There are many conflicting articles and posts online about original OEM forklift parts and aftermarket forklift parts.  For the record, everything we sell at Intella Liftparts is aftermarket.

But what is aftermarket?   Is it the same as will-fit?  Knock-off?

Let’s get some terms out of the way

Aftermarket vs. OEM

First off, we define aftermarket forklift parts as any forklift part that doesn’t come packaged in an OEM box from an OEM dealer.  Now many OEM dealers will state the party line that all aftermarket parts are bad.  The only problem with that logic when it comes to Intella, is that we buy from many of the same suppliers than forklift manufacturers buy from.  We supply Donaldson filters, Axletech axle parts, Dana transmission parts, Perkins engine parts…you get the picture.    We try to buy parts direct from the same supplier that supplies the OEM.  Most times we can do that–sometimes we cannot.

We take the original part, make a drawing from it and then from that drawing we manufacture the part.  We often make many of the machined parts and forklift cylinders which we offer.

Is using aftermarket forklift parts bad?  

Sometimes you don’t have a choice.  Sometimes aftermarket forklift parts suppliers can supply a part that even the OEM can no longer supply.  In those cases you don’t have a choice.  But more important than the sticker on the box is the part itself and the company supporting the parts.  You can be assured that we stand behind everything that we sell!

The Open Secret

An open secret in the industry is that most of the large OEMs supply aftermarket parts as well as OEM parts.  Toyota’s StarLift program is mostly TotalSource forklift parts.  Hyster’s Unisource program?  Yep, supplied by TVH.  In other words, OEMs act like this:  for parts on our brand forklift, you need to buy our OEM parts .  But if it’s any other brand, feel free to use our competitive parts program.  Which is, um, aftermarket.