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Running a material handling business is a tall task – not only do you have to monitor your product, your sales, and your employees, you also have to ensure your forklift fleet is operating at its best capacity. Malfunctioning and overheating forklifts can skyrocket your operating costs and require expensive repairs. So what do you do if you’ve followed all maintenance suggestions and they are still overheating? Here are three areas that may be the cause of your forklift running hot:

Maintenance

The first area to check is also the easiest to fix: are routine maintenance tasks being completed correctly? Issues such as low coolant levels or worn hoses can contribute to a forklift’s overheating. If your on-site tech stretches parts past their optimal use, such as clogged filters, your forklifts could be choking on thick, dusty air. Worn fans or damaged radiators can also contribute to high running temperatures in material handling equipment.

Environment

The same advice for workers in high temperatures applies to your forklifts – give them frequent breaks and make sure their fluids are topped off.

Is your work yard paved or on packed dirt? Excessive dust, debris, and rough terrain can put additional demands on your forklifts and cause unforeseen maintenance problems. If this is a recurrent summer problem then the outside temperature can even be to blame. The same advice for workers in high temperatures applies to your forklifts – give them frequent breaks and make sure their fluids are topped off. If your forklifts are overheating indoors then you’ll want to survey your work area to find issues. Is the floor dusty or dirty? Are pieces of paper, pallet wrap, or other debris being left on the ground where they can clog filters? Once you find these issues then you can optimize your work areas to prevent damage.

Operation

If it’s not maintenance or environmental issues causing your overheating problems, then you need to check on how you are driving the equipment. If you are overloading the forklift with loads above capacity, this can cause overheating and create unnecessary risks for product damage and accidents. Are you driving forklifts constantly at top speeds? This can also contribute to high heats.

Many IC forklifts come equipped with an inching pedal to use when maneuvering your forklift while raising the mast to retrieve loads. If you are “riding” this pedal while driving it can cause many problems, as it slightly applies the brakes. The inching pedal should only be used when retrieving loads.

Once you’ve identified the cause of the problem and put a fix in place, ask why it arose in the first place. Are you overworking forklifts due to high expectations? Should your work area floor upkeep be added to existing maintenance plans? Don’t just solve the problem. Find a solution to keep it from happening again.

When your forklifts are placed in a planned maintenance rotation, you’ll have a technician on site inspecting your forklifts to be sure they are in top working condition. That means a Toyota Certified Technician is regularly on site to answer any specific questions you might have about the functionality of your fleet while they work to ensure your forklifts are in top working condition.

When a service tech is on site, they will be inspecting several parts of your forklift for optimal working condition. This will include:

• Mast, lift chains, forks, hydraulics
• Running and braking system
• Control system
• IC engine or electric motor
• Vehicle body and safety components

If your technician is thorough, you should be able to visibly see them inspect these specific areas. To ensure top quality inspection is occurring, it might be useful to request a PM inspection form before your begin the engagement with your service provider. Then, when a technician in on site, you can request that you see the completed form. This will help to make sure you’re getting exactly what you paid for. All Toyota Dealers have these forms available.

What is the long-term value of planned forklift maintenance?

One of the most important long-term values of planned maintenance is that it will save you money. Avoiding repair costs and downtime because maintenance issues are caught early before they become problems is one main contributing factor. But there are others, as we illustrate here:

More important than these cost savings can be the long-term benefit of planned forklift maintenance on the safety and security of operators. Worn out components can lead to accidents, but a technician might be able to replace these components during planned maintenance before they become too worn to function.

Increased efficiency is also a benefit, both because your forklifts will see increased uptime because of frequent maintenance and because you can plan for downtime during regularly scheduled inspection.

Planned forklift maintenance can also have additional, unanticipated benefits. For example, interruption to your daily schedule caused by a forklift breaking down might be avoided with planned maintenance. Instead of your having to take the time to call around attempting to locate a service tech to get the forklift back up and running, a Toyota Certified Technician will be on site regularly to help prevent such problems from occurring. You also won’t have to wait for an available technician to maintenance your forklift.

How do I know I’ve chosen the right partner for planned forklift maintenance?

