Hey all, Which forklift driving skills should we learn before giving an interview for a job? If one wants to learn in a training center, which skills should he focus on?
Hmm, is this inside, like warehouse, forklifting, or outside forklifting? I know in the warehouse I was in charge of for a bit we'd train in-house. I think, regardless, toss some pallets on the ground and just practice getting in them, lifting them safely and moving them around, empty pallets add a bit of challenge because they are light and you'll move them easily unless you do it just right. Also, it's good to get used to being extremely close to things without hitting them. The back wheel steering takes a bit of getting used to so maybe just drive around too. Forklift driving (I have a lot of experience on small forklifts) is a lot of fun, can be quite stressful, and makes you think. It never hurts to toss a long load on the forks to see how to negotiate your way around things as well. Take your time as you learn, you'll be surprised how quickly it can be picked up but slow and steady will keep you and others safe, as long as you are paying lots of attention.
If you end up loading trucks/refer trailers, be a hero. Try not not destroy the inside of a $105,000 dollar trailer.
The skills that wont get you killed.
I like to raise the mast up while inside a van trailer. And then drive. Or back up. Either way I get the afternoon off to go take whiz quiz.
@aighead asked the right questions. Come back with a detailed description of the job.
Your the guy whos been stuffing the forks through the side, now I know who the culprit is.
About every company i worked for you had to go through a forklift school. The last one there was a guy that had failed the whiz test but they hired him back 6 months later. They had set up a obstacle course to drive through then to back through . This guy had the lift about wide open and never hit a thing. We were all amazed. The next random he got picked and failed.
I was so good at it at one time by the time the tines got halfway into the pallet around few mph's I slam it into reverse with inertia still pushing forward getting tines all the way in spinning tires backwards, lifting it up and off I went. Or I never stopped, just scooped up the pallet and make a run for it. Was like ice skating with it, yeah I was that guy drifting the forklift around corners and such on wet days.
A forklift makes a fine self propelled hammer.
I hope you are not giving up being a dentist to drive a towmotor. Might be a let down on payday. Assuming it's your friend, or son.... tell them not to bring their phone to the interview, and if they get hired, leave the phone in the lunch bag.
This video has all you need to know, after all it was made by the Germans.
I had to go to trailer work after they threw me out of the warehouse.
A word of warning if I didn't mention it above and after reading all the other comments... Its easy to get very complacent after driving a forklift for a short period of time. Things like crane op and Spud mention while, fun, funny, and possible can also kill people, including you. After only operating for a month or so I felt great on a forklift but I was fortunate to keep that in mind and remember to slow down and pay attention. It takes very little time to eff up bad and ruin or break a lot of stuff. This is especially, especially true in a warehouse environment. Go look up some warehouse collapse videos if you doubt what I say. We had a guy that had his mast up literally 1 inch too high as he went through a doorway, that was meant for the mast to be down all the way, and he ended up knocking about 50' of wall out of whack where it could have literally collapsed on people working nearby. It can get very ugly very quickly.
Yeah! A sibling actually. No phones! Got ya!
Ok! I really like this concept of taking it slow. It is a compulsory trait for usual beginner drivers (or machine operators) everywhere. Thanks a tonne for sharing your experiences!!!
so, going to flesh out the details for us? They will eventually run out of joke videos
Wow! This is what i needed! Thank youuuuu.
Basically, i wanted to know the details for driving inside a warehouse. My sibling has been learning quite well, but i just feel that he is giving me smug responses. I hope he does well in his interviews!
okayyy
ohhh !! Great job there!!!!
The driver of a forklift truck has to balance the truck and avoid accidents as the truck carries a lot of weight. Patience, attention, and organization are the basic attributes for learning to drive a forklift efficiently. Other than these, good communication, flexibility at the job, and completing work within deadlines are also needed, not only for forklift driving but also in every other job relating to machines and equipment. Thank you.
