Pictured above: a V3000 bay at our V3-4 project, with a hand pallet truck parked beneath it. The pallet on the floor is as high as that truck will ever put anything, which is the whole subject of this article.

A lot of racking in Singapore is never touched by a forklift. The unit is on the fourth floor of a flatted factory, or the business is small enough that a counterbalance truck was never worth buying, or the lease simply does not allow one. The goods arrive on pallets, a hand pallet truck moves them in from the lift, and somebody asks the obvious question: can we still have pallet racking?

Usually, yes. But the truck decides more of the design than the racking does, and most mistakes in these units come from designing the racking first and finding the truck's limits afterwards.

A hand pallet truck only works the floor

Start with the honest limit. A hand pallet truck lifts a pallet just far enough to roll it. It will move stock along an aisle and set it down on the floor, and that is all. Every beam level above the floor needs something that lifts.

That is not a reason to skip racking: pallets on the floor with beam levels above loaded by hand is a sound arrangement for many small stores. But if the plan is full pallets on every level, the first question is not "what racking" but "what truck".

Walk-behind stackers: the leg question

The usual step up is a walk-behind pallet stacker: the operator walks behind a tiller, and a mast lifts the forks. Unlike a counterbalance forklift, most stackers stay stable by having support legs out in front, running along the floor under or beside the load. Those legs are what the racking has to be designed around.

When the forks reach into a bay to place a pallet on a beam, the legs go into the bay at floor level. They have to go somewhere: under the pallet, either side of it, or under the bottom beam. Which one depends on the truck:

• Legs under the forks. The legs sit directly below the forks and run into the pallet itself, much like a hand pallet truck. Some pallets will not accept them — a base that closes off the openings the legs need is the usual problem — and what sits at floor level in the bay has to leave the legs a path.
• Straddle legs. The legs are set wide and pass either side of the pallet. That means they need clear space inside the bay at floor level, beside the pallet, which bears directly on the beam length and on how many floor pallets a bay can take.
• Counterbalanced stackers. No front legs at all, so no leg clearance to design for — but the truck is longer and heavier to do the same job, which costs aisle width and matters on an upper floor.

The practical point is that two stackers that look alike in a showroom can need a different bottom beam height, a different bay width and a different floor arrangement. So the truck's data sheet, or at least the make and model, belongs in front of whoever designs the racking before the first beam length is fixed. If the truck has not been bought yet, choose it with the racking, not after.

The top level is set by the truck, not the ceiling

In a forklift warehouse, the top of the racking is usually set by the building: the lowest sprinkler, light or duct over the run. In a stacker unit it is often set lower, by three numbers on the truck's data sheet.

• Lift height. To place a pallet on a beam, the forks have to raise it above that beam with room to clear it. The top usable level is set by how high the mast goes, less that clearance.
• Capacity at height. A lifting truck's rated capacity is stated at a particular load centre, and it reduces as the lift height increases. A truck that handles your heaviest pallet comfortably at knee height may not be rated for it at full lift. Read the capacity chart for the height of the top beam, not the headline figure.
• Lowered mast height. The truck has to get in — in a flatted factory, through the goods lift and doors. See racking a flatted factory unit.

This catches people out in a specific way. The racking can be rated for far more per level than the stacker can lift to that level, and the load notice on the rack will say so. The rack is not the weak link; the truck is. Keep heavy pallets low, and plan the top level for what the truck can actually place there. How rack ratings are shown on site is in rack load notices.

It also means the unit holds fewer pallet positions than a height-based estimate suggests, so run the pallet-position maths with the truck's lift height, not the ceiling.

Aisles: the operator is part of the truck

For ridden trucks, the figures we publish are a counterbalance forklift at 3.5 to 4.0 m of aisle and a reach truck at 2.4 to 2.8 m. A walk-behind stacker has its own figure, and the right place to find it is the working aisle width on its data sheet for the pallet size you use.

