When the time comes to select the appropriate warehouse truck, it is a great idea to figure out how high you intend to lift your cargo, how much you have to raise, how much space you need to work in and how far you want to travel. These considerations would really affect your purchasing decision and help decipher which type of forklift truck is really the ideal one out there to meet 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 completing regular stacking tasks in a warehouse. They are capable of easily raising cargo of less than 750kg and be able to stack them to heights of approximately 4.5 metres. Another model referred to as rider stackers could successfully lift loads to about 6 metres.
Reach trucks are yet a different alternative to consider. 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 added flexibility in handling goods, there is a 4-way and a multi-way reach truck that as the name implies, could be driven in four directions. These models are specifically best for handling long and large items like boards, piping and planks.
The counterbalance line of trucks is suitable for traveling longer distances. They are a great option for stacking jobs, specially block stacking. They are also an excellent option for free stacking and stacking cargo that weigh more than 2 tonnes.
A Tight Squeeze
The aisle space in a high-density storage operation would normally be much narrower, whilst the heights could be quite higher as well. The Man-up telescopic lift trucks are best utilized in narrow aisle, high-bay stores. They provide the driver or operator a good view of the stacking process. There are also models called man-up combi trucks. These are fairly versatile in that they can be used for both order- picking and stacking tasks. They could be utilized in narrow aisles or driven all over the warehouse.