We have a 5000 lb Nissan hard tire with (I think) 20' mast and side shift, on LP.  We kind of bought it accidentally from a tenant in a plant building my brother owns.  It was about $2500 and is at least twice as good a forklift as I ever thought we would buy.  The plant retired it because they figured out that every time their CO detector went off, that lift was running.  I thought side shift would really be the ticket, but in reality we don't use it all that often.  It seems like when you do use it, you always run out of travel just before you get the part located where it needs to go.  I would not own anything other then LP.  No big expensive batteries to replace, but you can run it inside with no problems for any reasonable time period, at least in a shop the size of ours.  It does tend to get used to play "gas tank roulette" as everyone wonders who is going to get caught filling it, but I'm having a heck of a time understanding how this is any different then gasoline, diesel, or even battery....heck, out cordless tools seem to play the same game.  When it's out of gas, you just fill it...no big deal except you have to go out side.   If you guys have figured out how to have a gasoline engine without having to put fuel in it, I'd like to hear about that...otherwise it's no different then LP.  We have solid tires, and we drive it all over the drives around the shop and the two sheds we use for warehouse space.  If you try to go out cross country, you will get stuck, but we routinely run it on the well-traveled gravel drives even when it is raining.  I've unloaded chemical or seed in the snow, for that matter.  It will go about anywhere as long as it's loaded, but if you have the forks empty the rear wheels will sink if you get on a soft spot, mostly in areas where the drive is less traveled.   I've driven some other people's forklifts and honestly I have not been on anything I was impressed with in comparison to our Nissan.  One of the seed dealers has a nice appearing, relatively new appearing Clark with air tires which I expected was going to be really nice, but it was long and strung out and relatively unmanuverable, and it seemed tippy to me for it's size...I would have handled the same weight with comfort with our physicallly much smaller Nissan. His also had several levers for boom controls, instead of a simple wigglestick.    It was a similar weight class machine but much larger physically.  Others have 10k lifts similar to what Chad pictured, which are of course much greater in capacity but also very much clumsy for indoor work.  Fertilizer dealer recently had a very expensive transmission rebuild on their Cat like that. 

We use the telehandler for off road stuff or stuff over about 6000 lbs.  It's nice compared to a tractor and loader, but it's not anywhere in the same league as the Nissan when it comes to handy.  

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