Lift Truck Basics
There is a huge variety of configurations and options available for the modern forklifts or lift trucks nowadays. These options far exceed lift height and weight capacity. Make sure you do some homework before making an acquisition for your company to be able to select the best vehicles for your operation. These practices would result in optimal use of your labor and space while ensuring a high safety factor.
Prior to choosing the best vehicle and making a decision for your operation you should have a full understanding of the properties of the loads or materials you will be handling. Moreover, it is really essential to know the storage methods you will utilize to be able to store these items. As well, it is also important to understand the methods you would need for shipping and receiving these items. After this is done, it is a great idea to know the array of available options and vehicles .
Fuel Types
The electric vehicles are designed for indoor application only, providing quiet operation with no gas fumes. If you plan to mostly utilize your vehicles indoors than this is certainly the best alternative. In multi-shift operations, you would require additional transfer and charging stations and batteries.
If the lift truck is not utilized 100% of the time or is in single shift operations, you would be able to charge the forklift during its off-duty hours. Remember that lift truck batteries and chargers are usually priced separately from the lift truck itself.
There are AC or alternating current motors as well. These motors are offered by a lot of lift truck manufacturers. Normally, AC powered lift trucks run off of DC batteries and convert the DC power back to AC so as to power the motor.
There are some advantages of AC motors. Some of the main factors include that these motors offer higher efficiency overall, lower maintenance costs and faster acceleration.