TextSince the mid-1980s various forklift manufacturers have had aftermarket parts programs featuring parts for competitive brands. The Hyster Company came out with Unisource in the early 1980s, Caterpillar following with Promatch in 1988, and most other forklift OEMs jumped on board in the 90s or early 2000s.
Names of the aftermarket parts programs from certain OEMs:
Hyster: In North America they called the program “Unisource”, in Europe they called the program Multiquip.
Caterpillar: PROMATCH
Clark: Totallift
Crown: One Source
Nissan: Duralift
Mitsubishi: Mastersource (then recently, Promatch)
Yale: Premier parts program
Raymond: Raymond Z program, OTR program (other-than-Raymond)
Toyota: STAR lift program
So what are “fake” OEM parts numbers?
We call forklift part numbers that are for competitive brands of equipment “fake” part numbers. You might have a Hyster number that appears to be a part number but in reality it’s for another brand forklift. It’s one of their aftermarket part numbers.
Here’s a guide to “fake” part numbers:
Hyster: 8 digit part numbers that start with a 3 are Unisourcd aftermarket part numbers for non Hyster forklifts. Example: 3002381
Caterpillar/Mitsubishi: Part numbers in the following ranges: 0971001-0973999, part numbers starting with 2I or 9I like 2I5326, 10 digit part numbers that start with A like A000006449
Clark: 6 digit numbers that start with 44 like 444817 or 7 digit part numbers that start with 70 like 7004042
Toyota: Starlift numbers often begin with 005 like this 00590-01362-71
Yale part numbers are always 9 digits long. Yale forklift part numbers that start with 22 are Premier aftermarket program part numbers like this one: 220034232
What It Means
So what does it mean if you’ve stumbled on a part number like this? It means the part doesn’t really fit the brand it’s labelled with. It’s simply an aftermarket part, marketed by a particular forklift brand, which fits not that brand but a competitive brand. Sort of like if Chevy started selling parts for Toyota.