Week 3 - Counterbalance Forklift

Well what can I say, there's driving a forklift and driving a forklift precisely. I didnt think this would be a big deal but boy was I wrong ! Ok, its only been a day but it took some getting used to ! Its a Nissan Electric Flt and is VERY responsive. First thing they do is just getting you driving fwds and backwards. Then 2 oil drums are introduced and you do circuits of the drums, fwds, then backwards. OK so that not too bad, then it's figure of eights in and out of the drums ! Fwd, back, easy side, hardside. Just when you think you've aced that a pile of palletts are introduced to confine you even further ! Empty pallet on the forks and a wall of pallets with 2 oil drums in the centre and you do all of the manouvres again. All with approx 4-6" clearance all around .... and thats only if you manage to keep your front wheels (pivot point) approx 3" from the oil drums as you negotiate them. Hardest thing of the day ??? Judging the fork tangs level at the various heights.

So let the lifting commence ! Pallets, IBC's & metal cages. 90 deg turn into the racking is novel. Apparrently there are 2 ways to go about it; dry turn or rolling turn. With such little room to turn I've been going for dry turns (stop at pivot point, full lock, round you go) as opposed to the rolling turns. You can see in the pic above that there are 3 tiers. Surprisingly the centre rack is easiest to stack. On the bootom tier you cant see the rails that you are trying to lower onto. On the top tier you have to deal with the instability of the FLT with an almost fully extended mast and the tilt.


After much practicing, the instructor issued us a challenge ! Flipped a pound coin onto the floor and said pick it up ! So I picked it up and handed it to him ;-) "With the FLT !" he says ! So after a bit of a trial, we both succeeded. I wont list how, just in case you ever get the opportunity. Then it was 2 £1 coins and when I picked up a 5p piece, he says righto thats enough, back to the pallets :-) Anyway more practicing and the second challenge gets issued ! If you see the pic to the left; it has 5 drinks cups on full to within 1/4" of the top with water. Challenge; to pick up the pallet from behind the pallet stood on end, negotiate the vertical pallet and place the pallet with the water cups on the top tier, withdraw, travel out, back in and pick up the pallet and return it to the start point. This exercise certainly makes you do things VERY gently. Particularly after you lift the pallet from the top tier then put on the backward safety tilt ! This is the point the instructor is hoping your going to be heavy on the hyds and give yourself a shower. Unfortunately (for the instructor) we both succeeded in our quest albeit we wouldnt win any points for speed !

So fun over and back to stacking/destacking practice. Had our test on Day 4 (Should have been day 5 but 1 guy didnt turn up) which comprised a pre-use inspection of the FLT, Practical Exercise & Theory paper). The practical test consisted of 6 lifts to be carried out negotiating a restricted area (twice) within 34 mins and a limit of 40 (fault) points. 1 point is awarded for a minor indiscretion, 3 for a more significant one and 5 for more serious still. Any 'unsafe' errors mean an immediate fail. You may have an addittional period after your 34 mins if required but they cost you 1 point per minute over ! Glad to say that I completed my exercise in 32 minutes with 13 points (Phew). CJ, the chap featured in the pics, only lost 6 points and also completed within the 34 mins.