Pallet truck wheels: nylon, polyurethane and when to replace

Which pallet truck wheels wear out first, and what a set costs

A hand pallet truck, also called a pump truck or a pallet jack, rolls on six wheels. Two steer wheels sit under the pump and take the handle loads, and four load rollers sit in the fork tips, fitted either as two tandem pairs or as two single rollers. The steer wheels usually go first, because they turn, scuff and carry the weight every time a loaded truck is pulled round a corner.

A complete set of six is from £49 ex VAT in nylon and from £64 ex VAT in polyurethane, both in the common 200 x 50 mm steer and 80 x 70 mm load roller sizes. Buying one end on its own is often enough: a pair of polyurethane steer wheels is from £36 ex VAT and a pair of nylon single load rollers is from £19 ex VAT.

Three symptoms are worth naming on the shop floor. A truck that drags on a smooth floor normally has flat spotted or glazed steer wheels. A truck that judders across a joint or a dock plate has worn load rollers or a seized roller bearing. A truck that steers heavily loaded but rolls freely empty usually has a steer wheel binding on its axle rather than a worn tread.

Nylon or polyurethane: which pallet truck wheels to fit

Both materials are offered at the same 2 t to 3 t rating, so capacity does not decide this. Nylon is the harder of the two: it rolls with the least effort, ignores water, oil and cold store temperatures, and costs less. Polyurethane is softer: it grips, runs quieter, absorbs joints and tail lift edges, and is far less likely to leave marks on a resin or painted floor.

In practice nylon suits plain concrete, a cold store and a yard where the truck meets grit and standing water. Polyurethane suits a coated or sealed floor, a shop floor or chilled aisle where noise matters, and any site where the truck crosses a ramp or a tail lift and needs grip on the slope.

The gap between the two full sets is about £15 a truck. Across ten trucks that is roughly £150, which is small next to the cost of a picker working around a truck that is heavy to push, noisy in a chilled aisle or leaving black lines down a painted floor.

What to check before you buy pallet truck wheels

Four measurements decide the order, and all four are easy to take with the truck empty and the forks down.

• Wheel diameter and width in mm, measured across the tread. 200 x 50 mm and 180 x 50 mm are the usual steer sizes, 80 x 70 mm the usual tandem roller and 80 x 93 mm the usual single roller.
• Axle diameter, 20 mm on most 2 t to 3 t trucks. A set of four 20 mm load roller axles is from £38 ex VAT if the old ones are grooved, and a 20 mm steering wheel axle is from £16 ex VAT.
• Single or tandem rollers. Count the rollers in one fork tip. Two rollers per tip need the tandem set, and worn brackets are a pair from £19 ex VAT.
• Bearing size. The standard steer wheel bearing is 6204 2RS, 20 x 47 x 14 mm, and a set of twelve is from £18 ex VAT. New wheel sets come with bearings fitted, but a seized bearing in a wheel you are keeping is the smallest repair on the truck.

Low profile trucks are the exception worth flagging: they normally take 74 x 70 mm tandem rollers rather than 80 x 70 mm, so measure rather than assume. Send the sizes with your enquiry and they are confirmed on your written quote before anything is made.

When a new pump truck beats a set of wheels

Wheels are worth fitting while the chassis, forks and pump are straight and sound, and that describes most trucks that come in with a wheel problem. The sums only turn when the hydraulics have gone as well. Add the parts up first: a full nylon wheel set is from £49 ex VAT, a pump seal kit is from £15 ex VAT, a replacement handle with the lift and lower lever is from £122 ex VAT and a complete hydraulic pump unit is from £116 ex VAT.

A new 2 to 3 t hand pallet truck is from £76 ex VAT, and a 2.5 t truck on nylon wheels is from £92 ex VAT. So a truck that needs wheels and a seal kit is still worth repairing by a wide margin. A truck that needs wheels, a handle and a pump unit is not, because the parts alone come to more than the machine.

Two faults end the argument whatever the wheels look like: forks that are bent or splayed so a pallet will not enter squarely, and a cracked weld or a chassis that will not sit flat under load. Neither is a parts job. The other common case is a truck in a wash down or chilled area where the wheels are fine but the frame is rusting, and there the sensible move is to put the wheel money towards a galvanised truck instead.

Fitting, inspection and keeping a spare set on the shelf

A pump truck is work equipment, so PUWER 1998 applies: it has to be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. In practice that means the wheels get a look as part of the daily or weekly check, and the truck comes out of service when a roller is split, seized or missing rather than at the end of the month.

Fitting is a workshop job of about an hour with the truck chocked and the forks supported on blocks. Change wheels in pairs so the tread heights match, and do both fork tips together for the same reason: a truck with one new roller pair and one worn pair sits crooked under a pallet and puts more of the load on one fork. Drive the old bearings out rather than hammering the new wheel on with them in place, and check the axle for grooving while it is on the bench.

One habit saves a lot of time on sites running several trucks of different ages. The day the new wheels go on, write the wheel sizes and the axle diameter on the chassis with a paint pen. The next order takes a phone call rather than a trip to the far end of the warehouse with a tape measure, and one spare set on the shelf covers a fleet.