The Do’s and Don’ts of Forklift Servicing

If you own a fleet of forklifts for lease or your in-house operations, it is important to craft an appropriate maintenance regime designed to ensure safety in the workplace, minimal downtimes, efficient operation of equipment, few costly repairs, and long life for the equipment. Regular inspections and maintenance must be done in line with manufacturer’s instructions and standards. You must design and implement procedures to report and investigate any incidents that deviate from the norm or dangerous occurrences during operation of the lift trucks. It is always paramount to seek the services of seasoned forklift servicing service providers in Atlanta or any other place, if you don’t have the skilled people in-house. This blog covers a few do’s and don’ts that you ought to remember when it’s time for forklift servicing.

What are Some of the Do’s?

• Wear the right protective equipment, such as goggles, aprons, rubber boots, leather glove, as and when required when grinding, handling batteries, and changing LPG fuel tanks.
• Make sure to disconnect all batteries before beginning any work
• Keep all forklifts in your fleet clean to make it easy to detect defective or worn parts
• Use water to clean, as opposed to flammable liquids to clean the forklifts and also keep the work area clean and well lit
• Only trained and certified people should inspect maintain, or repair your forklift trucks
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• Your qualified tire fitters must use a safety cage when fitting or inflating tires, and the compressed air hose must be a clip-on feature to allow fitters to be away from the wheel rim when inflating the tire.
• Check all tools before use and remove them all before starting the engine
• Make sure to inspect the forklift for twisted, distorted, or bent sections and conduct the necessary tests if you observe any defects.
• Magnetic particle testing ought to be done for main mast welds and forks if cracks develop or annually, and on couplings, hoses, cylinder connections in the tilt control system and main mast assembly

What are Some of the Don’ts?

• Don’t drive, initiate maintenance or repairs without first checking the operator’s daily checklist or finding out why the forklift is in for repairs
• Never remove the counterweight without first attaching a chain hoist
• Don’t work under an elevated forklift if it is not safely supported by blocks