Hydraulic Hand Pallet Trucks

A hand pallet truck is the cheapest piece of material handling equipment that removes real manual lifting from a working day. The forks go under the pallet, a few strokes of the handle raise it clear of the floor, and one person moves a load that four could not carry.

It belongs anywhere pallets move short distances on a level floor: the packing area, the loading dock, stores, a cold room, a retail back room, inside a container during loading. For most units it is the machine that gets used most hours per day and is thought about least.

It is also the first thing a safety officer asks about, because manual pallet handling is where back injuries in a warehouse come from.

Choosing the right one

The wheels are the decision people get wrong. Nylon wheels roll easily and last well on smooth concrete but are noisy and can mark a coated floor. PU wheels are quieter, kinder to an epoxy or tiled floor and grip better, at the cost of some rolling resistance. Tell us what your floor is and we will recommend rather than default.

Then the fork length and width, which follow your pallets - not the standard size, the ones you actually handle. A fork longer than the pallet catches on things; shorter and the load is unsupported.

Then the capacity you genuinely load, and be honest about it. A truck used at its limit all day wears its hydraulics far faster than one with headroom.

What this range will not do

A hand pallet truck does not stack. It lifts a pallet just clear of the floor to move it; it does not put it on a rack. That is a stacker.

It does not work on rough, broken or sloped floors. On a slope a loaded truck is genuinely dangerous because there is no brake on most models.

And it will not go under every pallet. Closed-bottom and some plastic pallets need checking before you buy.