Marine Travelift Adds Two M5200H Forklifts

Marine Travelift has recently announced a partnership with Suntex Marinas for the addition of two M5200H (52,000 lb. equivalent capacity) Hydro M_Drive marine forklifts to its Riviera Beach and St. Petersburg properties. A third forklift will also join the fleet at Snook Bight Marina in Estero Bay.

Suntex Marinas is one of the largest and most respected marina operations in the country, bringing over 100 years of combined experience investing in, acquiring, and managing marinas. Suntex owns and operates over 40 properties across the United States, leveraging its ownership and management platforms to provide leadership within the industry.

The outboard-powered boating market has seen rapid growth in recent years as consumers continue to gravitate towards larger vessels for their performance and versatility. This has brought on increased demand for bigger forklift trucks capable of handling such loads. Ron TenEyck, Senior VP of Operations at Suntex, says, “As business continues to expand, we needed a partner who would provide quality, reliability, and support from the start. And that’s exactly what we got with Marine Travelift.”

TenEyck also added that ‘Marine Travelift was able to offer aggressive leasing options for assistance in acquiring all three machines.’

The Sales and Engineering groups at Marine Travelift teamed up with several leading boat manufacturers across the country throughout the design process and invested resources to understand each boat’s dimensions and characteristics when developing the new M5200H (52,000 lb. equivalent capacity) forklifts.

“This partnership with Suntex Marinas shows mutual trust between organizations and the realization of our capabilities in the marine forklift industry,” says Jason Johnson, Marine Travelift’s North American Director of Sales. “After our initial meeting, it was clear we had quickly formed a partnership and mutual understanding. The youth in our organization supported by the years of experience has allowed us to focus on long-term growth with our product line.”

The M5200H Hydro M_Drive will feature a user-friendly operating system and offers a lower total cost of ownership through the proven hydrostatic drive system. Faster lowering speeds, rear backup cameras, and a standard wireless remote control will also help customers save money through lower operation and maintenance costs.

Also, as a staple of the Marine Travelift design process, customer feedback played an important role in putting in the necessary time to ensure TenEyck and his staff were getting the right piece of equipment and service they expect. The Marine Travelift factory built a center cab mock-up to send down to Florida to incorporate direct feedback from the operators and tailor the design to meet their exact needs.

“Throughout the process, we enabled the team at Suntex to have direct input regarding the layout of the center-mounted cab and overall design of the machine,” says Johnson. “The new cab design offers improved ergonomics, and the open center wide-view mast gives the operators improved visibility.”

All three machines are scheduled for delivery in summer 2018.