Great!! Thank you
I planned and arranged the construction of a major piece of our warehouse. Actually, we increased it's size by about 4x so there was some already here and I arranged for the increase in size. This all went into a space that we realized was VERY tight for running equipment around in. We use a wire guidance system that when a lift (specifically stock pickers and a big turret truck) is in the aisle the machine locks itself onto the wire guidance system in the floor. It will not allow you to turn at all just go forward and backward. It reduces the risks substantially and makes it much easier to run up and down the aisles. We only have about 4 or 5 inches of clearance on either side of the machine, so it was kind of a must for us. Not that it is but something about this thread feels like an attempt at an SEO bump...
yes it is a BS thread indeed. When I was a lad in apple country, I had a job stacking apple bins 12 high in a CA warehouse. See these nice strong plastic bins? Yeah, not like that. They were all plywood bins of varying age and condition. You set up a sorting area, and got the best looking ones on the bottom. The really ratty ones went on the top couple of courses. They did not have any stacking features. REPEAT they did not have any stacking features. They were sized the same, but your job was to place them as precisely as is humanly possible, strongest on the bottom, and hurry up please? You could tight stack front to rear, but had to leave that 8" air passage on each side. We are going to shut this door for 6 months now and hope to not find the worst game of dominoes ever. I hated that gig and got out of it fast.
Yikes! That's terrifying skyking! Our worst is a 120 foot long, 22 foot high rack full of 55 gallon drums of ink. It scares me to look at it and the mess/damage it could cause.
Surely "Wisdom forklift training" and "Dentistry At Sheppard" aren't related spam nonsense? I am shocked- I tell you verily shocked that such things go on! I'm all for helping out people that need it, but this ain't it.
True usage of forklifts, battering ram, snow plow, tow unit, jump start vehicle, man lift, crane, dumpster mover, vehicle lift for changing tires or what ever, list goes on. Never greased, oil changed, tires changed, leaks everywhere-leaves a puddle where ever it goes, seat ripped up, never wants to start. propane tank runs out in middle of lift. Rode hard and put away wet.
I may have told this story but the first time I looked at the house/property I now live in me and my wife were sitting in my car at the end of the driveway. My now neighbor pulls up behind his Jeep Cherokee with his skid steer with forks on and proceeds to, for some reason, lift the back of the jeep for a few seconds and set it back down. I knew I was in the right place. Then a few days later we actually went in to see the house and stuff. Same neighbor who I've helped push his bulldozer around and he helped me weld the brackets on the backhoe for the forks. Good stuff, Truck Shop your post reminded me of that.
Learning to run a forklift no where near a warehouse would be a good start. High lifts are always quite dangerous. I ran them for two years many years ago. One was a Massey Ferguson tractor with forks on the back.
We had a set of those transport forks for the Ford 8N silver jubilee. When I was 18 we started doing firewood logging and I converted those forks into a log splitter. I welded a piece of quarter inch plate to the forks and then stood up a 6-in I rail and welded the snot out of that and then use some big u bolts to bolt it to the cross tube. Then I welded on the bracket for the cylinder and a rider on the channel for the wedge and tapped the live hydraulics of the Ford. I recall that was my most violent episode of torch Cherry burning I ever had. I was hand cutting the taper of the wedge on a piece of 1 in steel and this hot berry found a hole in my blue jeans as I knelt down, on the back side of my calf it popped in that hole and then rolled down my leg and left a nasty scar. We turned the exhaust of the Ford around so it blew forward, and then when we just back into a big mountain of rounds and split it right into the back of the delivery trucks. It was a commando rig there was no safety on the lever. You could select down and then stick whatever you wanted between the round and the wedge and it would cut it off for you. It sure was fast for splitting with though. That steel plate would get a little dampish, and you could just dial those rounds around in circles as you pie them up.
okay. But i don't understand what you meant at last.
He means he suspects you have ulterior motives to this thread, and specifically he suspects you are doing it for the web crawlers to get hits on specific terms in your posts. for some reason this forum, and I am a member of a few others and we never see odd posts like as such, gets a lot of downright odd posts. Frequently they take the form of asking for help (a favorite topic is “research for a college class) and wording will be odd. The member might make one or a couple of posts max and then ghost us. another favorite tactic is to post a seemingly innocuous post talking about a service or piece of equipment and include a link hidden in one of the words.
You nailed it JD! I wonder if maybe the admins here are more apt to excuse a fishy post here to see how it fleshes out, especially if they take on a mind of their own like this one which has now got decent content?