Why do forklifts have cages?

[erick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqC2URQstz4

[multiweb]

Yeah, saw that on the news this morning. What an idiot. It takes a fair bit of flooring to get a gas forklift to take off like that. It's not "an accident". Hopefully he learnt his lesson.

[AstralTraveller]

Oh poop. I'm not sure what he was trying to do but I reckon he meant to shift to forward before putting the foot down. Or he was using left foot for brake and right for accelerator and got mixed up.

[erick]

What I found interesting was how easily everything came down! Opposite aisle and the shelves in front of him as well!

[DavidU]

Damn ! Did I read it was Vodka on the shelves? That could have caused one very bad fire:question:

[AstralTraveller]

Actually you floor forklifts quite often, routinely in fact. One common reason is to raise the tower, but you are supposed to put your left foot on the brake. Technically you should apply the handbrake before raising or lowering the tower but I've never seen anyone do that in practise. I think it was just a moments inattention.

[TrevorW]

"VODKA warehouse sale, damaged stock some not broken"

[AstralTraveller]

Well the shelving is very tall and narrow. Where I worked all the shelving was against walls and attached to the wall. In this case they should have attached the rows of shelving to each other and/or attached to the roof. I wonder what Workcover (or the equivalent) said?

[multiweb]

Yes that's what I'm saying. I used to service them with Parker Hydraulics. Most of them have a centrifugal clutch and you need to floor the gas to grip in. What I mean is that this bloke would have floored it for a fair amount of time before it took off so he had plenty of time to think about what he was doing. But he clearly didn't have the brain capacity. :lol:

[Lumen Miner]

I'll take you up on that. I haven't worked on forks but I certainly drive one, maintain it and am the stores safety advisor.

Take a look when it starts, he had to rev it to turn over, blew tonnes of black smoke. My guess is, it needs a major service. It looks like he is keeping the revs high to stop it stalling, then it finally picks up, but he has the throttle down too much, so it just jets off (has happened to me before).

Alternatively it is just about to run out of gas and he is using the last few drops to try and move it out of the way. During driving with minimal gas, the engine flutters in and out. This could also be the cause. Driving a fork that is spluttering, is like riding a bucking bull.

Just my two cents, check the vid out again, tell me that fork looks like it is running correctly. It isn't. I reckon he has his foot to the floor keepin it alive, if that was just accelerating too fast in reverse, he would have had time to jump off the accelerator then on the brake.

[iceman]

haha very cool, it's like dominoes falling down!

[Lumen Miner]

I have the same racking in my store. Well same system atleast.

It doesn't need to be attached to the wall, it is a workcover approved free-standing racking system.
It doesn't however look like they are using, the locking pins which insure the horizontal beams don't pop off the upright in such a situation.

This racking has many faults. You can actually harmonically make it desintergrate, just by systematically pushing it in time with it rocking.
I have had arguments with an Australian manufacturing and work cover over this.


I agree though, it should have been fixed to the ceiling and wall.

[pgc hunter]

omg was that all Vodka? Oh the humanity :(

[AlexN]

Being that I drive a gas forklift every day of the week and most Saturdays, I can tell you right now that they don't react like that unless you want them too.. I dunno, but that seems like either an elaborate faked scenario or perhaps an "On Purpose" accident..

[Lumen Miner]

Then you have obviously never driven, a dodgy fork or one in dire need of a service. Ever ran out of fuel before, I am assuming so, given how much you drive? Do they not act un-predictably? Or do you only drive electrics? All models of Hyster, Komatsu etc splutter, lerch and respond intermittedly / erratically when running out of fuel.

[Jules76]

From what I've heard, he was apparently "under the influence". Whether or not that is just pure speculation or not, I don't know, but it might explain the bad driving.

Just on the safety precautions regarding the racking, being this was in Russia, I'm not at all suprised if it is lack. From my experience with Russian business practices, let's just put it this way, they are "questionable". :) Would not suprise me one bit if they cut corners or paid an official to look the other way.

[Lumen Miner]

Take a look at the racking, next time you walk into a leading Australian DIY store. I think you will notice a very similar setup.

I'll be send this video to the manufacturer, of the Aussy designed racking and Workcover.

[GrahamL]

wonder If he was a little annoyed the other guy showed up and sat just as he was planning to head that way, and was just trying to with a head back to where he started from.

[AlexN]

I drove electrics for my licence testing only.. for the past two years I've only driven gas powered forks.. On a daily basis I drive a 5t komatsu, a 2.5t Linde and a 2.5t Toyota fork.. Yes, they can act unpredictably when they are running low on gas, but I've never experienced one surge like that one did.. I've had them do little lurches and splutter about under high revs when they are really low on gas, but not do what appears to be a full throttle lurch for that kind of distance...

Perhaps if it was running really really rich and needed a service, had it been idling rough and about to stall when he started it, maybe he opened up the throttle a bit to get it going, once it cleared out the lines, he had his foot down a bit far and it lurched like it did... I suppose I can see how it could happen.. Just seems a little extreme thats all.

[AstralTraveller]

Is it possible that the centrifigal clutch might have been slipping and then grabbed? Combine that with somewhat inhibited reflexes and you might get a plausible senario.

[DavidU]

I had that racking in my factory, it is designed to clip together. The first thing I did was get the fellas to bolt it all with 12mm fasteners and Dyna bolts to the floor.

[AlexN]

its possible the clutch was playing up i guess.

Dave, yea we use similar racking at my work and they are all securely fastened together with 6" dynabolts holding it to the cement floor..

[AdrianF]

Bring sponge and bucket......

Adrian