Planned maintenance sounds great in theory, right? But it’s only great in practice if you have a dedicated partner who is willing to go the extra mile for your business. As you would when you purchase material handling equipment, perform thorough research to make sure you’re getting the right partner. Ask your potential partner for referrals for other businesses they’ve currently worked with. Take the time to interview your potential partner and get to know some of their technicians. After the engagement has begun, ask to see PM completion rates on your fleet to make sure they are holding up their end of your agreement.

As part of the Toyota 360 Support promise, Toyota is dedicated to being the industry leader in customer support and aftermarket services. Our dealers are happy to provide any of the information you request and can come on site for discussions leading up to a planned maintenance agreement.

Businesses have traditionally relied on multiple vendors for equipment, service, and consultation services to keep their operations running. This can be an appealing approach as you can pick and choose the right vendor based on their qualifications and ability to meet your needs. After all, you likely don’t buy your groceries in the same place where you dry clean your clothes, right?

But what if you could? What if you didn’t have to drive to two separate buildings across town for these services? What if you had one main point of contact who could hand you your dry cleaning and the groceries you bought online at the same time? Or what if the person who fixed your cable could also fix that vacuum that hasn’t had proper suction for years?

These conveniences translate well to the world of material handling. When you work with multiple vendors, it creates added work, takes more time to communicate between each vendor, and it can prevent you from getting the best solution that takes into account all aspects of your business.

Think about it this way: If you have one company who quotes you a racking system, one that quotes you a forklift, and one that quotes you a conveyor, how can you be sure you are getting the optimal solution? How can you be sure your facility layout is optimized to accommodate all of these separate pieces of equipment? Will these individual pieces of equipment work together more efficiently and productively than if you had chosen one (or more) of those pieces differently?

True full-line material handling solution providers:

• Not only give you added convenience, but they help to optimize every part of your business.
• They’re experts when it comes to providing integrated systems that optimize space and work flows.
• And they can help you leverage advanced technologies that work harmoniously together for the perfect blend of automated and manual material handling processes.

When it comes to single solution providers, there is none better equipped to handle a wide range of challenges than Toyota. Toyota boasts the largest lineup of material handling solutions that are capable of handling materials at every point in the supply chain. Everything from parcels to pallets to containers can be handled by a Toyota product.

Thanks to the partnership between Toyota Material Handling and Bastian Solutions, a Toyota Advanced Logistics company, Toyota dealers can also provide fully integrated systems with both automated and manual material handling equipment. Everything from conveyors to AGVs to automated storage and retrieval systems can be quoted through your Toyota dealer. And best of all, these pieces of equipment can also be serviced by the same Toyota Certified Technicians that work on your forklifts.

Having these resources available combined with the knowledge of how they can be integrated together into one comprehensive solution is where the real value of a single solutions provider can be realized. You get one point of contact for support and service, AND you get a complete solution that is going to optimize all aspects of your business. It’s truly a win-win situation.

If you’re interested in how these services can benefit you, reach out to your local Toyota dealer today. They probably won’t be able to handle your dry cleaning or fix your faulty vacuum, but a free site survey could put you on the right track to optimizing your business.

Original Post: ToyotaForklift.com 

With a wide range of maintenance checks that need to be performed on all forklifts, it can be easy to allow some part of your equipment fall out of OSHA or ANSI compliance. One aspect of fork inspection that can sometimes slip between the cracks is ensuring that forks are maintained appropriately in compliance with ANSI 56B (updated in May 2017).

In order to complete the appropriate checks and maintain fork compliance, you’ll need to make appropriate use of a fork caliper. This device can be used in three important ways to help you measure fork deviations and get the appropriate information to make sure you’re following the ANSI standard.

Fork Inspection: Check Fork Angle

The Fork angle deviation must be within a margin of 3 degrees. That means that the angle between the blade and the shank must be between 87 and 93 degrees. To use the caliper to check this, open it and place it between the plate and shank so that all four protrusions are touching. The angle can be read using the marking on the caliper. Any fork angle that falls outside of the degree range must be tagged out until the forks are replaced.

Fork Inspection: Check Fork Hooks

The numbers on the end of the caliper indicate the forklift classes. Use the appropriate protrusion to check if the fork hooks are in compliance. Simply place the protrusion into the hook notch. If the hook hits the back of the caliper, it is out of compliance. If it does not, then the forks are fine for continued use. The above fork is in compliance.

