About Forklifts
Forklifts are a very important piece of equipment for material handling facilities. They are used for transporting inventory throughout a warehouse or storage area, and are available in many different functionalities to suit your specific material handling needs. When deciding which style of used forklift is right for you, you should consider the weight of your heaviest and average loads, the lift height, aisle dimensions, and the hours of daily use.
The weight of the heaviest load you are expecting to lift will help determine the capacity of the used forklift required. It is risky to buy a used forklift that just barely meets your capacity requirements, so you should consider a forklift capacity that exceeds the weight of the maximum expected load. This will ensure you never overbear it, which could cause permanent damage and will most likely ruin your lift.
The lift height of your used forklift is also very important to consider as you will want to be able to lift loaded pallets to the appropriate height to be stored. To determine this, find the height of the top deck of racking that you are looking to store pallets, and add six inches. This is the ideal lift height of your used forklift, and the six inches allows for you to lift the product off the racking.
Aisle dimensions should also be factored in when determining the right used forklift for your application. For a typical standard-size used forklift to turn around within an aisle, you will be required to have a width of at least 12 feet. There are special styles of used forklifts, like narrow aisle, which only requires a width of about 8 feet. For even tighter storage, used very narrow aisle forklifts can be utilized, which can operate in aisles as thin as 6 feet wide.
Hours of daily use is important; a used electric forklift can take up to 8 hours to fully charge for 8 hours of operation. This means that if you want to utilize electric, it can only be for that amount of time and requires the same amount of down time afterwards. This works well in facilities that do not require constant use of their forklift all day. For heavier use, used propane forklifts are the best solution. It takes approximately 10 minutes to replace the fuel in a propane lift, and will run for about the same amount of time as an electric forklift. Used propane forklifts are also safe to use inside as they produce a low amount of emissions.
New or used, propane or electric, ASI is here to help you with your used forklift needs. Give a call today; our professional sales staff will be happy to work with you from start to finish. We have many different types of used forklifts in stock, and our inventory is constantly changing.
