Blog post — Equipment Remarketing LLC | July 23, 2026

Buying a Used Moffett or Princeton Truck-Mounted Forklift on a Freightliner M2 106: What to Know Before You Buy

If you deliver building materials, sod, feed, or any product that needs to come off a truck at a job site with no dock and no rental forklift standing by, you already know why the Freightliner M2 106 flatbed paired with a Moffett or Princeton piggyback forklift has become the standard rig for lumberyards, sod farms, and material suppliers across the country. One truck, one driver, one trip — load, deliver, unload, and place the product exactly where it needs to go.

The catch is that this combo is really two pieces of equipment in one: a commercial truck chassis and a rough-terrain forklift that hangs off the back of it. Buying used means evaluating both, and most of the expensive surprises happen when a buyer inspects one half carefully and takes the other half on faith.

Why This Combo Works

A typical M2 106 Moffett/Princeton truck is built around a 24' x 102" steel flatbed with a universal Moffett/Princeton mounting provision on the back, a Cummins engine (commonly the ISL, up to 300 hp depending on configuration), automatic transmission, diff lock, and suspension dump for easier loading — all riding on a chassis that's DOT-inspected and ready for daily commercial use.

The forklift on back is where brand and model matter. Moffett (built by Hiab in Ireland) and Princeton — now also owned by Hiab — are the two most common piggyback forklift brands on the road, and their model numbers tell you the lift capacity directly:

The Moffett M45/M4500 is built for lighter, urban-style delivery work at around 4,500 lbs capacity, while the M55, M5500, and M8 55.3 step up to 5,500 lbs for semi-industrial use on rougher terrain. Models like the M8 55.4 NX add 4-way steering, letting the operator shift into full side-to-side travel — genuinely useful for threading long material through an overhead door or a tight lumberyard aisle. Princeton's equivalents — the PB55.3, PB55+, and PB55.3X+ — are mechanically very similar to their Moffett counterparts (Princeton and Moffett have shared a parent company for years), with the PB55.3X+ adding a pantograph "double reach" that lets the operator unload from one side of the truck without repositioning it.

None of these forklifts touch the ground during transport — they hang on the mounting kit, which is exactly why the mount and frame interface deserves its own line of inspection, not just the engine and the mast.

How a Reputable Dealer Refurbishes One of These Units

Before any used Moffett or Princeton truck should go up for sale, it should go through a real refurbishment process — not just a wash and a coat of paint. Here's what that looks like at Equipment Remarketing:

The load-test step is worth pausing on: testing mast lift, tilt, and side-shift under an actual 5,000 lb load catches problems that an empty-fork test never will, since hydraulic weaknesses and worn pins often only show up under real working weight. Combined with a pressure and leak check, and replacement of worn hoses, cylinders, valves, motors, and pins/bushings before the unit is repainted, this is what separates a genuinely reconditioned machine from one that's just been cleaned up to look good in photos.

What to Check Before You Buy

Whether you're buying from us or anyone else, run through these four categories before you commit:

A couple of these are easy to overlook. The mounting kit and frame welds around it take real stress every time the forklift raises itself into position — that's a structural connection, not a cosmetic bracket, and it deserves the same scrutiny you'd give the mast itself. And overhang: by regulation, a flatbed needs 48"-60" of overhang from the back tires to the end of the bed to legally carry a forklift mount in all 50 states. If a truck you're looking at doesn't meet that, it's a compliance problem waiting to surface at a weigh station, not just a minor spec detail.

Buy One That's Already Passed Every Category

Every used Moffett and Princeton unit we sell goes through the full refurbishment process above before it ever hits our lot listings — steam cleaned, load-tested, pressure-checked, worn parts replaced, and refinished with a 2-step urethane paint job. Most units ship with a 30-day engine warranty and an operational guarantee: if something isn't as presented when it arrives, we make it right.

We stock Moffett M55/M8 55.3 forklifts and Princeton piggybacks regularly, along with Freightliner (and other brand) flatbed trucks and trailers already set up with mounting provisions — and we also carry new Loadmac units for buyers who want the double-reach "one-side offload" feature standard rather than as a rare option. If you don't see the exact configuration you need, we take trade-ins and buy used units outright, and we ship nationwide (we've shipped as far as Australia).

Call us at (888) 708-3980, browse current inventory at 99lifts.com, or stop by in person — we're an Indiana-licensed dealer located at 14007 Bull Rapids Rd, Grabill, IN, just north of Fort Wayne. We do business the golden rule way.

Sources: Equipment Remarketing LLC — 99lifts.com, Equipment Remarketing Blog