I would be glad to get your letter, Alexander. thank you. I have already written some articles on this theme and I am going to write some more. but how will we change each others emails?
Hello Yuliya,
I work in a Moscow company that is a supplier of forklifts. We have enough experience in this matter. If you would like to get the answers for your questions you can email me [email address removed]
In the Electric Reach trucks we use an aircraft HO15 Freezer oil for the hydraulics (make sure you flush any reach, tilt or sideshift lines) and a synthetic 75W90 in the gearboxes. The manufacturer offers heater packages for the control handles and floor mats, in some high moisture applications you will need to look at water channeling for runoff in addition to your Dielectric grease for when the temperature increases to the freezing point or above.
In an extreme cold minus 40C blast freezer at one customer site we fabricated a plexiglass custom cab, installed a door on the reach truck and added a 3000 watt heater, (as long as you did not open the door you could work the freezer in your short sleved shirt) prior to adding the heated cab the workers were in 20 min out 40, they had shifts of three operators per forklift to get product picked and stored.
We have 2 seasons in Eastern Canada as well:Summer, and summer's a-comin'.
Just watch out for those icy surfaces as forklifts do not do well on snow/ice covered surfaces. Even rough terrain tires will have some difficulty on evn the slightest of slopes.
We recently completed two units for use in Siberia; here are some of the items we installed for this project I hope it helps. I would recommend heater blankets for the hydraulic tank; fuel tank and batteries. We also rehosed the unit with Parker freezer application hydraulic hose and hydraulic fluid. I agree with the engine block heaters but would like to add a heater for the diff. and/or final drives if applicable. I would not use a higher concentration of antifreeze, your cooling protection drops the more concentrated the mixture is, just follow the mfg. instructions for proper mix. I,m not sure if it helped or not but the customer requested gel cell type batteries also; Dave.
Yup, thinner hyd and tranny oil is a biggy.
At -42C hydraul56 is so thick it blows lines before the relief valve can respond!
We use hydraul50 in our trannys and hyd systems.
Block heaters are a must.
You might have to change some hydraulic lines as well.
Some types/brands will crack/fail or peel their covers at extreme low temps.
If the unit will be going inside and outside, condensation becomes a big problem. Use lots of di-electric grease to protect components/conectors.
Keep the chains lubed to stop the rust.
We don't change thermostats or anything like that.
We run the same hyd and tranny oil all year round.
We'll run 5w30 in the winter in the LPGs, 10w40 in the diesels.
Electrics need heaters to keep the condensation away.
We get -20c most of the winter, and -30c for a few weeks and touch the -40's once in a while.
The people to answer this should be the supplier/manufacturer of the machines.
Normally thinner hydraulic oil and possibly engine oil, higher concentration of antifreeze, but it really depends on what is the standard and what the manufacturer approves of. The list can be endless and depends on what is required.
If you post up the manufacturer, model and options (Cabin?) of the machines in question then you'll be more likely to get the response you need. Also are the machines stored outside or brought inside at night?