When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it could be easy to overlook the simple yet important tire. If you select the wrong tire, you could 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 choose right tire you can enjoy improved safety, substantial cost-savings and an overall more efficient operation. A correctly chosen tire could actually lessen the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40% longer.
The lift truck tire is a quite complex part of the machinery. It is thus, easy to choose the wrong kind accidentally. There are numerous different types of tires and brands, with a huge range of compounds and treads. This means you must be fully prepared with the right data when you are buying tires so that you could select some safe and tough alternatives to help prolong the life of your lift truck.
Your company must decide on the specific tire for their machinery according to the type of surface the machine would be operated on. Smoother surfaces and indoor applications for instance, will generally utilize tires that are smaller in size and made from rubber. On the other hand, outdoor operations require pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires are filled with compressed air and have a rubber tread. These features give them a great grip on surfaces which are rough and uneven.
Lift Truck Tire Safety
Each year, there are roughly 200 people killed in accidents related for lift truck use. Ensuring lift truck safety, like for example correct inspection practices, can all contribute in to preventing these horrible and dangerous mishaps from happening.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the forklift have to be inspected before each and every shift. Tires must ideally have the right air pressure, which is set by the tire manufacturer. This is very important because if the tire pressure is very low, the machinery can inadvertently tip over when a load is being lifted.
Types
For indoor work, forklifts which have solid tires made out of rubber are the best alternative.
Other Considerations
The OHSA or Occupational Health and Safety Administration require that forklifts used on a continual basis have to be inspected at the completion of each shift. The driver must inspect the machinery for any mechanical issues and the tires must be inspected for excessive wear, cuts or apparent damage to the tires. Any problems which are detected must be dealt with as soon as possible to maintain safety.