Forklift Pedestrian Safety
We discuss safety a lot here, because it’s important. Your forklift, like much of your machinery, is perfectly safe when operated within the guidelines but accidents do happen. People get hurt, even killed, in and around forklifts. As we’ve established, the forklift operator has responsibilities to keep him/herself and co-workers safe; stay...
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Part 1: Forklift Driver Training
I’m a newbie.  Going into all this I knew very little about forklifts, forklifts accessories and couldn’t tell a battery-operated lift from an LP truck. My minimal forklift experience was watching it move giant loads of amplifiers and staging equipment in my days as a stagehand on giant rock concerts and theater productions. My takeaway...
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Fork accessories for the forklift
You can buy just about any accessory to put on the forklift itself but what about the fork accessories?  There are a few options here, too.  Don Haas shows us what each fork accessory looks like and what function it...
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Forklift Driving Lessons
Four tires, a seat and a steering wheel, how much different could driving a forklift be from driving a car? It’s different. We’re about to send a newbie through fork lift operator training, a process we’ll document here, so we’ll get an insider’s view of just what the training is all about and how difficult it is. This is someone with...
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Extending the life of your battery-powered forklift
Batteries seem to have become a regular part of our hi-tech lifestyles.  At any given time you’re charging several items and something else is running out of juice at exactly the wrong moment. You pay attention to how to best manage the batteries in your smartphone, but you need to pay just as much attention to your batter-operated forklift...
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Buckle Up – Forklift Seabelts
Believe it or not, seatbelts are only recently mandatory safety equipment on a forklift.  While, technically, OSHA doesn’t directly mention seatbelts by name they’re firm enough about the wording that we know they’re very serious about the seatbelts.  You should be, too. Here’s the thing: while a forklift rarely travels at a high enough...
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Forklift Propane Safety
More than half a million forklifts in the US operate on propane gas. That’s a lot of gas, and a lot of potentially dangerous situations if the propane is not handled properly. Here’s what you need to know about propane: Propane, by itself (like natural gas that we use to heat our homes) is odorless.  Propane’s distinct odor is added to...
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Counterbalance vs Reach
Balance.  We’re all working to achieve it, some with more success than others.  Balance is critical to the successful, safe operation of your forklift as well. Forklifts achieve balance in two ways. A Counterbalance forklift is a truck that can lift and move a load without the use of outriggers to stabilize the unit. These forklifts...
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Forklift Abuse
A few entries ago, we mentioned something that started a conversation.  We stated that typically, most of the damage to a forklift is caused by (insert drum roll here) employee abuse. That raised some eyebrows among our customers. To be clear, usually damage to a forklift is not caused by mindful reckless conduct (although that does happen)....
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The Cost of a New Forklift
If you’ve ever made a large purchase, you know that the cost of the actual item is only part of what you will spend over the life of the thing you bought. Here are some of the expenses you can expect while you make the most of your new forklift: Someone has to operate the lift.  Combine training and salary and one forklift operator will cost...
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