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jenny_wrenWill someone please tell me how is it that I do not know how to drive a car but I now have a license to drive a piece of equipment that weighs as much as one? I now have a license in this piece of equipment:
The electric pallet jack.
This is pretty much the same model I will be driving only the forks are twice as long. This will double the chances of me crashing into something solid and expensive. :)
I had a hard time learning to drive the thing. In fact, I had to re-take the test. I'm glad I passed and got the whole ordeal over with. I kept swinging my turns too wide on it becuase my brain wouldn't be convinced that it was ok to turn close to an object and that I wouldn't hit it.
Now that I have my license for the palletjack, I got to move on to a newordeal lesson. I started training on one of these bad boys.
The RC Forklift
Strangely, once I started to get the hang of driving this the forklift, it was a less intimidating experience than learning to drive the palletjack. I will say this in favor of the palletjack. I like the braking system on it much better than the one on the forklift. The forklift sort of coasts to a stop while the palletjack can pretty much stop on a dime (ok so before I got used to stopping the palletjack the laws of physics sort of forcibly made me abandon the palletjack rather quickly once or twice, no biggie).
I am really not a thrill-seeking or an adventurous type. However, while the timid part of me was thinking "Oh my, that's a big machine", my inner ten year old was thinking "Oh my, that's a big machine. When do I get to play with it?".
The forklift is much, much easier to turn than a palletjack. I am starting to get used to the messed up steering. To steer, you have to turn this crank in opposite direction that you wish to go. Your other hand is holding onto a joystick that makes the forklift go forwards or backwards and can also raise and lower the forks.
The further you push/pull the stick, the faster you accelerate. Combine this with the incredibly tight turning radius of the vehicle and you can go from zero to TILT-A-WHIRL! in no time flat. I was required to spend a couple of hours weaving in and out of cones. I found while weaving in and out of cones, it doesn't take much effort to change your speed from wow, this isn't so hard to TILT-A-WHIRL!
I also spent some time spinning in rapid little circles. If someone else were driving, my inner ten year old would have went "Wheee!" but since I was in control, she just screamed a lot. My inner worry-wart simply used a lot of non-Wal*Mart approved words.
I was really nervous about using the forks to take down pallets that were way overhead but I found that it was really easy if I went slowly. And there is a cage overhead so I can't drop anything on my head. That's a comfort believe me.
So, what did you all do this weekend?
The electric pallet jack.
This is pretty much the same model I will be driving only the forks are twice as long. This will double the chances of me crashing into something solid and expensive. :)
I had a hard time learning to drive the thing. In fact, I had to re-take the test. I'm glad I passed and got the whole ordeal over with. I kept swinging my turns too wide on it becuase my brain wouldn't be convinced that it was ok to turn close to an object and that I wouldn't hit it.
Now that I have my license for the palletjack, I got to move on to a new
The RC Forklift
Strangely, once I started to get the hang of driving this the forklift, it was a less intimidating experience than learning to drive the palletjack. I will say this in favor of the palletjack. I like the braking system on it much better than the one on the forklift. The forklift sort of coasts to a stop while the palletjack can pretty much stop on a dime (ok so before I got used to stopping the palletjack the laws of physics sort of forcibly made me abandon the palletjack rather quickly once or twice, no biggie).
I am really not a thrill-seeking or an adventurous type. However, while the timid part of me was thinking "Oh my, that's a big machine", my inner ten year old was thinking "Oh my, that's a big machine. When do I get to play with it?".
The forklift is much, much easier to turn than a palletjack. I am starting to get used to the messed up steering. To steer, you have to turn this crank in opposite direction that you wish to go. Your other hand is holding onto a joystick that makes the forklift go forwards or backwards and can also raise and lower the forks.
The further you push/pull the stick, the faster you accelerate. Combine this with the incredibly tight turning radius of the vehicle and you can go from zero to TILT-A-WHIRL! in no time flat. I was required to spend a couple of hours weaving in and out of cones. I found while weaving in and out of cones, it doesn't take much effort to change your speed from wow, this isn't so hard to TILT-A-WHIRL!
I also spent some time spinning in rapid little circles. If someone else were driving, my inner ten year old would have went "Wheee!" but since I was in control, she just screamed a lot. My inner worry-wart simply used a lot of non-Wal*Mart approved words.
I was really nervous about using the forks to take down pallets that were way overhead but I found that it was really easy if I went slowly. And there is a cage overhead so I can't drop anything on my head. That's a comfort believe me.
So, what did you all do this weekend?
