It can be simple to neglect the important tire, when it comes to the maintenance of the forklift. When you choose the wrong tire for your forklift, you can put large increases on your operating expenses, and more importantly increase your safety risks. If on the other hand, you select correct tire you could enjoy improved safety, significant cost-savings and an overall more efficient operation. A properly chosen tire could really lessen the downtime for replacement and probably last 40% longer.
The forklift tire is a quite complex component of the machine. It is thus, easy to pick the wrong kind accidentally. There are lots of different types of tires and brands, with various compounds and treads. This means you need to be totally prepared with the right information when you are buying tires so that you could select some safe and tough options to help extend the life of your lift truck.
Your business must choose the specific tire for their equipment according to the type of surface the equipment will be operated on. Smoother surfaces and indoor applications for instance, will usually use tires of a smaller size and made from rubber. On the other hand, outdoor operations need pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires have a rubber tread and are filled with compressed air. These characteristics give them a good grip on surfaces which are rough and uneven.
Forklift Tire Safety
Each and every year, 200 people are killed in lift truck or forklift related accidents each year. Ensuring lift truck safety, such as correct inspection practices, could all contribute in to avoiding these horrible and dangerous accidents from taking place.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the lift truck have to be checked before each and every shift. Tires should ideally have the proper air pressure, which is set by the tire manufacturer. This is very vital because if the tire pressure is very low, the machine could inadvertently tip over when a load is being raised.
Kinds
The tires utilized on indoor forklifts would be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA require that lift trucks used on a continual basis have to be inspected at the completion of every shift. The operator should check the equipment for any mechanical problems and the tires must be inspected for cuts, excessive wear or apparent tire damage. Any problems which are detected should be addressed as soon as possible to maintain safety.