Lift trucks are used to lift, engage and transfer palletized loads within manufacturing, warehousing, material handling, mining and construction applications. There are 3 basic types of forklifts: a motorized drive, fork truck and manual drive. The load movement or travel is powered manually or by walking behind the equipment with manual-drive forklifts.
The motorized forklift models come complete with a motorized drive and in a lot of cases have a protected cab or seat in their design in order to keep the operator safe and comfortable. Fork trucks are another kind that are motorized and consist of features like cabs and backup alarms. In order to prevent the machine from turning over, some lift trucks are counterbalanced. Other models consist of safety rails, a rotating element like a turntable or other kinds of hand rails.
Important specifications to take into consideration when choosing lift trucks consist of stroke and lift capacity. Stroke is defined as the difference between the fully-raised and the fully-lowered lift positions. Lift capacity is the supportable, maximum load or forcforce or load. Additional specifications for forklifts comprise their type of fuel and tire.
Forklifts comprise different fuel options such as: liquid propane or LPG, compressed natural gas or CNG, propane, diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas. There are 2 basic kinds of tires used for operating fork trucks and forklifts: solid and pneumatic. Cushion or solid tires do not puncture and require less maintenance than pneumatic tires. The solid or cushion tires do provide less shock absorption overall. Air-inflated or pneumatic tires however provide great drive traction and load-cushioning.
There are 7 classes of lift trucks. The first class of lift trucks, Class I, is either stand-up or seated 3 wheeled units that are electric-motor rider trucks. Normally, rider units are counterbalanced and can have either cushion or pneumatic wheels. Class II forklifts are electric motor units that are utilized for order picking or stock applications in narrow aisle environments. These types of forklifts provide extra reach functions or swing mast.
Class III forklifts are either standing-rider or walk-behind operated electric-motor trucks. High lift models and automated pallet lift trucks are normally counterbalanced units. Class IV forklifts have seated controls and cabs. These models are rider fork trucks with internal combustion or IC engines. In addition, this class utilizes cushion or solid tires.
Class V forklifts are rider fork trucks. They have cabs and seated controls, pneumatic tires and IC or internal combustion engines. Similar to Class IV forklifts, they are typically counterbalanced. Class VI forklifts are tow tractor lifts that are designed for a sit-down rider. This particular class is supplied with IC or internal combustion or electric engines.
Class VII lift trucks are the last classification and consist of rough terrain lift trucks, that are usually used in agricultural, construction and logging applications. Class VII lift trucks include all burden carriers and personnel carriers.