Gary E. Kilpatrick, PE, DFE is one of the leading forklift experts in the United States. During his pre-college years, Gary worked for the inventor of the forklift and frontend loader namely “The Clark Equipment Company” from 1978 through 1983. Clark Equipment was the main competitor to Caterpillar and designed and manufactured other machines such as the earth mover called the “Michigan”. Gary worked in Clark’s 500,000 square foot facility that manufactured rough terrain forklift and rough terrain telescoping boom crane drive train systems namely the drive steer axles, transmissions and differential assemblies. Gary worked in every department in Clark’s facility namely (1) cast iron machining where all of the drive steer axle housings and differential housings were machined; (2) both spur gears and hypoid ring and pinion gears machining; (3) internal gear hub machining; (4) axle shaft spline rolling; (5) differential ring gear carrier machining; (6) external wheel hub machining; (7) gear heat treatment; and (8) assembly operations. These axle assemblies were the planetary gear design. Gary was also a certified and licensed forklift operator and also drove forklifts during material handling operations from time to time. Gary has well over 1000+ hours of hands-on experience operating forklifts with both the sit-down and stand-up forklifts.
Today Gary offers his expertise in forklift design, operations, maintenance and forklift safety to his legal and insurance clients throughout the United States. Gary always maintains an active forklift operator’s certification and is certified to train others on how to safely operate forklifts and certified these individuals.
Gary is very knowledgeable of the OSHA 29CFR1910.178 federal regulations for forklifts and all ANSI/ITSDF B56 Industrial Forklift Standards.
Gary takes forklift course work in forklift operations and forklift maintenance. These courses are:
Operator’s Certifications for Sit-Down Forklifts.
Operator’s Certifications for Stand-Up Narrow Isle Forklifts.
Operator’s Certifications for Telehandler Forklifts.
Operator’s Certifications for Stand-Up Rider and Powerworker Forklifts.
Forklift Trouble-Shooting and Technical Training.
Train-The-Trainer Certifications for Sit-Down Forklifts.
Train-The-Trainer Certifications for Stand-Up Narrow Isle Forklifts.
Train-The-Trainer Certifications for Telehandler Forklifts.
See the photographs below:
