Forklifts are the backbone of the materials handling industry, taking care of the majority of heavy lifting within your warehouse. Because they play a crucial role in your business, it’s important to establish a routine forklift maintenance schedule to ensure your equipment is functioning safely and to the best of its ability.  

Types of Forklift Maintenance and Repair

Much like servicing your car, forklifts require different types of maintenance and repair. For example, OSHA requires a daily inspection for forklifts at the beginning of each shift. While this safety requirement is of the utmost importance, there are other forms of maintenance that crop up based on uptime or preventing future issues.

 

Routine Maintenance

Routine maintenance is often short and sweet. Based on past use and operating time, this type of regular forklift maintenance keeps your forklift or lift truck running smoothly by topping off lubricants and fluids, checking lights and horns, or changing fuel filters. For example, the forklift oil change interval is 200 hours, so after this amount of uptime, you’ll need to perform some maintenance.

Electric forklifts are a popular alternative to internal combustion forklifts because they have fewer moving parts and require less routine maintenance. Routine electric forklift maintenance includes regular watering of the electric forklift battery. This type of routine maintenance can be performed daily, weekly, and monthly, depending on your maintenance requirements.

 

Preventative Maintenance

As a rule of thumb, preventative forklift maintenance is more thorough than routine maintenance and involves deeper inspection and testing of critical components within your forklift. This type of maintenance aims to identify and mitigate potential problems before they occur with planned maintenance, letting you avoid costly repairs and interruptions to your workflow.

Preventative maintenance can include taking the time to thoroughly inspect other elements of your forklift, like its hydraulic systems, electric systems, or steering mechanisms. Each forklift manufacturer provides a forklift maintenance checklist and schedule, so for you and your employees’ safety and peace of mind, it is imperative to stay up to date.

 

How Will Regular Maintenance Benefit My Business?

Taking proper care of your equipment should be a given, and there are a variety of benefits to establishing a forklift maintenance program.

 

Keeping Your Forklift and Your Business Running Smoothly

One of the major benefits of working within a planned maintenance schedule is that you’ll see your equipment functioning at its highest capacity. By taking proper care of your forklift, you can extend its lifespan and catch small issues before they lead to breakdowns or accidents. Consider contracting a forklift maintenance service so you have guaranteed access to experienced technicians on a regular timeframe.

With a forklift maintenance plan in place, you’ll also be able to schedule maintenance and repairs around your business’ schedule. By catching potential problems early, you’ll avoid the risk of experiencing breakdowns that can upset the flow of business, too.

 

Reduce the Cost of Large Repairs or Maintenance

A forklift maintenance program can also help lower your business’ bottom line. With technicians regularly servicing your equipment at a set rate, you’re easily able to work forklift maintenance and repairs into your budget. By catching potential problems before they occur, you can avoid costly emergency repairs and excess downtime that will cost your business more than preventative maintenance and scheduled downtime.

 

Brennan Forklift Services Have You Covered

Establishing a forklift maintenance plan is crucial to keeping your equipment—and your business—running smoothly. By providing you with a team of technicians with decades of experience, Brennan’s forklift maintenance services can help keep your fleet operating in tip-top shape. If you want to stay on top of your routine maintenance, repairs, and get started on a preventative maintenance program, contact us today.

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