When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it can be easy to neglect 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 correct kind of 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% longer.
The lift truck tire is a somewhat complex component of the machine. It is therefore, easy to select the wrong kind accidentally. There are lots of different types of tires and brands, with different compounds and treads. This means you should be totally prepared with the correct information when you are purchasing tires so that you could choose some safe and tough alternatives to help extend the life of your lift truck.
Your company should decide on the specific tire for their equipment based on the type of surface the machinery will be operated on. Smoother surfaces and indoor applications for example, will generally utilize tires that are smaller in size and made from rubber. On the contrary, outdoor applications need pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires are filled with compressed air and have a rubber tread. These features give them a great grip on rough and uneven surfaces.
Forklift Tire Safety
Each year, there are roughly 200 individuals killed in accidents related for forklift use. Ensuring forklift safety, like correct inspection practices, can all contribute in to preventing these horrible and dangerous mishaps from occurring.
Pre-Work Check
The tires of the forklift needs to be checked before each and every shift. Tires must ideally have the right air pressure, which is set by the tire manufacturer. This is extremely vital because if the tire pressure is very low, the equipment can accidentally tip over when a load is being raised.
Kinds
For indoor work, lift trucks that have solid tires made out of rubber are the best alternative.
Other factors
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA require that forklifts used on a continual basis have to be inspected at the completion of every shift. The driver needs to inspect the machinery for any kind of mechanical issues and the tires should be inspected for excessive wear, cuts or obvious tire damage. Any problems which are detected have to be addressed as soon as possible to maintain safety.