It is essential to figure out what kind of needs you need before selecting the warehouse truck. Think about things such as how high you intend to lift your loads, how much you have to lift, how much space you have to work in and how far you would like to travel. These factors will really affect your buying decision and help decipher what forklift truck is really the ideal one out there to suit all your needs and meet your overall expectations.
Normal Aisles
The most cost-effective trucks are pedestrian stackers. These machines are great for working in standard width aisles and finishing regular stacking jobs inside a warehouse. They are capable of easily raising cargo of less than 750kg and be able to stack them to heights of about 4.5 metres. One more kind called rider stackers can successfully raise loads to about 6 metres.
Reach trucks are yet a different option to think about. They give you much greater load and lift capacities and several models come complete with telescopic forks. This feature enables you the ability of stacking pallets two deep. For extra flexibility in goods handling, there is a 4-way and a multi-way reach truck which as the name implies, can be driven in four directions. These models are specifically great for handling bulky and long things like planks, boards and piping.
The counterbalance line of trucks is best for traveling longer distances. They are a great alternative for stacking jobs, specially block stacking. They are also a great alternative for free stacking and stacking cargo that weigh more than 2 tonnes.
A Tight Squeeze
The aisle space in a high-density storage operation will typically be much narrower, while the heights could be quite higher too. The Man-up telescopic lift trucks are best utilized in high-bay, narrow aisle stores. They provide the driver or operator a good view of the stacking process. There are also kinds called man-up combi trucks. These are quite versatile in that they can be used for both stacking and order-picking jobs. They can be driven throughout the warehouse or used in narrow aisles.