17th Sep 2020

While it goes without saying that you cannot believe everything you read on the internet, this is especially true when buying handling equipment. While popular online retailers often offer very cheap sack trucks and trolleys, you may think you are getting a bargain when you are in fact just buying your own personal safety hazard!

These sack trucks are almost always brought in from the far east, and staff in charge of purchasing will often never see let alone touch the trolley. When advertising specification, the safe working capacity will often be wildly wrong, with a sack truck that would struggle to lift 90kg being advertised at 325kg! Online marketplace merchants will often do everything they can to cut costs because of the nature of the platform, however this results in cheaper materials, rushed construction, and low-quality design. The most common cut cost is the thickness of the steel, and when this becomes the axle, the already thin 16mm axle will go from a solid rod to a hollow tube, and then this tube will be made thinner and thinner to save costs. This tube can be reduced to as little as 1mm, and if you believe 1mm of cheap steel is enough to hold a third of a ton without buckling than you may be in trouble!

If you need some more solid evidence, take a look at this video. While the video is some years old, the problem has only gotten worse! When only loaded with half the maximum load capacity, the footplate begins to buckle and bend, and the axle begins to bow.