How To Tip Your Tipping Skip At Height?

All forklift tipping skips in the market tend to have the same design when it comes to mechanically tip and emptying their contents. You will always find a manual release handle at the rear of the forklift skip that requires manual pulling in some direction or another.

Some of these tipping handles are vertical which requires a pull from a sideways direction, whilst  others are horizontal which allows the handle to be pulled towards you (horizontal handles are deemed safer in most instances as they can be reached and activated without the need to lean into the skip, which generally involves placing oneself in the zone between the back of the forklift skip and the mast of the forklift truck)

So, your tipping skip is full of rubbish and you need to empty it, but you want to tip your skip into a high sided container that is above head height and beyond the reach of the tipping handle, now what?

You could dangerously climb in order to reach the handle, but this is far from best practice when it comes to health and safety and as a business owner, could put you at risk of litigation should an accident occur.

A safer option, deemed more suitable with horizontal style handles, is to attach a pullcord to the skip handle which then allows for the skip to be activated whilst the operator remains at ground level. This method is perfectly acceptable and offers a low-cost solution to emptying your forklift tipping skip at height.

Another option and some would say more productive, would be to ensure your forklift skip comes supplied with an ‘Auto Release’ mechanism.  Auto Release tipping skips, whilst a little more expensive, come with the benefit of allowing the forklift operator to tip their forklift skip at height, without the need to leave the cab of the truck.

Whilst there are many automatic release forklift skips on the market, and each one comes with their own preferred mechanical design, they all generally fall into the same method of operation, where the forklift skip is pressed against or onto the side of the waste container, thus activating the ‘nudge bar or nudge plate’ of the skip, which in turn automatically disengages the tipping locks, enabling the skip to tip forwards and empty.

Ensuring the tipping skip is retained to the forklift is paramount, whatever options you decide, so always make sure your choice of forklift skip comes with a retaining chain or heel pin retention to avoid any possibility of the forklift skip falling off the forklift

If you are looking to purchase a forklift tipping skip and have identified that you will need to tip your skip from above head height, then it may well prove a wise move to ensure your forklift skip comes supplied with an Automatic Release mechanism