Practical forklift advice from the Illinois Industrial Equipment team.
Showing 13-24 of 61 articles
Blog Post
Most buyers order non-marking tires the same way they order a fan belt: they say the words, they get a part, and they find out later whether it was the right one. It is one of the few forklift decisions where the wrong choice does not show up as a breakdown. It shows up as […]
August 27, 2026
Blog Post
One of the most common misunderstandings we encounter is operators treating the rated number stamped on a forklift as a flat weight limit. If the plate says 5,000 lbs, they assume any load under 5,000 lbs is safe to lift. It isn’t. According to OSHA’s powered industrial trucks load composition guidelines, the rated capacity applies […]
August 25, 2026
Blog Post
Watering is the cheapest maintenance task in the battery room and the one most likely to be done wrong. Almost every guide online gives a different fill level, and at least one of those numbers will overfill your cells. This guide uses the fill references the battery manufacturers actually print, plus the safety conditions federal […]
August 22, 2026
Blog Post
Renting moves the machine, the maintenance, and the depreciation onto the rental yard. It does not move the compliance. Once a forklift is parked on your floor and one of your people climbs into the seat, the training records, the daily inspection, and the site conditions are your responsibility, not ours. That gap is where […]
August 18, 2026
Blog Post
If you run narrow aisle racking in North America, your reach truck decision usually comes down to two names. Crown and Raymond have split this category for decades, and both build a genuinely good machine. That is exactly why the choice is hard. Nobody is going to talk you out of either one on quality […]
August 15, 2026
Blog Post
Most outdoor forklift rentals go wrong before the machine ever leaves our yard. The caller describes the load correctly, gets the capacity right, and never mentions that the pallets are going onto graded dirt that saw rain two days earlier. We deliver, the unit sinks, and the job stalls while we arrange a swap. This […]
August 13, 2026
Blog Post
Most people shopping for a forklift rental compare day rates from three companies, pick the lowest number, and assume the job is done. Then the invoice arrives and it is 40 percent higher than the quote. The day rate is rarely where the money goes. It goes to meter hours nobody explained, a delivery charge […]
August 11, 2026
Blog Post
A fork positioner is a hydraulic attachment that lets an operator widen or narrow the forks from the driver’s seat instead of getting out to move them by hand. The main benefits are faster load handling, less product damage, reduced manual strain on operators, and the ability to run one truck across a wider mix […]
August 8, 2026
Blog Post
If your forklift runs on electricity, the battery inside it is either lithium-ion or lead-acid, and that one choice affects your uptime, your maintenance schedule, and your total cost of ownership more than almost any other decision you’ll make about the truck. We help customers weigh this trade-off constantly, whether they’re comparing electric vs. diesel […]
August 6, 2026
Blog Post
You can pay $59 tonight, pass the quiz in an hour, print a card before bed, and still be legally barred from touching a forklift tomorrow morning. That is not a warning about scams. Plenty of those courses are perfectly good. It is how the federal rule is built: the card is one piece of […]
July 28, 2026
Blog Post
Rolled goods are awkward freight. A 12 foot roll of carpet has no flat side to rest on forks, it flexes in the middle, and it gets crushed if you squeeze it. A carpet pole attachment solves all three problems at once by lifting the roll from the inside. This guide explains what a carpet […]
July 25, 2026
Blog Post
Picking the wrong forklift tire is one of the most expensive mistakes a buyer can make, and it usually does not show up until the truck is already on the floor. The tire is the only thing between a loaded forklift and the ground, so it drives handling, stability, wear, and your total cost of […]
July 21, 2026