A few weeks ago, you hired on as the senior electrical maintenance electrician of a plant. You report directly to the electrical maintenance manager, and she has just given you a problem to solve.

The plant uses a mix of LG-powered and electric lift trucks. The electric trucks often die mid-shift, running out of juice. Either a spare battery must be swapped out with the dead one or the truck must be towed back to the shop. Both solutions pose special problems, and neither solution addresses the work stoppage that results when a lift truck quits running while transporting critical parts and materials.

To provide a real solution, what issues would you look at first, and how would you eliminate those issues as causes?

This kind of problem occurs when lift truck operators assume every electric lift truck is the equivalent of an LP truck. While repeatedly taking heavy loads up an incline won’t shorten the workday of an LP truck much, it will rapidly shorten the workday of an electric truck. Also, electric trucks vary in their work capacity, so maybe the plant’s trucks are undersized. To solve the problem, first determine the working capacity of each truck and communicate that to operations so the trucks are used within their limits.

Next, evaluate the battery charging system(s). If the voltage is too low, the batteries will be undercharged. If it is too high, it will cook the batteries so they hold only a fraction of the charge a healthy battery can hold. Also keep in mind that under hard usage, such as deep cycling, the batteries won’t last long. To avoid deep cycling, ensure batteries are recharged long before depletion.