Yale reach 1A fuse blown, no display

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to purchase a Yale 30 reach truck.

It had a dead battery so as a temporary workaround to move it we wired 3 12v deep cycle batteries in series (I know not a great idea) so we could get it on our trailer and back to our facility. Worked fine, the mast even raised when we tried. Got that job done.

Well a few days later after it was at our facility parked waiting for a new battery I decided I wanted to move it further out of the way, recharged the 3 batteries in it before moving it and it moved about 20' and decided it was done. Everything shut off. I didn't see it but a bystander says they saw sparks come from the battery compartment when it happened, not sure if the batteries moved and arced or what. Unplugged it and tried again, main hydraulic pump for steering, reach, side shift and tilt comes on but the display screen doesn't light up or go through its usual startup sequence.

Took the panel covering the electronics off and found a blown 1A AGC fuse, replaced it, charged the batteries up and the same thing, only the main hydraulic pump comes on. No lights on the screen and the 1A fuse blows immediately when I step on the dead man pedal and the main pump comes on.

That was about a week ago, fast forward to today we just got in a new battery for it and were hoping that would resolve the issue, but unfortunately its still continually blowing that 1A fuse and the display is not turning on.

It does move though a little bit. If I hold the joystick for 2-3 seconds it starts to creep forward/backwards. The mast will not raise at all.


Anyone have any ideas or have seen similar before? I'm hoping its not the display that's blown because its pretty spendy. There's no burnt or loose connections and the fluid power module is not displaying any error codes.

I don't have the model number right now but will check in the morning.

'1A fuse blows immediately when I step on the dead man pedal and the main pump comes on.'

If that consistently happens, that would be a clue. Look for something that is associated with that circuit and possibly a damaged wire, something getting pinched or abraded in the pedal area.

Just general thinking, never worked on one.

Start by unplugging the harness(especially strobe), replace fuse and then start reconnecting harness.

It's going to be a head scratcher.
My Central AC was blowing 3 a fuses and in the process it damaged the digital thermostat.

I traced the problem back to the contactor coil. It was shorted out. I've never seen a contactor coil short out.
An ohmmeter didn't do me any good because there was no shot to ground.
I figured out the coil was shorted by using a different 24 vac transformer, connected it to the contactor and measured the contactor using 7 amps. A good contactor would use around 0.1 amps..

I damaged 2 $50 digital thermostats and 7 3 amp fuses.
It was a hot Sunday. I wired a used contactor, an old Honeywell thermostat and added a 5 minute delay. I ordered a new contactor.

AC is still wired the old school way.
A friend that repairs AC's told me he replaces many digital thermostats..

GOOD Luck finding the gremlin that smokes 1 amp fuses. I bought 100 3 amp fuses off Amazon for under $10. 3 amp fuses at the supply house sold for $1 each. Good thing my friend loaned me 7 fuses. I repaid him with 50 Amazon fuses.

Keep us posted when you find the gremlin.
I would look around the area where your friend saw sparks.
Look for a pinched wire shorting to ground.

You may want to check Amazon out and buy 100 1 amp fuses. You may need them before you find the problem..

Torementor, that is funny welcome to YT! In my opinion you would have a much better chance with calling a Yale dealer or even an independent forklift repair man. Curious where you live that you do not call it a forklift or fork truck? I helped my son who was the maintenance person for a company that had 6 or so electric forklifts. Some of the electronics on the newer models is pretty complex.

Thanks. I am just outside Seattle. A forklift to me is something you sit in and steer with a steering wheel, whereas a reach truck is what you stand in and control with a joystick and it reaches out to grab pallets unlike most forklifts. Typically only seen in warehouse environments where the floor is perfectly smooth and racking is high whereas a forklift has larger tires and is meant for going over more surfaces. The technical name for what I have is a narrow aisle reach truck or narrow aisle reach forklift, varies by manufacturer.

I did call a service tech but he has now no-showed twice with zero communication. I've called another larger service company and dealer but they cant come out till middle of next week. This one is an older model probably from around 2008 so luckily the electronics aren't too complex. I have a friend whos better with checking relays and circuits than I am whos going to top by tomorrow and see if he sees something I don't.