Buying Tips
When buying a lift truck, there is certainly a lot of factors to take into account since this decision may impact a lot of things such as production, operating expenses, machine downtime, and even employee morale.
When you are thinking of choosing a new or used lift truck, the following is a short list of things to take into consideration. There can be some specific questions the sales consultant must deal with in order to help you choose the best alternative that is most suitable for your company.
Step 1: Identify Your Requirements
Making the time to identify your requirements would help ensure that you can find a capable machinery. What size are your average loads? Are they 3,000 pounds to 35,000 pounds or even heavier? How many hours each day would you be utilizing this machinery? Will you be running the machine indoors or outdoors or potentially both? How wide are your narrowest aisles to go through? Accurately answering these questions would ensure you are happy with the model you select.
Step2: Second-hand Vs. Brand new Lift Trucks
You might want to buy a new model of lift truck if you are intending to use your forklift for more than 4 hours per day. The warranty benefits alone would come in handy. A second-hand alternative will more than likely be enough for light duty and infrequent applications.
Step 3: Fuel Options
The huge electric lift truck batteries will allow the forklift to run for roughly 8 hours. These specific power sources make forklifts uniquely suited for indoor use since they generate no harmful emissions. Even if electric units are usually more expensive compared to other units, they have lower operating expenses. Electric lift trucks are much quieter to run and do not have fuel storage needs to think about. Additionally, these equipment have less moving parts so they have a longer life span because they have fewer components to get worn down.
Amongst the disadvantages of the battery operated lift trucks is that they need battery recharging stations and this can take approximately 8 hours. There is an additional 8 hours required for cooling. Recent changes have made their way onto the market in order to significantly lessen charging time. The fast-charge technology has become a great new thing.
Step 4: Tire Choice
Common lift trucks utilize cushion tires made up of solid rubber or they will be outfitted with pneumatic or inflated, air-filled tires. Some lift trucks would utilize a solid pneumatic tires, that is a combination of the two kinds of tire. The pneumatic tire kind is great to be utilized outside. Cushion tires are best to be used indoors and solid pneumatic tires are the best option for dangerous work environments where there is potential for standard tires being popped by sharp objects on rough terrain.