When the time comes to select the suitable warehouse truck, it is a good idea to figure out how high you intend to lift your loads, how much you have to raise, how much space you need to work in and how far you would like to travel. These factors would influence your buying decision and help decipher what type of forklift truck is the best one out there to meet all your requirements and meet your overall expectations.
Normal Aisles
The most inexpensive trucks are pedestrian stackers. These machines are great for working in standard width aisles and finishing regular stacking jobs inside a warehouse. They can easily raise cargo of less than 750kg and be able to stack them to heights of roughly 4.5 metres. Another kind called rider stackers could successfully lift cargo to around 6 metres.
Reach trucks are yet another choice to think about. They give you much greater load and lift capacities and several models come complete with telescopic forks. This characteristic allows you the ability to stack pallets two deep. For extra flexibility in handling goods, 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 boards, piping and planks.
Counterbalance trucks are best suitable for traveling longer distance and are a great option for stacking jobs, particularly block stacking. They are also an excellent choice for stacking cargo that weigh over 2 tonnes and free stacking.
A Tight Squeeze
The aisle space in a high-density storage operation would typically be a lot narrower, whilst the heights can be quite higher too. The Man-up telescopic lift trucks are best used in narrow aisle, high-bay stores. They offer the driver or operator a good view of the stacking process. There are other types called man-up combi trucks. These are quite versatile in that they can be used for both order- picking and stacking jobs. They can be driven all around the warehouse or utilized in narrow aisles.