Monday, July 27, 2009

Forklift Lift Hooks & Accessories

Sometimes you cannot us a crane, or you have a load that is too small to justify using one. However, you cannot pick it up manually, but must somehow suspend it using a fork truck attachment and lift it to a more elevated position by raising the forks to the appropriate height.

Never try to chain the object to the forks.

Instead, use an Easy Rack lift hook. It is the safest way of suspending objects of the forks of a fork truck. You can use it with both extendable reach and straight mast forklifts.

A lift hook is an fork lift extension attachment with two fork pockets that slide onto the forks. A swivel hook hangs between this attachment at 24”. The unit is secured to the forks by a heavy duty chain. This keeps it from sliding past the 24 inch mark, which is vital to safe operations.

This is because of the way a fork lift is built. On most fork trucks, the load center is 24 inches. Anything positioned forward or behind this center of gravity can throw the entire vehicle slightly off balance. This may be something you might be able to get away with when lifting an exceptionally light load. However, when you are lifting anything of considerable mass, you will probably losing your contents on the ground, or even worse, overturning the vehicle and seriously injure yourself.

An Easy Rack forklift attachment hook gives you a safe, ergonomic, and time-saving key to elevating loads with fork trucks. The swivel hook is positioned at exactly 24 inches to the rear of the lift hook frame. This places the lift hook squarely at the precise location where most forklifts are manufacturer rated—the 24 inch load center.

You can then your standard forklift as you normally would, although you have to subtract 265 pounds--the weight of the lift hook itself-- from the total rating. For example, if your fork truck is rated at 8,000 pounds in a specific boom configuration, you then subtract 265 pounds from 8,000 pounds and calculate a new rating of 7,735 pounds.

It is essential that you never try to go beyond this factored rating, even for the sake of running a test. Always check your forklift manual for variations of the load capacity based on variable boom position. Normally, when you elevate the forks, rated lift capacity decreases. Similarly, on expandable reach forklifts, the rated capacity also decreases when you extend the boom.

You should only use a lift hook plate with the forklift forks level or with the tips tilted slightly upward. The lift hook is intended to be used for vertical lifting only, so you should never use it to pull any anything. Clear the area around the load of all personnel before you lift something, and have them stay at a safe distance while the load is being lifted.

Easy Rack stocks a vast inventory of commercial shelving, material handling equipment, commercial lighting, used pallet racks, work platform forklift attachments and modular prefab buildings installed nationwide.

If you can not find what you are looking for contact us toll free at 1-888-776-3720 and we will find it for you. Our home office is located in Houston, Texas with warehouses located throughout the United States that enable us to service all 50 states including Memphis, Tennessee, Baltimore, Maryland, Charlotte, N.C, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Seattle, Washington, Boston, Massachusetts, Denver, Colorado, Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky, Irving, Texas, Amarillo, TX, Dallas, TX, Brownsville, Texas, Grand Prairie, TX, Pasadena, Texas, Fort Worth, Texas., El Paso, Texas, New York NY, Miami Fl, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, Ca, Phoenix, AZ, Boston, MA, Chicago, IL .

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