Seatbelts, people. Wear 'em!

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Ive always been amazed at how stupid people can be with forklifts.

Ive ran them...its not hard. Really its common sense. Back and forth, up and down, side shift, repeat.

Oh and dont try running wide open with 4500lbs on the forks 15 ft in the air.

Psshhh…. Stack rolls of paper weighing 2-4,000 lbs each 25’ up two rolls at a time and feeling the floor of a 14k+ lb forklift flexing while watching the tower swaying…

 

[Curious Hound]

Psshhh…. Stack rolls of paper weighing 2-4,000 lbs each 25’ up two rolls at a time and feeling the floor of a 14k+ lb forklift flexing while watching the tower swaying…

Yeah. Those are small rolls. The clamp truck drivers at the box plant where I worked were crazy. Really had to watch where we walked. And listen for the trucks, not the horns. They didn't use their horns as much as they should.

 

[Snoranger]

Psshhh…. Stack rolls of paper weighing 2-4,000 lbs each 25’ up two rolls at a time and feeling the floor of a 14k+ lb forklift flexing while watching the tower swaying…

At my old job we had a Taylor TC-250S. 25k lb capacity. Ford 460. Bad-ass

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Yeah. Those are small rolls. The clamp truck drivers at the box plant where I worked were crazy. Really had to watch where we walked. And listen for the trucks, not the horns. They didn't use their horns as much as they should.

Yeah, the ColorPress side of things had some stupid heavy rolls

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

At my old job we had a Taylor TC-250S. 25k lb capacity. Ford 460. Bad-ass

Ours was a Hyster with a 4.3l, ColorPress had a Toyota clamp truck, not sure the details. Then we had a Toyota and I forget offhand what the other regular forklift was, then an ancient Cat forklift that almost never moved.

 

[Curious Hound]

Not from the plant where I worked. But this is the size rolls we handled. Between7ft and 7.5 ft end to end.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Psshhh…. Stack rolls of paper weighing 2-4,000 lbs each 25’ up two rolls at a time and feeling the floor of a 14k+ lb forklift flexing while watching the tower swaying…

Try using a 6000lb cap lift to unload a bunk of 294 2x4x20's 4 high on a rail car....on potholey gravel.

fun times

 

[Curious Hound]

Most fun I ever had was unloading a gearbox from a semi-trailer. The fork truck was one of those huge outdoor high capacity ones with dual wheels on the front, about 40” in diameter. Forks at least 10ft long. It wouldnt Fit into the trailer. I was about half way under the gearbox on the first lift and the rear wheels came off the ground. Drug it back a few feet. Slid up under some more. Slid it back some more. Finally got under it right. Rear wheels were still just barely touching the ground enough to steer. Easter Sunday morning, 1995. Emergency repairs on an extruder in a Michelin tire factory.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Most fun I ever had was unloading a gearbox from a semi-trailer. The fork truck was one of those huge outdoor high capacity ones with dual wheels on the front, about 40” in diameter. Forks at least 10ft long. It wouldnt Fit into the trailer. I was about half way under the gearbox on the first lift and the rear wheels came off the ground. Drug it back a few feet. Slid up under some more. Slid it back some more. Finally got under it right. Rear wheels were still just barely touching the ground enough to steer. Easter Sunday morning, 1995. Emergency repairs on an extruder in a Michelin tire factory.

I had to haul a dead takeuchi skid loader on a Sellick SD80. With 4 ft forks. Had it chained to the mast and went really...really....slow.

That sellick was a bad ass lift though. Had a little perkins diesel and some weird clutchless 4 speed manual. Plus was 4wd and rode on loader fluid fills. Thing would go through alot of shit

 

[Roert42]

We just have a little 5k Cat, with a propane engine.

Still a weird feeling when you are standing next to it when it hits an expansion joint, and the whole concrete slab bounces.

Done a lot hokey stuff with it, almost never run within it's capacity....

 

[racsan]

listen for the trucks, not the horns. They didn't use their horns as much as they should.

And on the flip side of that, I worked at a place once where there must of been a company rule to honk the horn for every 10’ of travel, only thing is that the horn noise just becomes normal background noise cause you hear it all day long. We have electric toyota forklifts, pretty small, I dont know the capacity. Damn seat switch is going bad on one of them. Really annoying.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Fun fact on that standpoint, some jobsites have to have hearing protection just because of the loud backup beepers that they make so people with hearing protection can hear them and everyone ignores them so they had to change the tone of the beepers so it was less ignorable... or something like that

We make engines for forklifts at work, well some of them anyway, back like a decade ago I went to see one that had a propane 8.1L in it, that was a big forklift... for the most part the only forklifts we supply anymore are usually the extendable counterweight variety...

 

[racsan]

While I understand the reasoning of hearing protection, Ive found it can be a bit dangerous for someone like me with hearing issues. With earplugs & normal background noise , I cant hear certain things. One time the hydraulic pump on my machine stopped working. (set screws on shaft coupling) I couldnt figure out what was wrong at first- the light for “hydraulics” was still on. lol.

 

[DILLARD000]

Some 30yrs ago, in a previous life working an old aluminum plant,
saw aftermath of an 20t ingot fork driver giving himself a concussion & day in hospital.
High speed running empty from railcar loading to castinghouse; missed a turn,
put one side of fork dead center clean thru the web of a heavy steel building column.
Ouch !

 

[bilbo]

I used to work at a furniture store and we had lifts where you rode up with your cargo. Nothing super heavy but it was awkward at times trying to slide sofas and whatnot into warehouse racking while high up in the air, with the platform swaying around. Most of the time they were driven in reverse, so steering was "backwards." I accidentally turned left once instead of right and speared the maintenance manager's desk through his office wall. Oops. Not one of my proudest moments.

At my old job they had a big pump that had to come out for repair. It wasn't my project so I don't know the details on weight but they rented a massive forklift to get it out of the building. The back end with the counterweight was hydraulic and extended out to increase capacity. There were some tight buttcheeks when that pump was being taken off its base and out to the waiting semi. Even tighter when it came back and they were reinstalling it.