All pieces of lifting equipment have a maximum lifting weight, and hoists are no different. We’re sure we don’t need to tell you that overloading your hoist with a weight that it can’t handle isn’t a good thing; remember that recommendations are in place for a reason! Below are some easy steps that you can follow to help protect your hoists from overload.

Follow all recommendations, advice and guidelines

All hoists will have a working load limit and a safe working load. If you lift any weight over the working load limit, then this is obviously an overload, but technically so is lifting any weight over the safe working load.

The working load limit is the point at which your hoist will break should it lift any weight higher, but the safe working load is the manufacturer’s recommended limit to stick to so that you can prolong the lifespan of your hoist. A simple way to protect your hoist from overload is to always stay within the boundaries of the safe working load.

Make sure that you fully familiarise yourself with the capabilities of your hoist before you conduct any lifting or lowering operation.

It’s important to recognise when you might be overloading yourself!

Have patience!

It’s crucial that you have patience if you are working in the lifting and lowering industry. Some pieces of equipment take longer to operate than others, and it can be tempting to rush through an operation to bump up productivity and efficiency.

Take your time with lifting operations, and spread out the loads so that you lift lighter loads more often, rather than vice versa.

Always properly plan a lifting operation

Any lifting operation should always be properly planned by a competent and qualified person, and this is no different when it comes to working with a hoist. You should know exactly how much a load weighs, what your hoist can handle, and how the operation is to run.

If proper planning is conducted, then you should easily be able to avoid any hoist overload.

Need help choosing the right hoist for your operation?

We have a huge range of hoists on offer here at Lifting Hoists Direct, all suitable for a range of industries and applications. If you need help choosing the right hoist for you, or you want to know more about overload and working load limits, then please find our contact details listed here.

Image credit: Brian Evans