For me I passed my test and on the first day nearly tipped the forklift. I still feel bad about it.
Breaking traction when driving through a puddle.
I assumed they are super heavy and would stick to the ground, nope.
The tyres are essentially treadless drift-tyres, and any water on a polished concrete surface will allow some sliding.
This was without load and no crash ensued, just a momentary boost in adrenaline as 1.5 tons is moving a different direction as expected.
Example:
So I learned a physics lesson on a forklift. I backed up beside a pallet on the ground and looked back there to line myself up. What I didn’t see was the wooden 2x4 hanging off of the pallet directly in the path of the forklift driving in reverse. So I ran over the board and loony tunes style, the board flew up through the cabin smacking me dead on the side of the face.
My first real job out of high school, my “forklift certification” was the only other guy in the warehouse basically telling me not to crash into things. A few months in, I casually ripped around a corner, no clue why I ended up stopping. But when I did, one of the structural columns was between the forks, definitely would have destroyed it or the forklift if I hadn’t stopped
So here I was loading stuff onto a pallet. I was on foot next to my Forklift. Around the corner comes another forklift going way too fast and backwards with a double-high load. It runs right up onto my right foot and had it gone much further would have broken my leg. What happened instead was the steel-toe metal part of the boot crumpled over my big toe and other toes. It shattered the big one in several places and broke two others as well. They had to cut the boot off of me… This happened on New Year’s Eve about 10 years ago. It took almost 6 months to walk normally again and a lot of physical therapy.
Soooo what you’re saying is that that hi-lo driver no longer has a job, right?
I was using the forks as a workbench to cut a piece of 1/2" steel with an acetylene torch. I thought I had enough overhang to make it work.
Those forks ended up about 1.5" shorter after I finished my cut.
Chisel-toe tines are all the rage, this season!
Sorry, but BOTH forks!?
How did you not notice the first one falling off?
Haha, that’s a good call. I certainly should have. I was pretty new with the torch so I suppose I was focused on the task at hand.
And it was just the tip™️. The last inch or 2 on the fork of a small lift won’t make a lot of noise compared to the torch.
I watched this safety video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJYOkZz6Dck
You know you’re a real forklift driver when you don’t even have to open the link to know what it is
I was getting off to adust my forks and avoid dropping my skid. My boss told me, ‘Should be fine like that.’ I listened to him, lift the skid, and it IMMEDIATELY tipped over. Your boss isn’t driving. You are.
The last part is sound safety advice, “your driving not anyone else”
Uneven load shifted as I was about halfway out. Too afraid to try to shift the forks over to try and balance it as it was up about 8m up. The most experienced operator passed by 10 seconds later and said yeah hold up and pushed the load towards the center. After it was safely on the ground, he asked if I got scared. Told him I needed to check my pants. He laughed and said," good! You’ll always remember and it will never happen to you again."
Honestly uneven loads do my heading
Backed a forklift into an AC window unit of an office my first day on the job. I was fired by the end of the day and that’s the last time I ever drove a forklift.
That’s unfortunate. Ive had people do worse things and keep their job.
Was your next job in a related field or did that event make you change careers?
I forgot I had an interview and stayed out drinking all night. went to the interview blind drunk and there was a practical test at the end.
Ended up getting the job so I clearly didn’t smell like a brewery.
Reverse parked it 2cm too far to the left causing a corner protector to scrape along the side with a very loud screech. Everyone looked because of the noise and I still feel bad to this day. To be fair the corner protector did the job, so in the end not a problem.
You probably feel bad still like me because people saw it happen, and of course people are judging others all the time.
I was picking up a pallet of test seeds and driving them across the field with them in front of the forklift.
I didn’t check my load, hit a bump, and before I could break, ran over half the bags spilling it everywhere.
I am embarrassed to this day.
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