Forklift tyres: cushion, solid resilient and pneumatic compared

Three families, and a truck can normally take only one of them. Press-on cushion bands are pressed onto a plain wheel for smooth indoor floors. Solid resilient tyres are pneumatic-shaped, fit a standard rim, and go indoors or out without ever puncturing. Pneumatic tyres carry air, ride best on rough ground, and puncture.

Which one a truck can take is decided by its wheels, not by preference. Everything below is about telling them apart, sizing them correctly, and knowing which failure you are looking at when one comes back early.

A cushion band is rubber bonded to a steel band. It is pushed onto a plain, smooth wheel with a hydraulic press, and it stays there by interference fit alone — there is no rim flange, no bead and no valve.

They suit warehouse trucks on smooth, level, indoor floors. The small section keeps the truck low and turning tightly, which is what a narrow-aisle operation wants, and they carry high loads for their size on good concrete. What they will not tolerate is broken ground, poor expansion joints, potholed yards or ramps — there is very little rubber between the load and the floor.

They come smooth for indoor use and lugged for a truck that occasionally goes outside, in both black and non-marking compounds. Fitting needs a press, which is a real consideration for a dealer deciding whether to carry them.

A solid resilient tyre — you will also hear it called a solid pneumatic — has the outside profile of a pneumatic tyre and mounts on a standard pneumatic-shape rim, usually a split or multi-piece industrial wheel. Inside, it is typically built in three layers: a wear-resistant tread compound on the outside, a softer cushion layer in the middle that does the work of the air, and a hard base layer with a steel bead that grips the rim.

This is the default for most counterbalance trucks in mixed indoor and outdoor use in the UK. It cannot puncture, it suits mixed yard conditions and it lasts well in abrasive conditions. The costs are weight, price and ride: it is heavier than the pneumatic it replaces and transmits far more shock into the truck and the operator.

A true pneumatic industrial tyre carries air, with or without a tube, on the same style of rim as a solid resilient. It gives the best ride, the best flotation on soft or uneven ground and the lowest price. It also punctures, and on a yard with debris in it that is the whole story.

These are usually rated by ply rating rather than load index — a 28×9-15 quoted as 12PR or 14PR. The ply rating and load range guide explains what that does and does not mean, and the table below is the quick reference.

Where punctures are the problem but the truck genuinely needs a pneumatic profile, foam filling is the third option — with a large weight penalty and a speed limit attached. See foam filling explained before quoting it, and run the size through the foam fill calculator so the customer sees the added weight in kilograms.

A standard tyre is black because it is filled with carbon black, and carbon black is what leaves grey streaks on a warehouse floor. A non-marking tyre replaces it with silica and other light fillers. Food production, pharmaceuticals, printing, electronics, cold stores and clean rooms specify them as a matter of course, and in many of those sites they are a condition of the contract rather than a preference.

Consider the following when specifying non-marking tyres:

• Shorter life. Carbon black is doing a job as a reinforcing filler. Take it out and the compound generally wears faster, particularly outdoors.
• Higher price for the same size and rating, and a tendency to run warmer.
• Static. Without carbon black the tyre does not conduct, so charge builds up in the truck. Where that matters — electronics, flammable atmospheres, sensitive equipment — specify a tyre with a conductive strip or an earthing strap on the truck, and check what the site actually requires.

Solid tyres need routine condition checks. Recognising early signs of damage helps identify load, speed and duty issues.

• Bond failure. The tread or cushion layer separates from the base, or the whole tyre from its steel band on a press-on, showing as a lifted, moving section of tread. The cause is heat, and the cause of the heat is overload, over-speed or long runs — the three things a solid cannot tolerate. A tyre showing it is finished immediately.
• Chunking. Lumps torn out of the tread. Usually impact — dock plates, kerbs, potholes, debris — made worse by an overloaded tyre.
• Cracking in the grooves or across the base. Overload, age, or a tyre run hot repeatedly.
• Flat-spotting and irregular wear. Usually the truck — brakes, alignment, a seized wheel. Correct the underlying vehicle fault before fitting a replacement.

Look at the wheel, not the tyre:

• A plain, smooth wheel with no flanges and no valve takes press-on cushion bands only.
• A rim with flanges and a valve stem is a pneumatic-shape wheel. It can take either a pneumatic or a solid resilient tyre in the same size.
• A rim with flanges and no valve is a pneumatic-shape wheel already carrying a solid resilient tyre.

Then read the size off the sidewall and read the truck’s capacity plate. Two cautions when changing family:

• Overall diameter changes the truck. Mast height, ground clearance, gradeability, the position of the forks at rest and the truck’s stability all shift with it.
• Rated capacity belongs to the truck as configured. The capacity plate is issued against a specified tyre, and changing family or size — or foam filling — can affect it. That is a conversation with the truck manufacturer or its dealer.

Three formats are in daily use, and the same tyre can appear in more than one of them on the same shelf.