It is important to figure out what type of needs you have before choosing the warehouse truck. Think about things like how high you plan to raise your loads, how much you need to raise, how much space you need to work in and how far you want to travel. These factors would really affect your purchasing decision and help decipher which forklift truck is the best one out there to meet all your needs and meet your overall expectations.
Normal Aisles
The most economical trucks are pedestrian stackers. These equipment are great for working in normal width aisles and finishing regular stacking jobs inside a warehouse. They are capable of easily lifting cargo of less than 750kg and be able to stack them to heights of roughly 4.5 metres. One more type referred to as rider stackers could successfully lift loads to about 6 metres.
Reach trucks are yet a different choice to think about. They give you much greater load and lift capacities and some models come complete with telescopic forks. This feature allows you the ability to stack pallets two deep. For extra flexibility in handling goods, there is a 4-way and a multi-way reach truck which as the name implies, could be driven in four directions. These models are specifically suitable for handling bulky and long objects such as boards, piping and planks.
Counterbalance trucks are best suited for traveling longer distance and are a good alternative for stacking jobs, especially block stacking. They are also a great alternative for free stacking and stacking cargo that weigh over 2 tonnes.
A Tight Squeeze
The aisle space in a high-density storage operation would typically be much narrower, while the heights can be quite higher too. The Man-up telescopic lift trucks are best utilized in narrow aisle, high-bay stores. They provide the operator or driver a good view of the stacking process. There are also models called man-up combi trucks. These are fairly versatile in that they can be used for both stacking and order-picking tasks. They could be utilized in narrow aisles or driven all around the warehouse.