Two things to watch. First, the operator walks behind the tiller, so the truck turning into a bay sweeps a person with it — the aisle has to take the truck, the pallet and the operator, not just the chassis. Second, an aisle sized tightly for a stacker is an aisle that will not take anything bigger. If the business may want a forklift in two years, that decision is being made now, in the aisle width. The general rule, and the turning-circle detail that ruins layouts, is in forklift turning radius and aisle width.

Small wheels, hard floors

Pedestrian trucks run on small, hard wheels, and the load rollers in the legs carry much of the weight on a very small contact patch. They notice every floor defect that a forklift rolls over: saw-cut joints, drainage channel covers, patched concrete, the threshold at the lift door, a ramp between two levels. A loaded stacker that jolts over a joint at height is a pallet that shifts on the forks.

On an upper floor, those small wheels also put concentrated loads onto a suspended slab with a stated loading limit, alongside the racking's own base plate loads. Walk the route from the lift to the furthest bay with the truck in mind, not just the racking footprint. The floor side of racking is in anchoring pallet racking to the floor.

Where the knocks land

Stackers move slowly, so the damage looks minor, and it is frequent. Legs and chassis catch the bottom of uprights at bay entries; forks raised a little early catch the underside of a beam. It adds up in the bottom metre of the frames.

Protection helps, but it has to suit the truck. A guard that narrows a bay entry gets clipped on every put-away — and with straddle legs that need room inside the bay, it can stop the truck working the position at all. Where guards are worth fitting, and where they cause more trouble than they save, is covered in rack protection.

Low-speed damage still counts as damage. The usual inspection cycle is annual, plus after any impact, and a small unit is no exception. We inspect under SS EN 15635 principles with findings graded green, amber and red; our typical cost is S$3.50 to S$6.00 per upright frame, with a S$1,200 minimum per site visit. Details are on the rack inspection page.

Placing pallets at height from the floor

On a walk-behind truck the operator stands on the ground and looks up at the top level. Lining forks up with a beam at height is harder from down there than from a seat, and a pallet that goes in skewed or overhanging is where rack damage and falling stock start. Another reason to keep the top level modest and fast-moving stock low. If people also pick by hand from upper levels, see picking from the top levels.

Two related decisions

• Racking or shelving. If most stock is broken down and shelved by hand anyway, see boltless shelving vs pallet racking.
• A mezzanine. A truck on an upper deck is a load case in its own right. Our standard pallet-storage mezzanines are designed for hand pallet trolley load only; a deck that pallet trucks or walk-behind stackers will drive on is engineered for that truck class. If a truck is going upstairs, say so at the start — see mezzanine floors.

What to have ready before you ask for a layout

• The truck you have or plan to buy: hand pallet truck, walk-behind stacker (legs under the forks, straddle, or counterbalanced), with the make and model or data sheet.
• Its lift height and its capacity chart at height.
• Pallet type and size, and the heaviest pallet weight.
• Clear height to the lowest obstruction over the storage area.
• Which floor the unit is on, the goods lift dimensions if there is one, and the floor loading limit.
• Whether a forklift is likely in the next few years.

Selective racking runs S$380 to S$1,200 per bay depending on height, beam length and class, and we quote an actual layout after a site survey — in a stacker unit, the truck is one of the first things we will ask about.

The short version

• A hand pallet truck works the floor only. Anything above needs a truck that lifts.
• A stacker's legs have to go into the bay somewhere. The leg type sets the bottom beam, the bay width and the floor arrangement, so the truck is chosen with the racking.
• The top level is set by the truck's lift height and its capacity at that height, not by the ceiling. Keep heavy pallets low.
• The aisle takes the truck, the pallet and the walking operator — and a tight stacker aisle rules out a forklift later.

If your unit runs on a hand pallet truck or a stacker, WhatsApp us on 9107 2601 — tell us the truck, the pallet and the unit, and we will tell you what the truck allows before anything is drawn. What we install is on our racking systems page, and the full scope of work on our services page.

Related reading: planning the racking in your first warehouse · racking a flatted factory unit · forklift turning radius and aisle width