When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it could really be easy to overlook the simple yet essential tire. If you select the wrong tire, you can end up accidentally with a huge increase in fleet operating costs, or increased safety risks, which is worse yet. If on the other hand, you pick right tire you can enjoy significant cost-savings, improved safety and an overall more efficient operation. A properly chosen tire could actually lessen the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40 percent longer.
The lift truck tire is a somewhat complex part of the equipment. It is thus, easy to pick the wrong type accidentally. There are numerous different brands of tires and types, with different compounds and treads. This means you must be totally prepared with the right information when you are purchasing tires so that you can decide on some durable and safe alternatives to help extend the life of your forklift.
The particular type of tire chosen for a lift truck depends on the type of surface you would be utilizing the machine on. For example, indoor applications and smooth surfaces normally utilize tires which are made from rubber and that are a smaller size. On the other hand, outdoor operations require pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires have a rubber tread and are filled with compressed air. These features give them a good grip on rough and uneven surfaces.
Forklift Tire Safety
Every year, 200 people are killed in lift truck or forklift related accidents each year. Ensuring forklift safety, like for instance correct inspection practices, could all contribute in to avoiding these dangerous and terrible accidents from happening.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the forklift have to be checked before each shift. Tires must ideally have the proper air pressure, that is set by the manufacturer of the tire. This is really vital because if the tire pressure is very low, the machine can accidentally tip over when a load is being lifted.
Kinds
For indoor work, forklifts that have solid tires made out of rubber are the most suitable choice.
Other factors
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA require that lift trucks utilized on a continual basis have to be checked at the completion of each and every shift. The driver needs to check the machinery for any mechanical problems and the tires have to be looked over for cuts, excessive wear or obvious tire damage. Any problems which are detected must be dealt with as soon as possible to maintain safety.