When it comes to maintaining the lift truck, it could be easy to neglect 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 however, you select correct kind of tire you can enjoy significant cost-savings, improved safety and an overall more efficient operation. A properly selected tire can actually decrease the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40% longer.
Tires are actually quite complex parts on the machine; hence, it is easy to choose the wrong type accidentally. There are so many different brands of tires and kinds, with a wide variety of compounds and treads. This means you must be completely prepared with the right information when you are purchasing tires so that you could choose some tough and safe alternatives to help extend the life of your lift truck.
The particular kind of tire chosen for a forklift depends on the type of surface you would be utilizing the machine on. For instance, indoor applications and smooth surfaces generally utilize tires that are made from rubber and that are smaller in size. On the contrary, 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 rough and uneven surfaces.
Lift Truck Tire Safety
Each year, there are around 200 people killed in accidents related for lift truck use. Ensuring forklift safety, like for example proper inspection practices, can all contribute in to preventing these horrible and dangerous accidents from taking place.
Pre-Work Inspection
Prior to every shift, the forklift's tires need to be inspected. Ideally, they should have the right air pressure, as set forth by the manufacturer. This is really essential because if the tire pressure is too low, the equipment can accidentally tip over when a load is being raised.
Types
For indoor work, lift trucks that have solid tires made out of rubber are the best choice.
Other Considerations
The OHSA or Occupational Health and Safety Administration require that forklifts used on a continual basis have to be checked at the completion of every shift. The driver has to check the machine for any kind of mechanical issues and the tires have to be looked over for cuts, excessive wear or apparent damage to the tires. Any problems which are detected need to be addressed as soon as possible to maintain safety.