When the time comes to choose the proper warehouse truck, it is a great idea to figure out how high you plan to lift your loads, how much you need to lift, how much space you have to work in and how far you want to travel. These factors would influence your buying decision and help decipher what forklift truck is truly the ideal one out there to suit your needs and meet your overall expectations.
Normal Aisles
The most inexpensive trucks are pedestrian stackers. These machines are ideal for working in normal width aisles and finishing regular stacking tasks inside a warehouse. They can easily lift cargo of less than 750kg and could stack them to heights of approximately 4.5 metres. A different type called rider stackers could successfully lift cargo to around 6 metres.
Reach trucks are yet another option to think about. They give you much greater lift and load capacities and some models come complete with telescopic forks. This characteristic allows you the ability to stack pallets two deep. For extra flexibility in goods handling, there is a multi-way and a 4-way reach truck that as the name implies, could be driven in four directions. These models are particularly suitable for handling long and large items like for instance piping, planks and boards.
The counterbalance line of trucks is suitable for traveling longer distances. They are a good choice for stacking jobs, especially block stacking. They are also an ideal alternative for stacking cargo that weigh more than 2 tonnes and free stacking.
A Tight Squeeze
The aisle space in a high-density storage operation would typically be much narrower, while the heights may be somewhat higher also. The Man-up telescopic lift trucks are best used in high-bay, narrow aisle stores. They provide the driver or operator a good view of the stacking process. There are also models known as man-up combi trucks. These are quite versatile in that they can be utilized for both order- picking and stacking tasks. They could be used in narrow aisles or driven all over the warehouse.