Home / All answers / Forklifts & material handling
Forklifts & material handlingWhat is free lift and do I need it?
Free lift lets the forks rise inside the mast without the overall truck height increasing. It is required when working under a low opening — inside a container, under a mezzanine, or through a low door frame. Without it, a truck that fits when empty may not fit once the forks are raised.
In more detail
Free lift is one of those specifications that is invisible until it is missing, at which point the machine cannot do the job it was bought for.
On a standard mast, raising the forks also raises the carriage assembly, so overall height increases as soon as you lift. Free lift is a mast arrangement where the forks rise within the mast before the mast itself extends, so overall height stays constant through that first range of travel.
That matters in three common situations: working inside a shipping container, lifting under a mezzanine or low structural beam, and passing through a door frame that is lower than the raised height of a standard mast. In each case, the constraint is not capacity — it is whether the truck can physically get the load into position.
Free lift comes in full and limited variants, and it interacts with the number of mast stages. When specifying, state the lowest opening the truck has to work under, and the maximum lift height required. Those two figures together determine whether free lift is needed and how many mast stages are required.
Confirm before acting
- The lowest opening the truck must work under
- Maximum lift height required
- Whether the truck works inside containers or trailers
- Whether free lift must be full or limited
- Mast stage count that results from those requirements
Related configurations
Related questions
Another question?
Send the actual conditions — we will tell you what needs confirming first and which routes we can compare.