Fork Inspection: Check Fork Blade Wear

Begin by setting the caliper by the thickness of the shank. Place the caliper onto the blade at the point of the fork that receives the most wear, which is usually at its heel, as shown. If the blade passes the inside teeth of the caliper, then the fork is out compliance and must be tagged out until forks are replaced.

Original Post: Jake Stewart, Digital Content Copywriter, Toyota Material Handling, USA

There are a lot of moving parts on a forklift that are critical to its operation and the mast chains are no exception. As you may already know, a forklift uses hydraulic pressure to raise the mast up by raising the lift cylinders. This, in turn, raises the inner mast channels, but without the lift chains, your forks and carriage aren’t going anywhere. And if your forks aren’t being lifted, you aren’t going to be getting much work done.

So how does it all work? As I explained, the lift cylinders will lift the inner mast rails, but the mast chains are actually responsible for lifting the carriage and forks. Each mast chain is attached to the carriage and then routed up and over a chain wheel that acts as a pulley. The chain is then bolted into a boss that is welded onto the inner mast rail. So when the mast rails raise, the chains also raise and thus the carriage goes up with it.

Mast Chain Wear and Inspection 

As you can imagine, having to carry the bulk of your load weight during thousands of lift and lower cycles can take its toll. This wear will eventually cause the mast chains to elongate or even show other signs of disrepair depending on their age, use, and operating conditions. Since the chains are responsible for holding up the forklift’s carriage and ultimately a potentially large and heavy load, ignoring these warning signs could lead to product damage, injuries, or worse.

Your mast chains should be inspected at the start of every shift as part of your inspection of the forklift’s lift/lower systems. When inspecting the chains, be sure to look out for the following warning signs:
1.Broken Links: Broken links can be caused by abnormal force on the chains whether from dropping a load or working on an uneven surface.
2.Turned Pins: Lack of lubrication will cause pins to turn. If you see one turned pin, it’s likely there will be more. Always make sure the chains are properly lubricated prior to use.
3.Wear or Elongation Over Three Percent**: Over time, forklift chains wear out. You’ll need a chain gauge to measure wear and elongation. If your chain has elongated over three percent, it’s time to replace it.

Be mindful that chain pitch can vary with different chain designs and different pitches have different limits for stretch or elongation. Most chain gages will have wear guides for multiple types and pitches, so be sure you are following the instructions based on your specific type.

If you’re ever in doubt, be sure to reach out to Dillon Toyota Lift for assistance with inspecting your forklifts. They can even schedule planned maintenance with you so that a technician can inspect your forklifts at pre-determined intervals for all of these issues and more.

** Any elongation of your forklift chain should be properly inspected by a qualified technician.

Original Post:  Trinton Castetter, Product Marketing Specialist, Toyota Material Handling, USA

Equipment downtime is your operation’s worst enemy. Just like a car or house, a forklift requires maintenance and repairs after you purchase it. Taking a reactive approach to maintaining your forklifts can be accompanied by uncertainty and unexpected periods where forklifts are out of service. This can interrupt work flows that need to run smoothly for your business to succeed.

This is why many companies that use forklifts opt for a routine maintenance plan. The two most commonly used maintenance plans in the material handling business are planned maintenance agreements and full maintenance agreements (also referred to as guaranteed maintenance). Both plans are designed to maintain equipment uptime, be proactive on potential repairs before breakdown, and ultimately save you money in the long-run. But is the difference between a planned maintenance agreement and full maintenance agreement? We break that down right here for you.

Proactive with Planned Maintenance

Detailed inspections. Recommended repairs. Flexible billing. Tailor-made schedule. In my experience at a Toyota forklift dealership, these were expectations that come with a planned maintenance agreement. Many service providers have a detailed point inspection checklist the technician uses to inspect repair needs, potential safety risks, wearable items, and routine replacement parts. As technicians work through the checklist, he or she documents recommended repairs and provides service quotes to you for those repairs.  After going through the inspection process and performing any necessary repairs, many dealers will then bill you and schedule in the next appointment based on both hour usage and date cadence. While this process might be slightly different with dealers throughout the Toyota dealer network, maintaining uptime for your forklift is the value of any Planned Maintenance agreement. At Toyota, we believe in the value of planned maintenance so much that we include four PMs in the first year when you invest in Toyota 360 Support Plus. New forklift investment and proactive maintenance should go hand-in-hand.

