Narrow Aisle Lift Trucks
Narrow Aisle Lift Trucks are electric trucks designed to operate within narrow aisles. A counterbalanced lift truck can turn within the aisle since typical storage aisles are only 3.6 meters wide and this is sufficient space. Nevertheless, narrow aisles can be about 2.4 meters wide to as little as 1.8 meters. The narrow area needs specialized kinds of lift trucks which are capable of tight turns, small, and able to put away loads without turning. The popular types of narrow-aisle trucks are turret trucks, order pickers and reach trucks.
Narrow-aisle reach trucks
Reach trucks were the very first narrow-aisle lift truck to be manufactured for warehouse applications. These small trucks could turn without difficulty within narrow aisles since their design has eliminated the requirement for a huge counterweight. Instead, stability is provided by outrigger arms that extend in front of the truck. The disadvantage of this design is that the outrigger arms could hinder access to the storage rack because the truck cannot get near enough. These trucks truly work well in a warehouse that is well lit, has even, clean floors, enough space for turning and good flow of traffic.
Turret trucks
The design of a turret truck has pivoting forks on side of the truck. The forks pivot 90 degrees and move from side to side. The load faces forward while the operator drives down the aisle. Once it stops at the designated storage location, the truck's forks pivot to the storage side and lift the load to their full extension, and next smoothly deposit the load before resuming their original position. Turret trucks can come with a wire guidance system that keeps the truck on its path in really narrow aisles. Operators remain at floor level in man-down trucks.