There's a reason forklifts have tow pins. What matters is what your planning on towing?

Ed T,
Current OSHA, SAE standards support what you say. But once upon a time a company called Ford Motor Company, during the period from 1964 thru 1967 did in fact use lift trucks to pull a train of trailer scarriying engines on stackable skids from the engine plant to the Dearborn Assembly Plant in the Rouge complex. How do I know this, I was there working 67 hours/week during those summers at the Dearborn Assembly Plant making $2.67/hour and helping Henry Ford build Lee Iaccos Mustangs & earn $$ for my college, tuition, R & B, books & entertainment. Ford had very strict safety standards for their lifts publsihed in there ZA-1 & 300-A standards. Fast forward a few years 1969 OSHA came into effect, in the late 70's visited two Anchor Hocking facilities one in Ohio, the other in PA - they used forklifts fitted with glasspack handling attachments to pull packaged glassware on a train of flat bed trailers (8-10 as I recall) to the shipping dock. But by the mid 1980s lfit truck sompanies no longer condoned this practice.

Edward t:
Perhaps I was not very clear with my writing.

Of course this particular chapter of the standard applies only to the trucks which have the technical ability to tow a trailers.
This includes of course tractors, but conterbalanced forklifts too.

The standard itself applies to all industrial trucks, but obviously some topics have limited application. In this case, they are the trucks which have a hitch.
In other cases, it's application is limited only to the trucks with the lift chains (chapter 4.6.1) or overhead guard (4.9.1).

Generally, my conclusion is as yours. You simply defined it more precisely.
ISO recognizes the praxis of towing application realized by non-tractors. And, defining the safety requirements, accepts it.
For me, personally, it's a waste of specialized machine, but as my customer stated, for him it's economically reasonable.

Karait, I think your "conclusion" that the standard applies to all powered industrial trucks is mistaken. Your quoted ISO standard says clearly that it applies only to "Devices for towing" and clearly states it covers; "Trucks used for towing trailers". You are using a standard that covers the safety of the hitch, not that ALL trucks can have a hitch.
No one can accurately define what weight a trailer can be loaded with, to reflect 'draw bar pull', since raw weight is only 1 of the factors of 'draw bar pull'.
IMNSHO; a far more accurate 'conclusion' of that section of the ISO standard would be that the ISO recognizes that some times a powered industrial truck (which includes towing tractors as a 'class' of powered industrial truck) may be required to pull and when it is, it must be fitted with -proper- devices to attach it to what it is towing, not so much that ANY Powered Industrial Truck should expect to be used to tow.

Not all powered industrial trucks are tow tractors, but all tow tractors used indoors to primarily move goods and material are a type of powered industrial truck.

well the ISO standard may designate a vehicle with a fixed towing hitch suitable for towing but tell that to the truck owners that have had to replace thier tranny's or repair them because of towing or pushing loads.

Anyone with any REAL experience in this industry knows better, no matter what documentation you find to state otherwise. ;o)

a lifttruck was not built with the intention of doing any type of fulltime towing, thats why they build tow tractors.

Yes, the standard applies to all industrial trucks, including forklifts, excluding only remote controlled machines.

These "trucks used for towing trailers" - Are they forklift trucks?

In ISO 3691.1 -2011 (actually under revision), chapter 4.12 states:
..............................
4.12
Devices for towing
Trucks used for towing trailers shall be fitted with towing or coupling devices designed, constructed and arranged to reduce hazards of connection and disconnection and to prevent accidental disconnection during use.
..............................................

As you see the "trucks used for towing trailers" expression is used.
In other chapters of this ISO standard (6.3.1.3 for example) the requirements for Tractors are specified.
As a concluson - ISO considered towing application for forklifts as a kind of standard.

is there any mention of what type of hitch you are to use exactly? something to think about...

