How to Perform Lift Truck Maintenance for the Spring

With spring upon us, now is the time to practice lift truck maintenance to offset the loss of production caused by hot weather failure! Hopefully, you’ve read Industrial Forklift Truck’s preventive maintenance winter blog, and are in great shape. Maybe your forklift faced damage throughout the winter months from pests, bad weather, and inactivity.

Regardless of whether you took every forklift preventive maintenance measure or none, you will still need to perform tasks to get your forklift ready for full-time operation. Ideally, Industrial Forklift Truck’s spring lift truck maintenance guide will lead to top performance and reduce downtime.

Follow these spring forklift maintenance tasks to reduce costs and preserve the life of your equipment! For further warm weather maintenance needs, figure out your servicing options.

Spring Lift Truck Maintenance Checklist

1. Visual Inspection. The first step to spring lift truck maintenance is a visual inspection for damage. If your forklift was in winter storage, look for rust formation and any form of pest damage, such as chewed/frayed wires. Another spring forklift maintenance must is to check for signs of vandalism, such as broken windows.
2. Uncover Protective Measures. If your forklift was in long-term winter storage, the protective measures will need to be removed. Also, reconnect your battery and add fuel to your forklift. If you didn’t store your forklift for winter, skip to step 3.
3. Ensure Proper Lubrication and Fluid Levels. Warmer weather is great for us, but a menace to forklifts. Lubricate all components regularly exposed to heat and friction to combat wear and premature failure. Also, ensure your forklift has sufficient fluid levels to prolong your vehicle’s longevity for forklift preventive maintenance.
4. Tighten Loose Connections. Spring generally sees loose connections, or fittings. As a forklift preventive maintenance standard, avoid fluid loss, excessive vibration, and short circuits, by inspecting and tightening all connections and fittings.
5. Inspect Brakes. Long periods of inactivity, like the winter, produce built-up rust and dust on your brakes. So, you’ll need to inspect for any signs of wear or damage. Finish this spring lift maintenance step by testing the responsiveness and effectiveness of your breaks.
6. Check on Belts and Fans. Checking your engine fan and engine belt is key to forklift preventive maintenance as they retain an operational temperature range. The plastic and rubber of these parts stretch and dry out, becoming brittle with age. This makes them prone to cracks, excessive wear, and heat damage.
7. Adjust Chains and Castors. If you continued to operate your equipment outdoors throughout the winter, an essential step on your spring forklift maintenance list is to check for excessive rust or corrosion on the mast chain. Otherwise, offset fork replacement by conducting proper lift chain adjustments. Also combat mast repairs through castor adjustments.
8. Check Wheels and Tires. Check for excessive wear using these tips. For further spring forklift maintenance, examine any signs of damage such as chipping or undercutting.

Additional Spring Lift Truck Maintenance

Depending on your equipment, additional spring forklift maintenance may be required. For example, if your forklift is electric, you will need to check the battery. If the battery is not putting out proper voltage, your forklift may not run at all, so you will need to clean or replace the battery.

However, sometimes lift truck maintenance won’t be enough and you’ll need to replace your equipment. There’s where Industrial Forklift Truck comes in. We provide free quotes from pre-screened forklift sellers and repair companies from the comfort of your living room.

Prepare for Spring with Quality Forklift Equipment.

For professional maintenance needs, browse Industrial Forklift Truck’s service and repair options.

Further Reading:

• How to Conduct a Forklift Inspection in 5 Minutes
• Repair or Replace? How to Tell When It’s Time for a New Forklift
• 7 Questions to Answer Before Buying a Forklift