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Periodic Maintenance

By Trucktruth.com, May 27th, 2009

A well maintained lift truck fleet can improve the productivity of your material handling operations

Achieve fleet performance goals

Best practices in maintenance can make your lift trucks more productive by reducing unscheduled downtime. Your service company should have skilled technicians with years of experience servicing all makes of lift trucks. By committing to a maintenance schedule recommended by a professional service compan , you can ensure that your fleet is in top shape with maximum uptime.

You have a number of options when choosing a service provider for your material handling equipment. So how do you choose the one that is right for your business needs? Choosing a service provider to do your scheduled maintenance by price alone can leave you paying more in the long run through additional unscheduled downtime and more costly, major repairs. Look for a plan that ensures each and every truck on your agreement receives a thorough inspection, from fork to counterweight, to help ensure little problems do not turn into big, expensive ones.

Comprehensive Record Keeping

Controlling the quality of service is the utmost importance. In order to ensure that your fleet’s maintenance needs are being fulfilled, make sure your service company has a procedure checklist that is completed by the technician for every lift truck in your fleet. This checklist will then become a permanent record of your lift truck fleet’s maintenance and condition.

Breaking with Tradition, Flexibility is the Key

Any periodic maintenance plan should be based on each lift truck’s application, make, model, and operating environment. Some of the items that should be included are:

A periodic maintenance program should include different services based on the number of hours of service throughout the year

An example plan would include:

Every 250 hours or 6 weeks for IC units or 350 hours or 2 months for electric units:

• System lubrication and general inspection
• Operational evaluation
• Engine oil and filter change
• Wheels and tires-check for damage
• Hydraulic lines-check for wear or leakage

Additional items performed every 1000 hours or 6 months of operation:

• Complete tune-up
• Fuel filter change

Additional items performed every 2000 hours or 1 year of operation:

• Antifreeze coolant change
• Transmission fluid and filter change
• Hydraulic oil and filter change
• Clean and repack wheel bearings
• Brake system inspection