The average lifespan for a forklift, including a caterpillar forklift, is 10,000 hours of service. On average, this is equivalent to a lifespan of five years. With the right amount of forklift maintenance and care, a machine can last as long as 20,000 hours.
However, though either lifespan is a long amount of time, it still isn’t forever. You must still replace a forklift once it is past its time. If you don’t, you risk the consequences of safety hazards and reduced productivity levels
Read on to learn some ways you can tell when you need to replace a caterpillar forklift.
Your Caterpillar Forklift Has Been in an Improper Environment
Factories and warehouses that are refrigerated or just extremely cold on average are hard on forklifts. The colder the temperature, the faster the parts on a forklift will age. A similar situation happens to a forklift’s parts when it is often in an environment with rough terrain.
Thus, the average caterpillar forklift longevity will be a lot shorter in a freezing or uneven-terrain environment. Try to avoid putting your forklifts in these kinds of environments if you can. If you can’t, underestimate the amount of time that you need to wait before you call your forklift dealer for a new fleet.
Your Forklift Has Carried a Lot of Heavy Loads
Your forklift supplier should detail how much each forklift model can carry. However, just because a forklift can lift a high amount of weight, it doesn’t mean that it should always carry its maximum weight. Doing this can wear the forklift parts down much faster.
Ideally, you should switch out forklifts in your fleet to make sure each vehicle gets a balanced amount of light to heavy loads. However, if a certain forklift must carry a large amount regularly, consider retiring it earlier.
Your Forklift Hasn’t Had Regular Maintenance
Regular forklift maintenance is the best way to increase a machine’s lifespan. If a forklift has had less frequent maintenance, it will expire faster.
Thus, do what you can to keep track of the amount of maintenance a forklift receives. If you find that a certain forklift has received proper maintenance for a bit, mark it for early retirement. You should also discipline your employees and make sure they take better care of the machines.
Forklift Parts, Rental, and Repair Services
In sum, there are a lot of factors that guarantee a shorter life for each caterpillar forklift in your fleet. Most of them may or may not be unavoidable depending on the working environment. If you cannot avoid them, it’s best
The amount of forklift maintenance that each vehicle receives, however, is something that you can control. If you don’t trust your employees, you can hire our reliable maintenance services. We also offer forklift parts for sale and vehicles for rent.
Contact us today for a free price estimate in any of our service areas.