How to Choose the Right Forklift for your Business

Choosing the right forklift is a highly important decision that significantly affects your business. From productivity to operation costs, and even stock management, the right forklift can make a huge difference in how your business can proceed. But how do you know how to make the right decision when it comes to the decision to buy a forklift?

Even if you are looking for forklift rentals, or a forklift truck for hire, then you need to understand that choosing the wrong forklift for sale in Melbourne can severely have adverse effects on your business. Let us look at certain considerations you need to keep in mind when selecting right forklift for your business.

1. Environment

The environment of your business can significantly influence the kind of forklift you need, as well as the type of tyres required by the forklift and the type of fuel that the forklift will use. One of the easiest ways to determine the correct environment is to primarily look at the floor surface of your business area and thoroughly evaluate the conditions in which the forklift will be operating. This includes:

• Whether your business area has rough surfaces or smooth.
• Whether the area in which the forklift will operate is outdoors or indoors, or both.
• The number of hours the forklift will be in operation in a given day.

2. Load Capacity

Even if you have the required capital, it makes little sense to pick a forklift that has a maximum lift capacity that you will not need. To make a sensible purchase it would be ideal to consider:

• The type of stock that will be handled by the forklift.
• The average weight of the load, that will be carried by the forklift.
• The heaviest possible load your forklift may be required to carry in certain circumstances.
• The overall width of your loads.

The reason there is a significant emphasis on the load type is because many forklifts come with specific attachments that can enhance the way a standard forklift operates. They can strongly assist you with efficient movement of the load and there is no shortage, to the number of types of attachments that are available. One of these is known as side shift, which enables a forklift operator to move any load to either the left or the right direction, without having to move the truck itself.

3. Height

Just as you have factored in multiple considerations, depending on the kind of load that will be carried by a forklift, you similarly, want to take a forklift that meets your business’s height requirements. For these considerations, you need to look at whether your forklift requires certain operational needs:

• What is the typical height at which the stock is supposed to be able to reach.
• What is the highest possible point that the forklift needs to access in order to place your stock.
• Does your business environment have any height restrictions like low hanging lights or ceiling beams.

Furthermore, the collapsed height of the mast of the forklift needs to be taken into consideration.
This is crucial, because if you need the forklift to move smoothly under a structure that has a fixed height, like the garage or container door, then you will need to have a mast whose collapsed height is less than the overall height of the structure itself.

4. Type Of Fuel

When it comes to forklifts, there are three potential types of fuels.

The first are electric forklifts. Electric forklifts operate on batteries that require periodic charging.
The price of electric forklifts is significantly higher than that of other forklift variants. However, the return on investment with electric forklifts, is quite high, as they have a lengthy lifespan and consume significantly fewer resources when put up against other forklift variants. They have zero emissions, and a lack of an internal combustible engine means that these forklifts are not susceptible to vibrations.

Forklifts with internal combustible engines run on either gas or diesel. These are the more traditional type of forklifts. However, they have not reduced in demand considering the fact that these forklifts are capable of lifting bigger and heavier loads, while also moving faster than their electric counterparts. Furthermore, diesel forklifts are generally, when it comes to operations that involve heavy lifting, and even for operations where the forklift will be doing a significant portion of its work outdoors.

The third choice is gas forklifts, that run on compressed natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas. Regardless of the type of gas you use, both forklifts take a very small amount of time to refuel, as it is just a matter of replacing the tanks, which can be done in a few minutes. Furthermore, these forklifts have an extremely long lifespan. Based on the type of work that is required from your forklift, you can choose whichever fuel you require.