So you’ve invested in a sack truck to make work tasks easier. But how do you make sure it stays in great working order and lasts longer? Here’s our guide on how to maintain your sack truck.
Maintain Your Sack Truck: The Golden Rules
Carry out regular checks
With any equipment, it’s best practice to carry out regular checks to make sure it’s safe and in good working order. Make sure you check:
- The handles – Are they safe? Are there any signs of rusting, damage, or excessive wear?
- The toe plate – Is it bent? This could signify fault welds or joins.
- The tyres – Check the treads and pressure. If the tyres are not inflated enough or over-inflated, it could affect your truck’s performance and safety.
- The wheels – Make sure there are no cracks or other signs of damage on the wheels.
- The axel – This is a load-bearing part of your sack truck. If you want to maintain your sack truck, you need to check it for signs of bending, rust, or fractures.
This can seem like a tick-box exercise, but it can reduce costs and the likelihood of workplace accidents in the long run.
Check the load
Don’t subject your truck to excessive loads. Your sack truck will last longer if you don’t exceed its load capacity. It’s a good idea to stay below capacity as much as you can to avoid excessive wear on your truck.
Use it in the correct environment
Your standard sack truck will operate perfectly in a dry warehouse on level ground. However, what if you subject it to stairs, rough terrain, or bad weather conditions when it’s not really designed for it? This can impact your truck’s safety and performance. This is where using the right sack truck for the job is important.
- Do you need to move goods up and down stairs or kerbs frequently? Invest in a stair climber truck.
- Do you often move goods over rough terrain? You need a heavy-duty rough terrain sack truck.
Train your staff
Okay, we admit that a sack truck is a pretty basic piece of kit. However, you still need to train your staff on how to maintain your sack truck and use it safely. Give them basic training on how to carry out checks and how to load and move the sack truck safely. It will save you time and money in the long run. Not to mention it will seriously improve workplace safety.
We hope our guide on how to maintain your sack truck will help your trusty trucks perform better and last longer. If you’re on the lookout for a new sack truck, check out our range. If there’s anything you need to know, our friendly sales team will be happy to answer your questions. For more interesting articles on sack trucks and workplace safety, check out the rest of our blog.