Heli forklifts: are they any good, and what should you check?

Heli is the biggest forklift maker in China and the seventh biggest in the world, and the honest answer to are Heli forklifts any good is that it depends on the build in front of you. Two machines can carry the same CPCD25 badge and be different buys, because one has a Japanese Isuzu engine in it and the other has a Chinese one.

This page is how you tell them apart. We sell these machines and we do not build them, so we can say what a factory website will not. Heli sits inside the wider Chinese forklift brands picture.

Are Heli forklifts any good?

Yes, for most of the work most buyers do. Anhui Heli was founded in 1958, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1996, and sold 340,218 industrial trucks in 2024. On revenue it sits seventh in the Modern Materials Handling world ranking of lift truck suppliers, one place above Hangcha.

The money buys a plain, heavy truck built the old way. Steel mast, chains, torque converter, hydraulics a mechanic can follow without a laptop. Far from a dealer, that is the right kind of old fashioned.

The other half is real too. Finish quality varies more than on a Japanese truck, usually in the wiring, the cab trim and the ram seals. Dealer support outside China is thinner than Toyota's. Heli says it has led the Chinese market for more than thirty years, which is a company claim rather than an audit.

What Heli model codes mean: CPCD, CPD and the capacity number

Heli uses the Chinese naming convention, and every letter in it is the first letter of a Chinese word written in pinyin. Learn it once and CPCD25 becomes a specification rather than a part number.

Most Chinese makers share the system, so Hangcha and EP codes look like Heli codes.

The suffix after the number is where people get stuck. Machines list as CPCD25-WS1K2, CPCD30-WS1H or CPCD50-CU9G3, and those letters carry the series, so K2, H3 and G3 are generations of truck, not sizes. There is no published key to every suffix, so read it as a series marker and confirm the build on the data plate. Our forklift model number decoder sets Toyota, Komatsu, Linde, Hyster and the Chinese system side by side.

Heli vs Hangcha: which one for your yard?

They are the two biggest Chinese makers and they sit far closer to each other than either does to a Japanese truck. On the 2025 Modern Materials Handling ranking, built on 2024 revenue, Heli came seventh and Hangcha eighth.

The badge rarely decides it. On outdoor diesel work both build a competent truck, and the tie breaker is which engine that particular build carries and who can support it near you. Moving indoors to lithium, read the Hangcha page first, because that is where their effort has gone. Tighter budget and light duty, the EP page covers the cheapest lithium option honestly, including the parts of it that are not good.

Which engine is in the Heli you are looking at?

This is the most important question on the page and it is the one nobody asks. Heli builds the same model with different engines for different markets. A CPCD25 with an Isuzu C240 and a CPCD25 with a Chinese Xinchai unit are the same truck and two different ownership stories.

Fitment is set by the build and the market and it changes, so treat the table as typical and confirm it on the machine. The engine carries its own plate, usually on the block near the injection pump.

A Chinese engine is not a bad engine, and plenty run for years. It means the parts route is different, and you want to know which route you are on before you buy. Our guide to forklift engines explained covers each family.

Heli parts and lead times, answered honestly

Parts exist in volume. The lead time is the problem, not the supply. Wear parts are quick and cheap through the aftermarket, and it is the OEM-only items ordered direct from China that commonly run six to twelve weeks door to door.

So the question is not can I get parts for a Heli, it is who holds parts within a day of me. TVH runs a dedicated Heli parts programme, and specialist suppliers have carried Chinese forklift parts for decades, some holding stock in the United States and Europe. Heli's own brand centres include France, Thailand and Dubai, which is not the same as a dealer in your city.

Those are the lead times we plan around as at August 2026 and they move with freight, so get the wait confirmed in writing. A Heli parts bill sits well under a European truck's. What bites is the week the machine stands still, so buy filters, belts and hoses with the machine.

What a used Heli is worth when you come to sell it

Less than a Japanese truck of the same age and hours, in almost every market. That is the honest trade you are making, and it is part of why the machine is cheaper going in. Sell on at three years and that gap eats most of what you saved.

Outside China the pool of second hand buyers is smaller, and the buyers in it price against what a new one costs today, which keeps falling. A well kept Toyota holds its price partly because everybody already knows what one is worth. Nobody has that reference point for a Heli.

So buy one to run out. Work it for its whole life and the resale number stops mattering. Short holds, finance built on a residual value and hire fleets on a fixed replacement cycle are where the sums break. Hours still set the price, as how many hours is too many explains.

What to check before you buy a used Heli

Check the plates first, then the wear items, then the story. You are buying a machine you cannot stand next to, so the plates and a video have to do the work your eyes would.

• The data plate: full model string with its suffix, serial number, rated capacity, load centre and mast height. This is the truth, the counterweight badge is not.
• The engine plate: a separate photo, so you know whether it is an Isuzu, a Nissan or a Chinese unit.
• The hour meter: photographed with the key on, and again at the end of a video so the two agree.
• A cold start on video: smoke colour, how long it cranks, whether it settles.
• Mast and chains: a full lift and lower on video, watching for a jerky stage change and uneven chains.
• Rams and hoses: wet tilt and lift rams, and oil down the mast channels, mean seals.
• Tyres and forks: tread left, no cracks at the fork heels, no thinning.
• Paint and welds: fresh paint usually covers something, so ask what was repaired.

The serial also settles the year, which sellers get wrong more often than they lie about. Our forklift serial number year lookup shows what to ask for, the used forklift buying checklist is the full list, and if the seller is new to you read buying a forklift overseas safely first.

What we source and where we ship it

We do not sit on a yard of machines. You tell us the capacity, the mast height, the fuel and the country it goes to, we go and find the machine, we check it and photograph it, and we quote you a landed price to your port.

In Heli we source 1.5 to 3.5 tonne diesel counterbalance as CPCD, 2 to 3.5 tonne petrol and LPG as CPQYD, 1.5 to 3.5 tonne electric and lithium as CPD, and 5 to 10 tonne heavy diesel for yard and port work. Heavier is possible, because the range runs past 10 tonnes, and it takes longer to find. The figures below are at a 500 mm load centre.

They are published figures for common builds and they move with mast, tyres and series, so treat each as typical and confirm it on the data plate of the machine you are offered. Tell us early if the truck has to work inside a container, because that decides the mast, and our container spec forklift guide covers those numbers.

You will notice there is no photograph of a machine on this page, and that is deliberate. We will not put another brand's picture on a Heli page, and we do not dress a stock image up as ours. When we find your Heli we photograph that exact machine, the mast, forks, tyres, hour meter and data plate, and you see those pictures before you pay anything.

Machines travel by container or by roll on roll off depending on size and route. Send us the spec and the destination and we will come back with what we can find. Start at forklifts for sale, or put the details into the form below.

The Heli machines we source

Tell us which of these fits your work, or just tell us your loads and your site and we will point you at the right one.

• 1.5 to 3.5 ton diesel counterbalance (CPCD)
• 2 to 3.5 ton petrol and LPG (CPQYD)
• 1.5 to 3.5 ton electric and lithium (CPD)
• 5 to 10 ton heavy diesel counterbalance