When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it could really be easy to neglect the simple yet important tire. If you choose 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 however, you pick correct kind of tire you could enjoy improved safety, substantial cost-savings and an overall more effective operation. A correctly chosen tire can really reduce the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40 percent longer.
Tires are actually somewhat complex parts on the machine; hence, it is easy to pick the wrong kind accidentally. There are a lot of different types of tires and brands, with different compounds and treads. This means you must be fully prepared with the correct data when you are going shopping for tires so that you can select some tough and safe alternatives to help extend the life of your forklift.
Your company must decide on the specific tire for their machine according to the kind of surface the machine will be operated on. Indoor applications and smoother surfaces for instance, will generally utilize tires of a smaller size and made from rubber. On the contrary, outdoor applications need pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires have a rubber tread and are filled with compressed air. These features give them a good grip on surfaces which are uneven and rough.
Lift Truck Tire Safety
Each year, there are approximately 200 people killed in accidents related for lift truck use. Ensuring forklift safety, such as correct inspection practices, can all contribute in to preventing these dangerous and horrible mishaps from occurring.
Pre-Work Check
The tires of the forklift needs to be checked before each shift. Tires must ideally have the proper air pressure, which is set by the tire manufacturer. This is extremely important because if the tire pressure is very low, the equipment can accidentally tip over when a load is being lifted.
Kinds
The tires utilized on indoor lift trucks will be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA require that forklifts utilized on a continual basis have to be checked at the completion of each and every shift. The driver must check the equipment for any type of mechanical problems and the tires must be inspected for cuts, excessive wear or obvious tire damage. Any issues that are detected have to be dealt with as soon as possible to maintain safety.