Free Time with Full Maintenance

Signing up your forklift on a full maintenance agreement is like receiving the royal treatment. At the dealership I came from, you not only received everything included in the planned maintenance agreement, but you also had a plethora of other benefits, including:

• Maintenance records, tracking, and regular reports.
• Pre-paid scheduled and breakdown repairs with the exception of repairs due to misuse, abuse, and wearable items.
• Replacement rental equipment for the covered repairs, without charge.
• Flat monthly payment with the exception of repairs due to misuse, abuse, and wearable items.

With full maintenance, dealerships often take on the burden of overseeing the entire preventive health of your forklift. The true benefit is that the people who work with the equipment daily at the dealership now manage your forklift maintenance. When the dealership is able to work side-by-side with the customer, the dealership personnel is often in the best position to understand when to make repairs and replace parts before it affects your operation. This adds additional peace of mind when owning a forklift fleet. The monthly rate also helps you budget easier as the cost will not fluctuate from month-to-month. Ideally, you wouldn’t have to pay for every scheduled maintenance interval or the unexpected repairs that come with owning the forklift. Full maintenance monthly rates take into consideration a number of factors, such as equipment type, forklift utilization, age, service history, and the environment in which the forklift is operated.

Every service provider may differ in the way that they offer maintenance agreements. Planned maintenance and full maintenance agreements, in general, follow what I outlined above. Define your expectations and take a long, hard look at a proactive maintenance for your forklift fleet. It’s up to you to work with a dealer and tailor the maintenance agreement to meet your needs. 

Written by:  Kenny Trusnik, Marketing Systems & eCommerce Specialist, Toyota Material Handling, USA

Forlifts, like cars, require more than just an oil change.  One hour of forklift use is approx. 35 miles of automobile use.  An Annual Service from DTL will keep your lift running safely and smoothly.  Dillon Toyota Lift Service Technicians are here to protect the investment you made in your forklift.  Here is what the annual service includes: 

Electric Forklifts: 

• Drain and flush hydraulic tank, install new hydraulic filter and refill with new hydraulic oil.Install new sump breather cap.

• Drain and flush differential, clean differential with new fluid.

• Inspect condition of all hoses.

• Remove steer wheel bearings, clean and repack with grease and reinstall and set bearing preload.

• Inspect steering system for worn pins and linkage and make minor adjustments as necessary.

• Inspect service brakes for proper operation, leaks and/ or contamination.

• Inspect parking brake for proper operation and condition of cables and linkage.

• Inspect and test the battery, water all cells.

• Clean and inspect the control panel.

• Check for loose connections, corrosion, worn contactor tips.

• Check for proper operation of all motors and insect for brush wear. Blow all motors out.

• Inspect upright, tilt cylinders, forks and associated mountings for any obvious cracks, defects of mission stops, and adjust lift chains.

• Inspect counterweight for proper mounting and that all bolts securing it are in place and tight.

• Inspect for proper operation of all gauges, controls, starting and charging components.

• Pressure wash lift.

Gas, CNG & LP Forklifts:

• Drain and flush hydraulic tank, install new hydraulic filter and refill with new hydraulic oil.Install new sump breather cap.

• Drain and flush transmission and differential, install new transmission filter, clean transmission and differential with new fluid.

• Install new air filter and fuel filter.

• Pressure test cooling system to check for leaks.Inspect cooling system for corrosion, check thermostat for proper operation and test anti-freeze protection level.

• Inspect condition of all belts and hoses.

• Perform engine tune-up with new spark plugs, points, condenser, rotor, distributor cap and ignition wires.

• Adjust valve lifters, install new valve cover gasket and perform engine compression test.

• Remove steer wheel bearings, clean and repack with grease and reinstall and set bearing preload.

• Inspect steering system for worn pins and linkage and make minor adjustments as necessary.

• Inspect service brakes for proper operation, leaks and/ or contamination.

• Inspect parking brake for proper operation and condition of cables and linkage.

• Check for proper operation of clutch or inching circuit and adjust if necessary.

• Inspect upright, tilt cylinders, forks and associated mountings for any obvious cracks, defects of mission stops, and adjust lift chains.

• Inspect counterweight for proper mounting and that all bolts securing it are in place and tight.

• Inspect for proper operation of all gauges, controls, starting and charging components.

• Pressure wash lift.