An employee suggested that all the plant’s lift trucks be outfitted with rearview cameras as a safety measure. After all, new passenger cars come with these and many people with older cars are retrofitting their vehicles to add them. (The mandatory camera rule went into effect in 2018, and it applies to most but not all new cars.)
The plant manager liked the idea and wrote a work order request asking the maintenance department to install a camera on a couple of lift trucks as a trial. The trial requires installing not just a camera, but a display. A $149 “plain Jane” head unit (car radio) was chosen for this.
If it turns out to be advantageous, then the whole fleet of company-owned lift trucks will be retrofitted and he’ll figure out what to do about the leased ones.
What are some problems with this trial, and how would you solve them before any hardware is bought?
Automotive cameras are not the answer
An automotive camera is typically installed above the bumper, though for a pickup truck or other high-bumper vehicle, it might be installed below the bumper. On many lift trucks, the counterweight occupies that space and there really is no spot for mounting a camera except on the counterweight. And that may result in a crushed camera, at least if an automotive one is installed.
Another problem is the long signal cable for automotive applications would be way too long for a lift truck. While it is possible to cut the cable and attach a new connector to it, that is not optimal and may void any warranty.
Then there’s the issue of a double-DIN radio format. The “DIN” part is an acronym for “Deutsches Institut für Normung,” which means the German Institute for Standardization. One parameter that is standardized here is height. A single-DIN radio is 2-in tall (those have long been obsolete for cars, though you see single DIN in other applications, such as marine radio systems for small craft). A double-DIN radio is 4-in tall. The width is the same in either case.
So, you have a small height, but maybe adequate width. Some double-DIN head units have a display that sticks out of the mounting space so its height and width can exceed the double-DIN spec while the body of the unit still fits in the mounting space. These are not “plain Jane” units nor are they priced that way.
The depth and weight provide another set of problems for installation. The mounting is problematic also since the mounting hardware is for a dash mount. What you really need is a fairly square screen that’s light and thin, such as the windshield-mount GPS units, only bigger. And it needs to have mounting hardware suitable for mounting somewhere on a lift truck.
Lift-truck camera systems
These problems are solved by specifying a lift-truck rear-view camera system. This brings into play the question of how to determine which system to purchase. Rather than retrofitting an existing owned lift truck or two, contact the company that leases lift trucks and ask to swap two of your leased ones for two that include a backup camera system. If they don’t have trucks so equipped, find a firm that does.
This eliminates the upfront cost of purchasing a system and the labor of installing it. That’s one advantage. Another is the lift-truck leasing company has already gone through the process of selecting a system. They probably made a good selection, but whether they did or not you now have the chance to test out a couple of these to see what features you like and don’t like. Maybe theirs has a 7-inch monitor and a smaller one would work better for you. Or perhaps your lift-truck operators would like to use the camera while moving forward, not just when reverse is engaged.
Maybe some of your owned trucks can’t be retrofitted with an automotive-style camera due to issues with the counterweight, but there’s a lift-truck version that will overcome that problem. This is something that can be researched while the trial is ongoing. Other questions and concerns will arise during the trial and also be answered by it.
This case illustrates an important problem that maintenance pros must be on the alert for. People who lack a strong technical background often have a good idea and then try to get it implemented as a specific solution without understanding the limitations and options involved.
A work order to adapt an automotive rear-camera system may not, at first blush, seem to be a problem. But it jumps out of the natural problem-solving sequence. The actual idea was that of providing a couple of lift trucks with rear-view cameras. Actually modifying lift trucks did not have to be done, and even if that were not the case, a passenger car system would have been the wrong one for this application.
So, kick the plant manager’s request back with a note that this is a purchasing department problem. All they need to do is obtain a couple of leased lift trucks already so equipped, swapping them for a couple of leased lift trucks with no cameras.
