Vestil FE Series, Instruction Manual

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Table of Contents Rev. 4/17/2019 FE MANUAL
Table of Contents Copyright 2019 Vestil Manufacturing Corp. 3 of 6
Necessary Approvals and Markings:
BEFORE putting these extensions into service, you must contact the manufacturer of your fork lift to
verify that they can safely be used with the fork lift. OSHA rule 29 CFR 1910.178(a)(4) requires the
manufacturer to approve the use of the extensions on your forklift. The manufacturer must also provide
updated labels/tags for the forklift before the extensions may be used, according to 29 CFR
1910.178(a)(5) .
a. “Modifications and additions which affect [fork lift] capacity and safe operation shall not be
performed by the customer or user without manufacturer’s prior written approval. Capacity,
operation, and maintenance instruction plates, tags, or decals shall be changed accordingly.” See 29
CFR 1910.178(a)(4) .
b. “If [your fork lift] truck is equipped with front-end attachments [like fork extensions] other than
factory installed attachments, the user shall request that the truck be marked to identify the
attachments and show the approximate weight of the truck and attachment combination at maximum
elevation with load laterally centered.” See 29 CFR 1910.178(a)(5) .
NOTE: Although the regulations cited above impose a duty on the manufacturer of your forklift to
approve the use of these fork extensions on your forklift, the manufacturer may refuse to do so. In that
case, you should hire a “Qualified Registered Professional Engineer” to “perform a safety analysis and
address any safety and/or structural issues contained in the [manufacturer’s] negative
response…Machine data plates must be changed accordingly.” See April 11, 1997 OSHA letter of
interpretation to Mr. Kenneth J. Yotz titled, Powered industrial truck modifications and approval .
Acquiring Copies of Data Drawings
:
Vestil Manufacturing Corp. provides online access to a document called a “Data drawing” for most
FE-series fork extensions. Data drawings include dimensions, net weight, capacity, and center of gravity
information. This information is available online to facilitate the analysis that your forklift manufacturer (or
a professional engineer) is required to perform. To access data drawings, navigate to this webpage:
https://www.vestil.com/products/mhequip/fork_extensions.htm . Find the model designation of your
extensions in the table and click the pencil icon in the 2
nd
column of the table. If your model is not
included in the table, contact the Technical Service Dept. (contact information is provided on the front
page of this manual). The following is an example of a data drawing:
NOTE: Content of
Data Drawings is
subject to change
without notice. This
example data
drawing for model
FE-4-42 fork
extensions is
provided for
demonstrative
purposes only. To
get a copy of an
FE-4-42 data
drawing, follow the
procedure for
Acquiring Copies
of Data Drawings .