A Mitsubishi lift truck is still in service at Prescher Willette Seeds after 27 years of continuous use. Right up there with Everyready's Energizer Bunny and the legendary Timex watch ad (takes a licking and keeps on ticking) we can now add the “Keeps on Running” contest to find the oldest Mitsubishi lift truck still in service.
According to Mitsubishi, the winning lift truck is a 1982 FGC25 Mitsubishi used by Prescher Willette Seeds, a soybean farming company in Delavan, MN. The family run business was founded in 1933 and raises, cleans, packs and ships more than 100,000 bags of soybeans on their 3,500 acre farm each year. As the winner of the contest, the company received a brand new FGC25N Mitsubishi lift truck.
“We currently have two Mitsubishi forklift trucks that are more than 20 years old, and we run them hard, especially in our busy spring and fall seasons,” said Mike Hughes, plant manager of Prescher Willette Seed. “We’ve never had a need to replace the forklifts because they are so dependable and are always ready to run when we are.”
The “Keeps on Running” contest ran from August to November 2008 and was open to customers who owned and currently operated a small Internal Combustion (IC) cushion tire Mitsubishi forklift truck, with a capacity range of 2,000 lbs to 6,500 lbs.
“We received many remarkable entries from across the US,” aid Kent Eudy, vice president of marketing, Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks. “We are proud that our hard-working forklift trucks are still delivering top quality results and keeping our customers’ operations moving smoothly.”
The oldest running Mitsubishi forklift truck in America won’t stop running anytime soon. Hughes plans to operate all three of his Mitsubishi forklift trucks for many more years to come.
