It could be simple to neglect the important tire, when it comes to the maintenance of the lift truck. When you select the wrong tire for your lift truck, you could put huge increases on your operating costs, and more importantly increase your safety risks. If however, you select correct type of tire you can enjoy improved safety, substantial cost-savings and an overall more effective operation. A correctly chosen tire can actually decrease the downtime for replacement and probably last 40% longer.
The lift truck tire is a quite complex part of the machinery. It is thus, easy to pick the wrong kind accidentally. There are numerous different kinds of tires and brands, with different treads and compounds. This means you should be completely prepared with the right information when you are buying tires so that you can choose some safe and tough options to help prolong the life of your lift truck.
The particular type of tire chosen for a forklift depends on the kind of surface you will be using the machine on. For instance, smoother surfaces and indoor applications normally use tires that are made from rubber and that are a smaller size. On the other hand, 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 that are rough and uneven.
Lift Truck Tire Safety
Each year, 200 individuals are killed in forklift or lift truck related accidents each year. Ensuring forklift safety, like for instance proper inspection practices, could all contribute in to avoiding these horrible and dangerous accidents from happening.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the forklift needs to be checked prior to each 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 too low, the equipment could inadvertently tip over when a load is being lifted.
Types
The tires used on indoor lift trucks will be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA places a requirement on the frequent utilization of forklifts. These lift trucks are required to be inspected at the end of each and every shift. The driver should inspect the machinery for any mechanical issues and the tires need to be checked 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.