Fork-lift truck

A materials-handling fork-lift truck, comprising:

• a truck chassis having a truck engine, a maneuvering unit, an upstanding frame part, and two forwardly extending and mutually parallel support legs;
• a chassis-mounted lifting mast assembly having a raisable and lowerable lifting fork, and at least two runners mounted on the foot of said mast assembly for lying in engagement with and running along each of said support leg;
• and
• a linkage mechanism arranged for displacing said lifting mast assembly along said support legs between a first withdrawn position and a second extended position in which said lifting fork is located close to the outer extremities of said support legs, said lifting mast assembly being freely supported on said support legs, said linkage mechanism being constructed to transfer the horizontal forces from said lifting mast assembly to the chassis so that said support legs will only be subjected to vertical forces from said lifting mast assembly, said lifting mast assembly being a pantograph mechanism including
• a first strut being pivotally mounted between said upstanding frame part on the truck chassis and the lifting mast assembly,
• a second strut being pivotally mounted between the first strut and the mast assembly, and
• a hydraulic piston-cylinder device being mounted between said upstanding frame part and said lifting mast assembly for moving the struts and displacing the lifting mast assembly,
• the lifting mast assembly, the support legs, the pantograph mechanism and the upstanding frame part together form a first module, and said truck engine and said maneuvering unit together form a second module with the first and second modules being constructed as separately manufactured and assembled at a later stage,
• said first strut having a first attachment point in said upstanding frame part and a second attachment point in the mast assembly, said second attachment point being higher than the first attachment point, the hydraulic piston-cylinder device being mounted between a first attachment point on said upstanding frame part, said first attachment point of the hydraulic piston-cylinder device being located at a higher level than the first attachment point of said first strut, and the hydraulic piston-cylinder device being mounted at a second attachment point which coincides with the second attachment point of the first strut.