What do you look for in a forklift?

Got 2 forklifts at work. One late 60s/early 70s toyota and a early 2000s mitsubishi.
The toyota is 2 stage and rated for 2000 lbs and it struggles as you get close to that 2000 lb mark. It has dually Pneumatic tires up front and does well in different terrain due to its wide footprint. It is gas powered and you can just fill it with a Jerry can but it's kind of a pain sometimes. The 2 stage still offers decent visibility in front of you
the mitsubishi is 3 stage and has side shift forks with solid rubber tires. That one is rated for 4000lbs but we have loaded 6000 on it by hanging an extra counter weight off the back and the hydraulic ram doesn't complain one bit. That one only has about an inch and a half of ground clearance and it feels just about every Crack in the concrete. This one is propane and the tanks last forever as well as with 2 tanks, it's less than 5 min of downtime to swap from an empty tank to a new one, as well as being cheaper to run than the gas model. The 3 stage lift makes for large blind spots in front of you and you will find yourself leaning left and right to see around them.

My point is that there are a lot of things to consider but the main thing would be to begin with how much weight capacity do you need, and how small of a footprint do you want? Maneuverability is a huge factor if you have. If you are working exclusively indoors in a closed building then you need electric. If you are going in and out of a building with a lot of air flow then it's not as important. but the propane exhaust doesn't smell nearly as bad as the gas.


P.S. The side shift is a really nice feature to have if you can get it. We use it a ton to make small adjustments of where to place material on the ground or on a truck.