Unlike cars and trucks, material handling equipment such as forklifts, power jacks and other heavy machinery don’t typically have suspensions. As a result, their tires take the full brunt of every impact, bump and scrape, causing them to deteriorate faster than car or truck tires.
So how can you tell when your tires need to be replaced?
Protect Against Tire Damage
The average forklift carries more than 9,600 lbs. on its drive tires and approximately 1,300 lbs. on its steer tires, so every turn, rotation, stop and start incrementally damages the tire over time.
Some of the noticeable wear includes:
- Simple wear — the tires on most forklift and other heavy material handling machinery are designed to operate efficiently with up to 50% wear on the tread. Once you surpass this wear rate, however, performance will be diminished and it may be time to think about replacing the tires.
- Chunking — When small or even larger pieces of the rubber tire start to fall off, it can cause all sorts of problems, including rattling, instability and lack of traction. Periodically the tires on your material handling machinery to look for pits and chunks that may have become knocked loose.
- Tearing — Occasionally, tears will appear on the surface of the tire. These can be caused by rolling over uneven floor surfaces or litter, foreign materials becoming embedded in the tires, bad or damaged dock plates or accidentally running over the sharp edges of machinery.
- Flat spots — Sections of the tire can become worn before the rest of the tire, causing flat spots to occur. This can cause the material handling vehicle to shudder, spin or give an uneven, bumpier ride. Flat spots are typically caused by overspinning the tires during acceleration, frequent sharp turns while carrying heavy loads, or imbalanced loads.
Over- or Under-Inflation
Two other things to look out for are under-inflation and over-inflation. If your tires are under-inflated, it can compromise stability and accelerate wear on the tire. Over-inflated tires cause reduced stopping power and could even lead to the loss of air pressure or, in the case of foam-filled tires, the foam to ooze out.
Most tires come with a recommended pressure setting printed on their side. Use an air gauge to measure the PSI or your tires and keep them inflated to the proper pressure.
Worn or damaged tires can not only cause a bumpy ride, but they also can impede the operator’s ability to run the machinery efficiently and safely. Bahrns offers a full line of replacement tires and even tire repair kits that can keep your operation running smoothly and efficiently.