When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it could be easy to overlook the simple yet essential tire. If you select the wrong tire, you could end up accidentally with a huge increase in fleet operating expenses, or increased safety risks, which is worse yet. If on the other hand, you choose correct tire you could enjoy improved safety, substantial cost-savings and an overall more effective operation. A correctly selected tire could really lessen the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40% longer.
Tires are actually quite complex components on the equipment; hence, it is easy to pick the wrong kind accidentally. There are so many different brands of tires and types, with a huge range of compounds and treads. This means you need to be completely prepared with the right data when you are going shopping for tires so that you could choose some safe and tough alternatives to help prolong the life of your lift truck.
The specific type of tire chosen for a forklift depends on the kind of surface you will be using the machine on. Like for instance, smoother surfaces and indoor applications generally utilize tires which are made from rubber and that are smaller in size. On the contrary, outdoor operations require pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires are filled with compressed air and have a rubber tread. These characteristics give them a good grip on surfaces which are rough and uneven.
Lift Truck Tire Safety
Each year, there are approximately 200 people killed in accidents related for forklift use. Ensuring lift truck safety, like for instance proper inspection practices, can all contribute in to preventing these horrible and dangerous mishaps from taking place.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the lift truck have to be inspected before each and every shift. Tires should ideally have the proper air pressure, that is set by the tire manufacturer. This is really important because if the tire pressure is too low, the machine could accidentally tip over when a load is being lifted.
Types
The tires utilized on indoor lift trucks will be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
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 and every shift. The operator should inspect the machine for any mechanical problems and the tires should be inspected for cuts, excessive wear or obvious tire damage. Any issues that are detected must be dealt with as soon as possible to maintain safety.