibility than the industry standard.   

“The controls are located within arms-length of the operator and no levers or arms are placed in such a manner that they interfere with the entrance or exit of the operator’s work area like on many competitors’ trucks,” said Smith.  “All of these advanced ergonomic design features help create a happier, more productive operator, and again reduce the overall cost of ownership.”  

Smith finished his presentation by discussing the cost of ownership of the Crown C-5 Series truck as it relates to competitor’s trucks. “We’ve built these trucks in such a way that they actually save our customers a great deal of money over the life of the truck,” he said.  “Because of the reduced need for maintenance and service, we’re offering our customers a truck that spends less time in a maintenance bay and more time on the shop floor moving product and adding to productivity.”

Crown President James Dicke III said the new Crown C-5 Series truck opens up new opportunities in the industrial lift truck market for the company.  “We believe we’ll see our share of sales as our customers begin to realize significant savings by reducing the cost of ownership and increasing productivity through improved truck performance and durability,” he said.  

The C-5 Series trucks are assembled in the Greencastle, IN plant with the various components being manufactured in Crown facilities and in partner/supplier facilities worldwide.  The new Crown C-5 Series truck was featured on the cover of ESPN the Magazine and is now featured in United Parcel Service (UPS) TV commercials marketing the company’s NASCAR sponsorship.

Hosting Rotarian: Jim Dicke III