Narrow Aisle Lift trucks
Some lift trucks are especially designed to fit down very narrow aisles in a warehouse. These units are known as narrow aisle lift trucks. They can easily negotiate smaller aisles and allow you to enjoy some advantages. For instance, the increased amount of area to keep things could significantly increase the overall available stock of a company.
Narrow aisle lift trucks can maneuver easily too. These equipment have been specifically designed to move without a lot of space. Their unique design has eliminated a lot of the items which are squished up into the main body of the conventional forklift design.
The downside of narrow aisle lift trucks is that they are really slow compared to regular forklifts. Narrow aisle lift trucks would not work if you need to transport objects across large distances. When it comes to speed they will not be a dependable alternative. If you also have a standard lift truck, this would not be an issue. You could just use the narrow aisle forklift to move the load to a central location and after that hand it off to a regular forklift that can travel the bulk of the distance in a timely and efficient way. Commonly, narrow aisle lift trucks cannot handle as much lifting weight; thus, outside of smaller loads they are not going to be really helpful.
Electric Lift Trucks
For indoor applications such as stores or in warehouses, conventional gas lift trucks are not a suitable alternative. They will not be as safe because of their fumes, or as helpful or cost-efficient compared to an electric powered model. Electric lift trucks are often engineered to look and function a lot like gas ones, but they utilize electric batteries that must be recharged, instead of gasoline fuel.
Electric forklifts are popular for a variety of reasons. For starters, they will save you lots of money on fuel costs. At first, electric units might cost more but over time, they make up for this in the long run. Like for example, when gas prices increase, you would not be affected and will save a lot of cash. Electric models tend to last somewhat a bit longer than gas powered units as well. This is partly because of the fact they are mainly utilized indoors and thus don't get as dirty or work in as harsh settings as the gas powered units. Electric units are healthier to use in badly ventilated places like warehouses and indoor applications because they don't emit noxious fumes. It could be very dangerous to use diesel or gas forklifts indoors.
The electric lift truck does have some disadvantages like the fact that they could really only work for roughly 8 hours. Afterward the machine will need to be charged for 8 hours and rested for another 8 hours. Numerous companies get around this condition by buying an extra battery so they can continually cycle them and have less downtime. There are fast charge batteries available on the market that are also minimizing the charging time.