Don’t Let Summer Temps Chill Your Forklift Maintenance Plans — Follow Our Tips!
Summer is certainly here, and it’s time to make sure your forklifts are “summerized”. High heat, high humidity, and dusty conditions combine to create a lethal cocktail for work vehicles making forklift maintenance a high priority.
Rigorous adherence to your planned maintenance schedules and careful pre-shift inspections are a must when the temperature rises, as heat is the biggest enemy of forklift longevity.
These forklift maintenance tips will help your fleet glide through summer.
Internal Combustion (IC) Engine Forklifts
- Coolant – Heat is the silent killer of an IC engine at any ambient temperature, only more so in the summer. Make sure your coolant is topped up and if the coolant is old or deteriorated, flush the system and replace it.
- Radiator – Check for damage, leaks, leaves or debris that might be restricting airflow. A clogged radiator can cause a dangerous drop in coolant flow through the engine. If the coolant temperature seems abnormally high, backflush or replace the radiator.
- Hoses & Belts – These rubber parts can dry out and crack when exposed to excessive heat. Carefully inspect them before each shift and replace as needed.
- Oil & Air Filters – Hot summer weather can cause oil temperatures in internal combustion engines to rise, accelerating their deterioration. Change oil more often than normal in prolonged hot weather. Summer heat is also often accompanied by dusty conditions. Change oil and air filters more often in hot summer weather.
Electric Forklifts
- Batteries – Hot weather can heat up forklift batteries and accelerate their demise. Check battery water levels on a more frequent basis in summer, and top up as necessary.
- Electrical Connections – Rubber electrical insulation deteriorates more rapidly in hot weather. Check all connections and replace wires and cables whose insulation has cracked or deteriorated.
For ALL Forklifts
- Hydraulic system – Your forklift’s pressurized hydraulic system can heat up during usage even on a cool day. Hot Summer weather can add an extra strain and cause fittings, hoses, bushings, and o-rings to deteriorate. Check your forklift’s hydraulic system on a regular basis in the summer to make sure there is no heat-related damage.
- Mechanical systems – Heat can alter the chemical makeup of lubricants and cause them to lose their performance characteristics. Regularly check forks, masts, chains, steering, and wheels for dried-out lubricant and replace them as necessary.
- Tires – Just like other rubber parts, extremely hot weather can accelerate the aging of tires. For pneumatic tires, check air pressure regularly to prevent tires from becoming over-pressurized in the heat, leading to cracking and blowouts.
Don’t Forget Your Forklift Operators
Heat can take as big a toll on your forklift drivers as it can on your forklifts. Your team is the most valuable part of your material handling operation, and they require more TLC in the summer heat. Are they taking precautionary measures to stay cool and hydrated? Making sure indoor work areas are cool and well-ventilated is vital. For outdoor operators, ventilated or cooled cabins improve productivity. During very hot weather, drivers should be given time to recharge in a cool environment. Strenuous tasks should be scheduled early in the morning when it’s cooler, or at night, if possible.
As they say, everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Well, you can’t! And summer is a time when the weather can take a toll on your equipment and staff. It’s when the basics become even more important…proper forklift maintenance, thorough forklift operator training and rigorous adherence to maintenance and inspection schedules, especially daily pre-shift inspection checklists.
To help you ensure that you are including all the items that you should be checking as part of your pre-shift checklist, here’s a link to Apex’s Pre-shift Inspection forms for electric and internal combustion forklifts.
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When it comes to forklift maintenance, inspection, and training, the experts at Apex can provide you with all the help you need to make summer a breeze. Call to schedule your vehicle maintenance and operator training and (re)certifications to optimize your fleet’s productivity. Apex is your material handling headquarters in the Chicagoland area.