PURPOSE: To provide an overload preventive apparatus for material handling vehicle such as forklift truck which can prevent the overload from working on the body by making material handling unable to perform when it works beyond any allowable load condition.

CONSTITUTION: When an article A is placed on a fork craw 4 as shown by the drawing, a front moment M comprising the load W of the article and a distance L to the center 3' of a mast support 3 from the load center G works on the body 1 while a retaining pressure P1 corresponding to th moment develops in a chamber 5b of a tilt cylinder 5. The pressure P1 moves into a pressure chamber 14 from a conduit 19 to push a piston 13 against a spring 15. When the moment M is larger than the allowable value, the piston 13 is further moved against the spring, causing the first and second fixed contact pieces 17 and 18 to be shortcircuited. Then, a solenoid directinal control valve 7 is switched to a drain position d leaving a tilt control valve 8 unable to operate