5 Factors that Determine the Duration of Your Forklift Tires – Know Your Tires

Some forms of forklift tires tend to wear off more quickly than the others. For instance, air pneumatic tires (those used in your cars or trucks) have the tendency to wear out faster than solid pneumatic tires, which are more solid and puncture-proof. Although some people opt for foam-filled pneumatic tires in place of air-based ones, they are known as a less-sustainable solution in the long run, due to increasing of tire-pressure. You need to carefully monitor the air pressure of your pneumatic tires to increase their productivity. Low air-pressure would only cause them to wear soon as they have a larger contact area of the ground. If your focus is on the durability of tires despite long arduous sessions of material handling, then you should go with solid pneumatic material handling tires as their life span is greater than that of air pneumatic tires and are more resilient to wear and tear.

One factor that immensely affects the life span of your forklift tires is the general environment in which they operate. If you're working in an environment that's extremely humid, the floors would be perspiring making the tires work harder than it's necessary (the tires would spin more). And this would result in more wearing off the tires. Apart from the environmental conditions, your load will also play a major role in determining their duration. As much as it would affect the tires if you choose to overload the lift truck, it would give the same negative results if you run the forklift without a load.

This is the most obvious factor – and yes, the floor conditions will play a significant part may it be helping you to get the most out of your tires or contributing to their wear. The best solution for a longer tire life is to operate over sealed concrete and other similar options, which would help you retain a longer life span for your forklift tires. An area with lots of debris is also an unhealthy floor condition that'd damage your forklift tires, plus, it's not safe for the forklift operation as well. Since it's difficult to avoid debris in places such as lumber yards and recycling centres, using solid pneumatic GRI tires will be better in terms of their durability.

A forklift operator's driver habits will affect the duration of tires. Excessive speeds and spinning, sharp cornering, and swift starts and stops will largely reduce the life span of forklift tires.

The hours your tires are asked to work will obviously make a huge difference in their durability. Forklift tires used for ten hours per week will last longer than those that are used for 40 hours per week.