Patent ID: 7568547

Claim:
A drive control apparatus for a forklift, the forklift including an engine, a drive wheel, a power transmission mechanism for transmitting power of the engine to the drive wheel, and a loading device that is provided at a front portion of the forklift and mounts a load, the drive control apparatus comprising: a load state determining section, wherein the load state determining section detects a load state of the loading device, and, based on the detected load state, determines whether to limit a maximum vehicle speed and an acceleration/deceleration during traveling of the forklift; a limitation contents determining section that determines limitation contents regarding the maximum vehicle speed and the acceleration/deceleration based on a determination result of the load state determining section, wherein, when the determination result of the load state determining section is negative, the limitation contents determining section determines not to limit the maximum vehicle speed and the acceleration/deceleration, and wherein, when the determination result of the load state determining section is positive, the limitation contents determining section selects, from a plurality of maximum vehicle speed limitation values and a plurality of acceleration/deceleration limitation values that are previously set according to load states, a maximum vehicle speed limitation value and an acceleration/deceleration limitation value that are appropriate for the detected load state; and a control section that adjusts a speed of the engine based on the limitation contents determined by the limitation contents determining section, thereby controlling driving of the forklift, wherein, when the limitation contents determined by the limitation contents determining section are changed, the control section executes drive control related to the maximum vehicle speed according to the limitation contents that are set after the change, and the control section selects an acceleration/deceleration limitation value from the acceleration/deceleration limitation values according to the pattern of the change of the limitation contents and executes drive control related to the acceleration/deceleration to limit the acceleration/deceleration of the forklift by using the selected acceleration/deceleration limitation value.