Just checked it.
In the actual Linde 392 driver manual, in the data sheet, the drwabar pull in N is specified (it's about 13-15 kN).
In other sheets the the trailer weight with load is specified too.
It means that the towing operation is allowed, of course preserving all the safety issues.

PPPA,
What happened the box car started rolling down a modest grade, the lift's braking system could not stop the momentun of box car, the lift was attached to the box car, all came to a stop at the rail dead head.

Never heard of a fatality involving a forklift towing, but the risk is always present. If unreasonable loads are tried, some component is bound to fail before the truck gets underway. I've seen broken pins and counterweights hanging off their mountings. Operators wonder why rear tyres wear out in no time compared with the front tyres. Steering racks aren't built to handle the extra load on the rear axle. The rear axle isn't built to handle the extra load on the rear axle. Transmission etc.
For a long time I haven't seen mention of the tow pin can be used for towing in operators manuals or truck specs. Maybe it was there back in the day.
It would be easy for lawyers prove that a company cut corners not buying a tow truck and let the forklift do the work. These days they could win a whack of cash for winning that suit. Too late for the operator though.

You have to remember that our Constitution was written by lawyers and they keep getting more "creative" in their interpretation of teh Constitution & the laws to maintain an income especially the recent graduates from law school. They act like a bunch of brand new commissioned lift truck sales people at times -say anything to get the order.
The little I know about tow tractors -there is a "rule of thumb" that says 1 lb of draw par pull can pull a trailered weight of 50 lbs. w/low friction tires on a flat level grade (this was published in a Claark manual for Tow Traactors many, many moons ago. This means a tractor rated 200 lbs continious draw bar pull woudl be capabale of towing 10,000lb (including the trailer weight). Some misguided sales type might inform a customer that his lift truck with a rated drawbar pull of say 2000 lbs. could tow 100,000 lbs. In reality, mos load would be much less than that
While certainly this would put a strain on the drive train, more importantly is the braking capability of the machine. When a foklift is empty there is les weight on the driving tires ~35 to 40% of the GVW. By pulling a load of any weight via the pin in the counterweight more weight would be transferred to the steering tires and less on the drive tires. That equals less braking capability - especially when the rolling load momentun starts pushin forward during braking.

Yes, I can recall (many moons go) a fatal accident involving a fork lift pulling a box car around a paved rail siding inside a plants operation (the were using an 8K dual drive pneuamtic with two speed torque converter single disc power shift tranny w/mechanical clash gear low speed gear box (Borg Warner T-12) as a spotter. The company didn't want to spend the money for a "Spotter" w/ occassional use (aka dust collector) - even those lawyers fresh out of law school could win this suit.

I think Linde is here like a toad from an old joke (when lion ordered the animals to split into two groups - the wise and the beautifull, the toad screamed - I cannot tear apart!)

One issue is the law.
According to my knowledge there's no strict interdiction of towing operation by the industrial trucks (specially when some of the trucks are designed for towing). Of course there are some safety issues and I do not support such application, but during more the 25 years of acticity I never heard about any accident caused by the fact that the trailer was towed by the forklift, not by a tractor.

The other issue is the marketing.
Linde officially doesn't support such praxis, but as a hydrostatic transmission manufacturer, they are pretty proud, that their transmission isn't in danger while towing.
I've personally seen the Linde salesman from Germany, who was "working" on the customer saying that he can tow the big trailers with no risk to the truck.
Concerning the Polish lawyers (and probably most of the European), they are a bit differently orientated.
And there's less of them here.

Every machine has limits. These limits are clearly identified on the machine - SWL for cranes, max load at load centre for lift trucks...etc
I would assume that a tow truck has the max load that it can tow clearly marked.

In Europe, if an industrial machine is put into operation doing something it's not designed to do, the factory operator wouldn't have a leg to stand on if someone got hurt and put a claim in.

Sure - some folks use forklifts for towing, just the same as a 5T truck gets to lift 7T the odd time - doesn't make it right.

Forklift suppliers shouldn't be telling operators that they can tow.