The Hyster 300 is one of the plain-numbered lift-truck designations in the site’s records. Hyster is the American manufacturer founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1929 and now part of Hyster-Yale Materials Handling. No Wikipedia article covers the 300 itself, and no film of the truck survives in the record, so this page follows the company and range behind it.
Hyster 300 at a glance
| Maker | Hyster Company, Portland, Oregon |
|---|---|
| Type | lift truck, materials handling |
| Model designation | Hyster 300 |
| Company founded | 1929, as the Willamette-Ersted Company |
| Name origin | from the loggers’ call ‘hoist ’er’ |
| Owner from 1989 | NACCO Industries |
| Owner from 2012 | Hyster-Yale Materials Handling |
| Plants | Illinois, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Northern Ireland, South Africa |
| Engineering department | Irvine, Scotland |
| Distribution | five world regions, from North America to Asia-Pacific |
No Wikipedia article covers the Hyster 300: the facts here come from the English Wikipedia article on Hyster Company, a single source.
History of the Hyster 300
The 300 designation
The Hyster 300 is recorded in the collection under its number alone, with no surviving video. It is one of the plain-numbered trucks that sit alongside the metric 1.50 and 2.50, and the number places it among the larger designations gathered here, below the Hyster 1150.
1929–1989: Portland and the logging name
Hyster was founded in 1929 as the Willamette-Ersted Company in Portland, Oregon. The name is said to derive from the Pacific Northwest logging trade: a logger would call ‘hoist ’er’ when a load of lumber was ready to be moved, and according to the Hyster Company web page the phrase became a synonym for Hyster trucks. The company specialised in forklifts and materials-handling equipment, and through the 1960s and 1970s was also a major force in compaction machinery and road-rollers.
2012: Hyster-Yale Materials Handling
NACCO Industries bought Hyster in 1989 and made it part of NACCO Materials Handling Group. In 2012 the materials-handling business was spun off as Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc., which continues to market products under the Hyster brand. Production has been spread across Illinois, the Netherlands, China, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Northern Ireland and South Africa, with a specialist engineering department in Irvine, Scotland and the home office still in Portland.
Design and features
- Plain model number: written as 300, in the whole-number system used for most Hyster trucks.
- Position in the range: one of the larger designations in this collection, below the Hyster 1150.
- No film: the original video is gone, so the old photograph remains the only illustration.
- Global support: distribution arranged around five world regions.
- Company pedigree: a long history in lift trucks, compaction machinery and logging equipment.
Hyster 300 versions
- Hyster 300: the truck covered on this page.
- Smaller plain-numbered trucks: the Hyster 120 and Hyster 90.
- Larger sibling: the Hyster 1150.
- Metric trucks: the Hyster 2.50 and Hyster 1.50.
The Hyster 120 is the nearest smaller designation in the collection, and the Hyster 1150 is the larger one. All Hyster trucks are in the Hyster collection.
Sources
- Hyster Company, English Wikipedia: company history, ownership, plants, name origin
