Truck Maintenance | 4x4, Trucks & Trailers

Lift Truck Attachments / Options

December 1st, 2008 by Shenron

Besides the main lift truck unit, you can find many options and attachments to fit your specific warehouse, industrial or commercial needs best. Following is information regarding tire types, attachments and safety features that are available with most lift type trucks.

Tire Types

There are two main types of tires that are generally sold for lift trucks; they include cushion tires and pneumatic tires. Cushion tires are solid tires; they can come with tread or without. They are made specifically for indoor uses and require no air.

Pneumatic tires are usually the standard and are perfect for indoor or outdoor use. They are great on level or irregular surfaces, however since pneumatic tires raise the center of gravity for their trucks, they have a reduction in their lift capacity.

Attachments

Attachments are extremely popular with lift truck owners and they can add extended or specialized functionality. There are a wide range of attachments available; here are the most common.

Mast Options

Masts can come with a variety of sections usually in single, double, triple or quad sections. In many situations, if you are lifting a pallet or load a certain height, your masts will come already loaded with the proper amount of sections. Generally speaking, the more masts a lift truck has, the more stable the load will be at extreme heights- cutting down on the wobble factor.

Sideshift

While sideshifts are attachments, they normally come standard with most lift trucks. A sideshift allows the fork carriage a little lee-way both left and right to accurately place the load. Sideshifts are extremely effective and increase productivity levels making loads much more flexible to place.

Fork Positioner

This attachment allows you to manipulate the distance between the forks on a mast. If your operation has many different varieties of pallets, this attachment can be extremely useful.

Slip Sheet Attachment

A slip sheet attachment is used where a sheet of cardboard or plastic are used instead of standard pallets. Slip sheet attachments include a push and pull mechanism that easily attaches to the slip sheet and pulls or pushes the load.

Drum Handling Attachments

Drum handling attachments make it extremely easy for your lift truck to transport 55 gallon drums. It should be noted that there are also drum handling attachments that can carry more than one drum at a time.

Fork Extensions

A fork extension easily slides over the existing fork to enable the lift truck to pick up longer loads.

Height Selector

Used in warehouses or environments where the height of the load or rack is already predetermined and can be present into the lift truck.

Lift Truck Safety Features

It should be noted that the above attachments must be approved by OSHA to be used for commercial and industrial applications. Besides all attachments being reviewed by OSHA, other safety features regarding lift trucks are available.

Roll Cages for Lift Trucks

A roll cage protects the operator from falling items or from items that move abruptly during transport or if a crash has occurred.

Seat Belts for Lift Trucks

Seat belts are featured in lift trucks that have seats

Dead Pedals for Lift Trucks

Dead pedals require a pedal to be depressed in order for a lift truck to operate. If you release your foot from the pedal, the lift truck will come to a smooth stop.

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How to Change a Truck Wheel?

November 21st, 2008 by Shenron

Truck wheels are always important for the heavy duty vehicles, as they provide the main support for the entire system. Once you get new wheels for your truck they start functioning great, but you would have to consider certain facts before you go about the process, which have been mentioned here.

There may be several problems with your trucks, and you may want to replace it for a newer one, without learning about the problems. Always try and check over the matters before you come over to some drastic conclusion, and decide to sell off your vehicle. At times you may find out that the problem with your vehicle is nothing serious, and could be dealt with simply by replacing the tires, as it has been seen often. Once the tires of your vehicle are changed, they seem to be giving you service as though they were bought just about recently.

However, before you plan to go about the particular exchange or buy out, you must consider the style of tire that would be best suited for your car. The custom designs come in variety of sizes and shapes, ranging from 17 inches to 20 inches as far as the diameter is concerned. At the same time when you are trying to fix the type of tire you would want to take up consider that the larger ones, for heavy duty, would cost you more than the others. Most of the people try to take up two different sizes for their tires, making use of the smaller ones in the front and the bigger ones at the back.

On several occasions the designs and effects on your wheel cover also matters a lot, as most of the people are very particular regarding their vehicles outward show. On several occasions you would wish for the Truck wheels to sport out different shades of colour, or maybe you just wanted them to look good. In some cases the wheel covers that are fit onto the tires create an optical illusion leading the viewers to believe that the tires are revolving backwards. Thus, having such stylish gears in your arsenal would definitely highlight the truck and also the person riding in it.

At times you find it really difficult to come up with the best fit, for your vehicle, and may have gone several rounds without finding it. Moreover, the basic trouble that you may come across is that of having to pay large amount for the one that you had chosen to buy. In majority of the cases you do not proceed further, when you find out that the wheels are going to cost that much. It is a basic idea that if you have the proper know how, regarding the particular place to look from and have the correct referrals, than things would turn out to be much smoother for you in the long run.

You can easily change your truck wheels to the one that you like the most, without even losing any money, instead getting the money’s worth, if you would follow the above guidelines. It is quite natural that every individual looks forward to get the best for themselves, so you should not compromise for the ordinary. It is your truck that gives you service, so in the least you could get the best tires fitted on them to make them work smoothly.

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What is a Truck Differential?

November 20th, 2008 by Shenron

Truck Differential is a small but special type of gearbox, which is designed for splitting and delivering torque of your car’s engine into output allowing the wheels to move at dissimilar speed.

Truck differential is a special type of gearbox. It is designed for splitting and delivering the torque fed into the truck to the 2 outputs, which have the feature of turning at dissimilar speeds. Truck Differentials within axles have been designed for evenly splitting the torque. However, when differential is used in between the front & rear axles of particular systems, they are easily designed to apportion its torque unevenly.

How Truck Differential works?

