When it comes to maintaining the forklift, it could be easy to neglect the simple yet essential tire. If you choose the wrong tire, you can end up accidentally with a huge increase in fleet operating expenses, or increased safety risks, which is worse yet. If however, you pick correct tire you can enjoy improved safety, substantial cost-savings and an overall more effective operation. A properly selected tire can actually decrease the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40% longer.
The forklift tire is a quite complex component of the machinery. It is thus, easy to pick the wrong kind accidentally. There are so many different brands of tires and types, with different compounds and treads. This means you should be totally prepared with the correct data when you are buying tires so that you can decide on some safe and tough options to help extend the life of your lift truck.
Your business should select the particular tire for their machinery based on the kind of surface the machine will be operated on. Smoother surfaces and indoor applications for instance, would generally utilize tires that are smaller in size and made from rubber. On the other hand, outdoor operations need pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires are filled with compressed air and have a rubber tread. These characteristics give them a good grip on uneven and rough surfaces.
Forklift Tire Safety
Each year, there are about 200 people killed in accidents related for lift truck use. Ensuring lift truck safety, like proper inspection practices, can all contribute in to avoiding these dangerous and terrible accidents from happening.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the lift truck have to be checked before every shift. Tires should ideally have the proper air pressure, that is set by the manufacturer of the tire. This is extremely important because if the tire pressure is too low, the machinery could accidentally tip over when a load is being raised.
Kinds
The tires used on indoor forklifts will be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
OSHA or the Occupational Health and Safety Administration places a requirement on the continual utilization of forklifts. These forklifts should be inspected at the end of each shift. The operator must inspect the equipment for any type of mechanical issues and the tires must be looked over for excessive wear, cuts or obvious damage to the tires. Any issues which are detected should be addressed as soon as possible to maintain safety.