Above: Baumann reports that the panoramic cabin provides excellent visibility and is built to offer a high level of comfort.
April, 2026- Conventional forklifts provide many material handling capabilities for metal suppliers, but side loading forklifts (sideloaders) provide unique capabilities. “The great thing about them is they can take product from outside and take it directly into the building,” says Billy Holliday, facilities, purchasing and services manager for American Metal Group (AMG). “You can’t get a forklift to take a 30-foot bar into a building because it’s going to hit the doors. You can do it, but you have to twist and turn, and it would take you 30 minutes to maneuver it.”
In addition to its five sideloaders, Sylacauga, Alabama-based AMG has a new 15,000- pound capacity forklift and a 44,000-pound capacity gantry crane.
The 120-volt EGX 80L sideloader model from Baumann has a lifting capacity of 17,600 pounds. Here, an operator gathers bar stock from American Metal Group’s storage yard.
Holliday says AMG uses these vehicles for its three divisions: a cold-finished bar mill that handles both bar stock and coils, a bar threading business and a quench-and-temper heat treatment facility. “Anything under 1 inch thick comes in a coil form and anything over 1 inch comes in a bar form.”
AMG purchased its most recent sideloader, the Baumann EGX 80L electric-drive model, from a local distributor, Thompson Tractor Co. Inc. The other four, which are also electric drive, are from a different manufacturer that AMG bought through Rob Alling, then a representative for that company but who is now president and CEO of Baumann USA LLC in Brookville, Ohio. Alling also offers short-and long-term rental of sideloaders through sideloaders.com
The Baumann sideloader enables AMG to efficiently transport bar stock from outside to inside its facility.
The 120-volt EGX 80L is the largest electric side-loader Baumann produces, with a lifting capacity of 17,600 pounds. The EGX 80L has a lift height of 318 inches, if required.
Typically, AMG uses the Baumann side-loader to unload a truck outside its facility, placing the load in the company’s 10-acre storage yard, Holliday says, noting that the machine is used about eight hours a day. Based on the production schedule, the material is transported inside and staged to be processed.
“We try to stay on top of the schedule. We have a pretty sophisticated computer system, so our schedulers know how long it’s going to take to run a certain product and then what product is next. We’re not just flying by the seat of our pants,” Holliday says.
He admits, however, that if a long-term customer wants a product in a rush, AMG will make that happen. In addition, to gain a new customer that also wants something quickly, the steel supplier may interrupt the schedule and jump that customer to the front of the line. “That’s what’s made us successful. We’re very flexible, We’re very customer oriented. We bend a lot; sometimes too much,” he says.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
While sitting in the storage yard, steel can get rusty, Holliday says, but the stock is run through a shot blasting machine to knock off all the rust and scale after it is brought into the facility. Nonetheless, if steel remains too long outside, the metal will become pitted beyond the point of being able to be shot blasted smoothly, he explains. “You don’t want that to happen because then you’re just going to have to scrap that product, but it can happen. That’s the reason we try to go first in, first out” with inventory.
With 2,500 to 3,000 tons of steel in the storage yard, the gravel in places has become compacted to be like concrete, but with bumps and divots, Holliday says.
Knowing that surfaces may be less than ideal at its customers’ locations, the sideloader features Baumann’s automated load stabilizing tilt system. Despite uneven ground, two cylinders mounted below the platform tilt the chassis and allow the carriage and forks to remain horizontal while loading.
“It’s a very smooth ride,” Holliday says.
To further enhance operator comfort, the cabin is heated and air conditioned. Cold weather is not much of a concern in Alabama, but summer heat and humidity can be scorching and excruciating. “We don’t even have springs. We go from winter to summer. Our summers last well into the fall,” Holliday says.
He says that a sideloader operator who is comfortable is be er able to concentrate on driving properly and picking the correct load, minimizing accidents and mistakes.
CABIN WITH A VIEW
Baumann’s panoramic cabin provides excellent visibility and is built to o er a high level of comfort, including well-placed control levers, an unclu ered foot well, deluxe seating and dual-plane, vibration-controlled suspension, according to the equipment builder.
The sideloader comes standard with a composite-type deck, Holliday notes, but AMG had a diamond-tread steel plate deck installed instead because it was not certain the composite material could withstand the abuse that AMG expected the deck to receive.
The deck width measures 55.1 inches. In most use cases, the deck is wide enough to prevent the load from sagging, he adds, but the ends of a 1½-inch, 60-foot long load of bar, for example, will swoop slightly off the deck on each side, but not drastically. “We don’t have to worry about it dragging the ground.”
Being electric, the sideloaders at AMG offer zero emissions and are reportedly less expensive to run and maintain. Holliday says a battery-powered motor does not require as much maintenance as an internal combustion engine, and he expects the battery to last four or five years before it requires replacement. In addition to checking the battery, the normal preventive maintenance program includes making sure all bolts are tight, the carriage is lifting properly, the hydraulic oil levels are correct and the hoses are intact.
In addition to reduced motor maintenance and zero emissions, Holliday says purchasing an electric sideloader provides financial gains. “We actually got a rebate from our power supplier, Alabama Power. Anything that we buy that’s electric, we’ll get a rebate and a tax credit on that.”
American Metal Group, 205/433-6680, http://amg-steel.com/
Baumann USA LLC, 855/334-2909, http://baumannusa.com/