There are 3 different jobs that are done by a truck differential:

It helps in aiming engine power of your truck at its wheels
It helps in acting as final gear reduction in your vehicle and slows the transmission’s rotational speed prior to the same hitting the wheels for one last time
It helps in transmitting the power to your trucks wheels, while permitting them to rotate at dissimilar speeds (This is the only reason why ‘Differential’ earned its name.)

You should be aware of the fact that your trucks need a differential. At the same time, you should also know the working of a truck differential and what are its shortcomings. Again, knowing the different types of positraction (also referred as limited slip differential) is also imperative.

Why Does Your Truck Require A Differential?

Wheels of your truck mostly run at dissimilar speeds, especially in case where they are taking a turn. As a result, each of the wheels should travel different distances during a turn. At the same time, the truck’s inside wheels travel shorter distances than its outside ones. Since, we know that speed is the ratio of distance travelled to time taken by it for covering the distance, the wheels travelling a shorter distance is bound to travel at lower speeds in comparison to the other one. You should also note the fact that your truck’s front wheel travels a dissimilar distances than its rear wheels.

For non-driven wheels on your truck: front wheels of a rear-wheel drive and back wheels of a front-wheel drive, truck differential can never be an issue. You cannot find any connection between the wheels and henceforth they are spinning independently. However, driven wheels of your truck are linked together. This allows a single engine & transmission for turning both the wheels of your truck.

If your truck did not have a truck differential, its wheels must be locked tight with one another and will be forced for spinning at similar speeds. This makes turning the truck pretty much difficult and at the same time, can be tough on your truck. If you want your truck to have the option of turning, one of its tires will require slipping. Since we are talking about modern tires in this case along with concrete roads, great force is very much necessary for making a tire slip.

This force will have to be transmitted through the axle from one wheel to another, and simultaneously, it’ll have to put heavy strains on its axle components.

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How to Paint a Truck?

November 20th, 2008 by Shenron

There are many things which you must decide before painting your truck. The most important thing is how much money you are looking to spend. You should decide how nice your truck should look as that will determine the quality of paint required.

Make sure about the paint scheme and exact color. Before paining your truck, don’t forget to gather all the important parts such as sand paper, repair panels etc. Lastly, it is recommended that don’t buy the paint until and unless you start painting your truck.

Make a list of the things which you require for painting your truck. Some of the important things are air compressor, sander, paint/spray gun, strainers, stir sticks, water remover filter, gloves, face mask, sanding block, primer, catalyst, paint, enamel reducer, hardener, clear urethane, sand paper, bondo, masking paper, tack cloth, rags, plastic, wax remover, grease remover, thinner and fans.

Don’t forget to remove all the parts of your truck which can be removed before painting. Such parts may include chrome, windshield wipers and bumpers of your truck. After removing these, prepare the body. This means remove all possible rust and existing paint on the vehicle. It is very important that you remove all chrome, emblems, trim and door handles before painting. You can use a very high-grade automotive stripper like the Aircraft remover as it is very strong. Preferably use a long handle razor blade scraper and a long hair brush. After stripping in sections, neutralize the remaining with the help of soap and water. You should dry it with 80 grit sand paper making it clean and shiny.

While doing the body work, use a 16inch file board to sand filler on flat panels. You can also use a 36 grit file board paper to heavy filler cutting it close. You should constantly use more filler to make it smoother. After this step, use an epoxy or lacquer primer. You can use 320grit dry sandpaper while sanding for paint.

Now, after doing all these, wash the body of your truck with soap and water, leaving it to dry. Take special care so to ensure the body of your truck is dust free. Don’t forget to wash the floor and dry off the excess water. Before painting, test he spray gun on any sort of paper. Take note of the paint pattern before starting. While painting the primer, spray a small light coat of the primer on the body. Always hold the spray gun a minimum of 16 inches away from the truck. Start painting from the left, then slowly move and press the spray button. After the primer dries in 15 minutes, add three more coats.

Finally during painting time, mix the paint thoroughly before opening the can. Try to lay the paint at nearly 55psi. You should mix 16 parts of the paint with 12 parts of reducer and one part of hardener. Use your gloves and mask while painting. It is recommended that you lay at least three coats of paint and each coat should be left to dry for 30 minutes before the next coat is applied.

After completing the painting process, clean the can and gun. Close all cans and dispose any unused hardener, paint in a proper place. And leave the paint on your truck to dry over night and lay an optional coat, if necessary on the next day.

If you would like to learn how to paint a car, visit iknewit.org.

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Running Boards: Perfect for Your Truck or SUV

November 6th, 2008 by Justin

If you love your truck or SUV and not only want to add more functionality, but enhance the look of it, one item that is a must have are running boards. Running boards sometimes called Nerf boards and step bars is an affordable way to make your vehicle look like an ultimate 4×4. Running boards are not only great if you have a lifted truck or sit high off the ground on your SUV, but add style and offer functionality for reaching into your vehicle from road level without having to climb entirely into the cab. Running boards are not only affordable, but are usually pretty easy to install on your own.

Running Boards: Custom Fit to Almost any Make and Model Vehicle
Whether the 4×4 vehicle you are looking to add running boards is specifically a work vehicle, an SUV used for commuting your kids back and forth or a sporty vehicle to transport all your gear to and from, you will find these boards to fit your style and functionality. Today, all running boards are created with computer aided designs software to create the perfect fit. Whether you own a Chevy, Jeep or imported 4×4 vehicle, there is no problem finding a custom fit.

Slip Resistant, Made with Materials that Won’t Fade or Crack
Many of the materials that are used are high quality materials that are made to assure a no slip surface that won’t fade or crack in the long term. In addition, one of the favorite types of running boards are stainless steel. Stainless steel running boards are usually made from high grade (18 gauge or similar) stainless steel that will look great for the years to come. It should be noted that many of these running boards can be attached without even drilling.

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