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About Forklifts

A mainstay of construction sites, warehouses, shipping yards, factories, and countless small and large businesses, the forklift is essential equipment designed to lift, move, and load and unload objects weighing as much as 35,000 pounds (15,875 kilograms) or more, depending on the model. Matching a forklift with such attachments and tools as clamps, fork extensions, augers, grapplers, hammers, and rotators can greatly extend the machine’s abilities.

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Hyster H40XT Pneumatic Tire Forklift

A Brief History Of Forklifts

The origins of the forklift can be found in the small, battery-powered and internal combustion-powered trucks developed by companies like the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Clark Company in the early 1900s. Today, forklifts be sorted into mast (refers to the assembly a forklift’s front that enables lifting loads) and telescopic (essentially a boom used to lift loads) models. Forklifts can also be categorized by such traits as being able to navigate rough terrain, providing a side-loading design, the type of tires they use, and their primary application, such as reaching to lift objects.

Cushion Tire

Cushion tire forklifts are most commonly used for indoor applications and on smooth terrain. Cushion tires, sometimes referred to as press-on tires, are made of solid rubber attached to a metal ring and are typically lower to the ground than tires on a pneumatic forklift. As such, cushion tire forklifts are often smaller than other types of forklifts and well-suited for operating in tight spaces, such as between warehouse aisles and around pallets. Warehouses, factories, and manufacturing facilities are just a few of the places where you’ll find cushion tire forklifts at work.

Pneumatic Tire

Pneumatic-tire models are well-suited for both indoor and outdoor operations because they often have a higher ground clearance and wider tires than cushion tire forklifts. The tires on pneumatic models are typically made of solid rubber or filled with compressed air to withstand running over nails, rocks, and other obstacles without taking as much damage as other types of forklifts. This makes them popular for work in lumberyards and on construction sites. Other popular industries and applications include agriculture, airports, concrete work, mining, oil and gas, and more.

Order Pickers

Order picker forklifts are commonly used in warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing plants, retail storage centers, and other storage environments with narrow aisles. Although they’re similar in many respects to traditional forklifts, order picker forklifts allow a person to ride on a platform that is elevated up and down along with the forks. This affords the driver greater visibility as well as the key ability to pick individual items from elevated shelves rather than having to remove an entire pallet with a forklift and then return it.

Stand Up & Reach

While stand-up and reach forklifts can perform many of the same tasks, reach trucks are well-designed for moving pallets in warehouse-type settings, whereas many stand-up models are used for loading and unloading trucks and trailers. Distribution, food processing and storage, manufacturing, retail, and warehousing are just a few of the notable applications for stand up and reach forklifts. The primary feature that differentiates a reach forklift from a typical stand-up forklift is that there is a telescopic or scissor mechanism that allows the reach forklift to lift objects from higher up and farther away.

Truck Mounted

Truck-mounted forklifts are used in a wide range of industries, including beverage distribution, construction, agriculture, and lumber. The ability to quickly mount and unmount them from the back of a truck or trailer makes the forklifts useful for time-sensitive applications, such as laying freshly cut sod. Businesses may also use them to perform tasks like lifting building materials, such as drywall, bricks, and wood. Most truck-mounted forklifts have diesel-powered engines and either three or four wheels.

Rough Terrain

Rough-terrain forklifts, sometimes referred to as "all-terrain forklifts," are designed to handle uneven surfaces in outdoor operations. They typically have pneumatic tires that are larger than other types of forklifts, providing higher ground clearance. Rough-terrain forklifts are available with a mast (helpful for vertical applications) or telescopic boom (which offer longer horizontal reach), and four-wheel-drive versions are available for jobs that demand superior traction.

Popular Brands

Top forklift brands for sale on MachineryTrader.com include CASE, Clark, Caterpillar, Hoist, Hyster, JCB, Linde, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Yale, and others.