Forklift Extensions Extend Your Forklift’s Capabilities

If you have a forklift without forklift extensions, you’re not getting the most value out of your investment. Standard forks are made for one job, moving pallets, and they do that very well, but when anything out of the ordinary presents itself, they are inadequate or even downright dangerous.

How Forklift Extensions Boost Productivity and Safety

Let’s say you have standard 48” forks on your lift truck. For a standard pallet and pallet load, they’re perfect, but what happens when you want to load something into the back of a truck? With standard forks, this is a time consuming procedure. First you place the pallet onto the truck bed. Then you have to repeatedly nudge the pallet deeper into the truck bed. With a 72” forklift extension, you can do the job in one smooth operation.

Standard forks are designed for moving standard loads. A neat stack of boxes on a pallet, for example, is perfect for a forklift. Problems can arise, though, when attempting to move large and/or irregularly shaped loads. As a rule of thumb, the larger, longer or more irregular the load, the more dangerous it is to move. Forklift extensions can significantly reduce the danger by stabilizing the load.

Aside from heavy duty steel forklift extensions, forkliftsaccessories.com also sells a variety of other attachments that improve a forklift’s performance and safety:

• Round or triangular forklift extensions:  When you have to cradle a 5’ long roll of material between the normal steel forks, the load is not stable and the square edges of the forks can damage the load. Round or triangular forklift extensions can cradle the load safely from end to end and there are no sharp edges to potentially damage goods.
  
  
  
• Polyethylene fork blade protectors provide protection in two ways. Soft, yet tough polyethylene covers the entire fork blade, helping protect loads from damage and their blunt ends can be used to nudge cardboard boxes and other fragile goods without breaking or denting them.
• Roller forks are the answer to pallet-free handling. They’re perfect for loading and unloading FIBC (flexible intermediate bulk container) bags, corrugated bundles, slip-sheeted goods and other big loads that don’t fit on pallets. They can also be used with standard pallets to improve the forklift’s productivity and versatility. Many materials handling companies replace their standard forks with roller forks because they help make their lift trucks operate more efficiently.

Forklift extensions cannot exceed 150 percent of the length of the forks they are placed on and OSHA requires permission from the forklift manufacturer for their use. This is to ensure that the changes in weight and load distribution do not compromise vehicle safety. A forkliftaccessories.com customer representative can help you determine if the attachments you choose adhere to OSHA safety standards.