Crown’s RM 6000S MonoLift™ reach truck delivers breakthrough operator visibility and unsurpassed lifting capabilities – taking loads higher than ever before.

Used 24/7 in warehouse applications to store and retrieve pallets of inventoried goods, the RM 6000 MonoLift™ provides operators with a comfortable, less fatiguing experience that delivers greater operator, truck and operation-wide productivity.

The innovation centers on the exclusive MonoLift™ mast, an innovative ‘single column’ mast design that provides unprecedented strength and a clear view to the warehouse environment. All competitive reach trucks worldwide use conventional ‘twin column’ masts with shorter lift height capabilities that limit warehouse operations.

Smaller yet Stronger while Smarter
The challenge was to balance these three goals that were seemingly at odds:
1 – For the operator: Make the width of mast as small and unobtrusive as possible for unparalleled visibility to the warehouse environment. Address the most challenging reach truck task – aligning the forks to a 3.5” tall pallet opening that is 42’ above the floor.
2 – For the customer’s business: Make the mast stronger to lift heavier loads higher than any other reach truck.
3 – For Crown: Develop a reach truck that offers competitive advantage with new leading technologies, all the while being cost competitive.

Success required close collaboration between Design, Engineering, and Manufacturing team members to define the mast’s lifting capabilities and integrate that solution into an updated truck chassis.

To determine the true market potential the team had to understand operator benefits and validate the impact of the value propositions on the customer’s business. Extensive field-testing and research was needed to quantify the value and establish a customer’s potential return on investment.

For success in future warehouses, the reach truck configuration must go higher and maintain the same capacity without increasing the warehouse aisle widths.

Newer technologies were developed to improve the truck’s performance and energy usage to meet the demands of our customers while building upon our vertical integration and technology competencies.

Subsequently, gaining acceptance from operators and companies currently using competitive trucks was another significant challenge and a key business mandate.

Visibility is vital for an operator to be efficient and productive. After extensive field-testing and research, that knowledge of what operators are able to see on both Crown and competitive trucks was used to maintain the team’s focus. Understanding differences between novice and expert operators as well as their concerns, tendencies, and tricks used, gave us insight into what operators really need to see and how to do their job safely and effectively. That is directly seen in the development of the off-centered MonoLift™ mast, the angled overhead guard, through the openings in the reach mechanism and even down to the notch in the load backrest to improve scanning of the product’s barcode label.

Additionally, we leveraged these elements to provided an unique and non-traditional overall perspective of future reach trucks. This eye-catching design not only created excitement and wonderment among current Crown operators, but also began to raise doubt within operators and customers that were brand loyal to competitive trucks.

The process can be broken down into multiple research and development phases for the RM 6000 MonoLift™ reach truck project. All of the following research, analysis, and testing resulted from hundreds of development hours.
1 – Initial field visits to understand what operators and other stakeholders valued. They told us it was all about visibility, but the team concluded, they also valued more flexibility to place any load at any height in the warehouse.
2 – In-house ergonomic, stability, and visibility studies to determine mast offset, size and profile. A series of studies involved using expert users in controlled task settings and later in actual warehouse environments.
3 – Testing pre-production lift trucks at customers’ facilities. This validated and prompted any refinements to the reach trucks prior to the final production release.
4 – Follow up of sold production trucks at new and current customers. Interviewing operators found that the improved visibility transforms the way operators work – providing a clear view to the warehouse environment around the truck at floor level and at height. The RM 6000 MonoLift™ makes this task easier with unmatched visibility and greater truck stability – improving operator confidence and productivity as well as reducing the risk of damage to product, racks and truck.

The RM 6000 Series provides numerous productivity and energy-efficient features for our customers.
• Truck Performance
- Regenerative energy provides up to 25% more runtime. This also means time savings from fewer battery changes.
- Crown’s OnTrac Anti-Slip Traction Control monitors truck dynamics to optimize traction in environments where the floors are slippery or wet.
- Trucks are InfoLink Ready which can provide our customers with a real-time view of operator compliance, impact detection and remote monitoring by the warehouse manager.
• MonoLift Mast
- A clear view to the forks and warehouse environment results from the 7” off-centered mast.
- Flexibility in pallet storage – the RM 6000 lifts 1000lbs more and up to a breakthrough height of 12.8 meters (505 inches).
- One touch Rack Height Select, Tilt Position Assist, and reach sensing technology automates operator tasks to be more precise and efficient.
- Crown Vision System includes a mast mounted camera and fork mounted laser. These provide additional visibility for the challenging task of placing the forks into the pallet openings at high heights or in double deep racks.

Experiencing the RM 6000 MonoLift™ truck leaves operators feeling “WOWed”. The mast section that used to be directly in front of them on a conventional reach truck is now gone – creating unbelievable visibility and performance improvements.

The RM 6000 runs 25% longer between re-charging, lifts up to 30% higher and 1,000 lbs. more than any other reach truck – without growing the truck’s physical size or footprint.

Operations managers gain the flexibility of placing heavy loads at almost any height in the racks – simplifying warehouse logistics and maximizing space utilization. New warehouses can be built taller with denser aisles, saving capital investment – it’s less costly to build up vs. out.

About 99% of the truck is made of recyclable materials. 97% is reusable through Crown’s Encore program that refurbishes used trucks with remanufactured parts to a renewed condition. Steel is the most common material, and an estimated two-thirds of this steel comes from recycled steel.

Emphasizing Crown’s reputation as an innovation leader, the RM 6000 has exceeded expectations. In less than 1 year, sales volume has doubled original projections and businesses that were once solid accounts for competitors have switched to Crown, because no other reach truck can deliver results like the RM 6000 MonoLift™.