Forklift beacon, reversing alarm or mirror: what to fit this winter

What a forklift beacon costs, and what it actually warns

An amber forklift beacon is from £18 ex VAT. It does one job, and it does it before any other part on the truck gets a chance: it puts a moving light into the corner of somebody's eye while they are still several metres away, round a rack end, or walking out of a chiller with a box in front of their face.

That matters more from the end of October than it does in June. The clocks have gone back, yards and loading bays are dark by the middle of the afternoon, and the people on foot in them are wearing hoods. A truck that was obvious in daylight is a grey shape with a quiet motor at four o'clock.

The other two parts work later in the sequence. A reversing alarm, from £21 ex VAT, covers the one movement the driver cannot fully see. A rear view mirror head, from £22 ex VAT, gives the driver back the corner that the mast and the load block out.

Beacon, reversing alarm, horn or mirror: which does which job

Buyers often ask which one to fit first when a truck came in bare. The honest answer is that they cover different failures, so the order depends on the site. A beacon first on a site with a lot of foot traffic, an alarm first where trucks reverse on to a bay, a mirror first where the aisles are tight.

A horn is the one part on that list that depends on the driver remembering to use it. The beacon and the alarm work whether anyone is paying attention or not, which is why most sites fit those two and treat the horn as the part that gets replaced when it stops working rather than the part they plan around.

Voltage, sound level and mounting: matching a forklift beacon to the truck

Three things decide whether a part fits a truck you already own. Get them right on the order and the fitting is twenty minutes with a spanner and a crimp tool.

• Voltage. Battery trucks run at 24 V or 48 V, engine trucks at 12 V. A beacon rated 10 to 80 V DC and an alarm rated 12 to 80 V DC cover both, so a mixed fleet can hold one part number for each rather than three.
• Sound level. An alarm at 107 dB carries over a busy bay. In a quiet chilled store or a shop floor it can be the wrong answer, and some sites prefer a lower output or a broadband sounder so staff are not tuning it out by the second week.
• Mounting. A bolt on base is the right choice for a truck that keeps the part permanently. Check the roof panel or guard thickness and whether there is a cable route down to the loom before you drill anything.
• Sealing. IP65 means the unit copes with dust and with being hosed. On a yard truck, or anything parked outside, that rating is the difference between a part that lasts and one that fills with water over a winter.

What to check before you buy a forklift beacon or alarm

A short list that saves a return.

1. Read the truck plate for the system voltage, not the battery label. A 48 V truck can still carry a 12 V accessory circuit through a converter.
2. Measure the mounting face and note the hole centres. Stud mount mirrors and bolt on beacon bases are not all the same footprint.
3. Decide whether the part is switched with the key or live all the time. A beacon wired to the key switch is one less thing to forget at the end of a shift.
4. Count the trucks, not the parts. Buying a set for the whole fleet at once keeps the wiring and the spares consistent, and the written quote confirms the price for the quantity you actually want.
5. Check what else on the truck is tired. If the mast chain has stretched or the seat switch is intermittent, a new lamp is not the job that needs doing first.
6. Confirm the fitting. Our parts range covers beacons, alarms, horns, mirrors, switches and chains for most common truck types, and we will check the fit against your truck details before anything is made.

When the truck is the problem, not the parts

There is a point where fitting warning parts to an old truck stops being good value. If the mast is leaking, the brakes are soft and the hour counter has run past anything the site can justify maintaining, a beacon is a plaster.

A lithium battery electric forklift rated 1 t to 3.5 t is from £3,370 ex VAT, and that figure is worth putting next to a year of repair invoices before the decision gets made for you by a breakdown in the middle of a peak week. Electric trucks also come with the beacon and alarm already mounted and wired, which removes the fitting job altogether.

For a yard or a mixed site, the choice between engine and battery power comes down to shift pattern and charging, and the forklift range covers diesel, LPG and electric. Price, freight and lead time are confirmed on your written quote.

Fitting, daily checks and the rules that apply

None of these parts is difficult to fit, but all of them belong in the daily pre use check rather than in a drawer. A beacon with a cracked lens, an alarm that has gone quiet and a mirror that has been knocked out of line are all faults a driver can spot in thirty seconds before they start work.

Under PUWER 1998, work equipment has to be suitable for the job and maintained in efficient working order, which covers warning devices as much as it covers brakes. Training sits separately: HSE guidance L117 sets out what rider operated lift truck operators need. Fitting a louder alarm does not change either obligation, it just means the truck is doing its share of the work.

Keeping one spare beacon, one alarm and a mirror head on the shelf is a sensible habit for any fleet of more than a handful of trucks. A part on the shelf is a five minute swap. A part on order is a truck that either runs without a working warning device or does not run at all.