I understand that the issue of how to work on an extended mast depends on the safety people where the equipment is. I have some customers who don't say anything if you climb the upright.
Other places expect you to chain the upright to remove the differential plug. Safety people are strange. Sometimes what they want doesn't make sense. Some of them do say you have to use a scissor lift, or some type of manlift..
Not on this side of the drink. Its even againest the law to drive while using hydraulics, we would probably be much more strigent then you guys, espell. w/ this idiot in office. He's the worst American leader since King George.
Is there any think in writing across the pond about using ladders to work on masts etc. I have spoke to the FLTA fork lift truck association in the UK. But it sounds like no one wants to put there names on paperwork or give any guidelines.
It is a grey area with the manufactures, they dont say in any great detail the correct procedure. For on the road technicians access to the top of mast is a hit and miss affair.
RCAV8TOR,
What you stated is what most manufactuers will advise to do until the roller tracking surface becomes surface hardened & all the rolling mill scale has "flake off", especially with canted rollers mast design. At one point in time rolled I-beam & channel sections that came out of West Virgina, scalling, flaking was a significant issue. The reorganized company has been producing a better product in WVA. Clark mast lube is the only one I have run across-others may have the same or similar product - Kinda like G-M or Nissan engine in many lift trucks brands today.
I very rarely lube the roller channels EXCEPT when lift is new and when and only when the channel rails are " leafing" metal from seasoning process. This keeps metal flakes from possibly falling into eyes of operator. Seasoning time depends on use. A light coating of a lithium grease is sufficient. As mentioned an abundance of grease build up does hamper repair and at times causes staging problems depending on enviroment the lift is used used.
from my experience greasing the roller track itself is a bad idea, as was mentioned previously it tends to cause the rollers to slide and wears them out and in some cases wears flat spots in the roller.
I believe the only places required to effectively lube a mast would be the thrust areas such as the sides of the roller tracks where in some cases there are wear plugs for side thrust. Also there are flat support areas along the sides of each inner-channel, used as guides, and in most cases they have wear strips, lube these areas but steer clear of lubing the roller tracks directly.
The type of grease i use is either endura or some other kind of lubricant that gel's up and doesn't run but isn't solid like EP grease is.
As for how to get up there? Basically its up to you how safe you want to be since there is no precedence set on the "safe way" to do it. I suppose the safest way to do it would be to get a sissorlift or boomlift or some type of platform ladder like rolling stairs or something. A regular ladder would be OK i guess if you had a way to secure it to the mast so it wouldn't slip off.
just my.02 worth :o)
John is correct Clark actually has 2 part number 886785 which is open gear synthetic spray lube and 886396 which is their lift truck and tandem slide lubricant
Clark does sell a mast channel lubricant spray - I believe it is a teflon based lube - I used to use it on my garage door roller channels & pivot pins - no dirty grim build-up & cleaner than graphite.
Its left wide open because if you use grease, it turns into glue and keeps the mast from dropping. Grease and oil tend to attract grit (esp. in dirty envir.) and wipe out the the rollers prematurely, we just leave them dry and spray them lightly on a rare occation if needed.
If you use a grease the rollers tend to slide rather than roll. I would say a light coating of spray. In the UK the use of ladders is a very grey area. The forklift truck association won't even write and plain guidelines it is left wide open.