Hand Pallet Truck

Technical Specifications

Applications

• Warehouse loading & unloading
• Factory production lines
• Retail stockrooms
• Logistics & distribution centers
• Food & beverage industry
• Cold storage environments
• Cross-docking operations

All Clever Lifting manual pallet trucks are built to EN ISO 3691-5 (within its 2,300 kg scope) and supplied with a CE declaration of conformity; heavier models are built to our own specification. Custom fork lengths, widths, and wheel configurations are available for OEM orders — see the OEM section below for what that involves in cost and lead time.

Hand Pallet Truck Models — 2 t, 2.5 t, 3 t and 5 t

We build four standard capacities. All four share the same pump, handle and wheel architecture; what changes is the frame section, the fork dimensions and the weight of the truck itself.

• CL-AC20 — 2,000 kg. 1150 × 540 mm forks, 75 kg. The lightest truck we make and the easiest to pump. For most warehouses running EUR or industrial pallets at 1–1.5 t this is the sensible default, and the one we quote most often.
• CL-AC25 — 2,500 kg. 1150 × 540 mm forks, 80 kg. The volume seller. It covers the standard 1,000–1,200 kg pallet with real headroom and still sits inside EN ISO 3691-5.
• CL-AC30 — 3,000 kg. 1220 × 540 mm forks, 88 kg. Heavier frame, longer forks. Buy it if you genuinely move 2.5–3 t loads; if you only occasionally do, buy the 2.5 t and put up with two trips.
• CL-AC50 — 5,000 kg. 1220 × 685 mm forks, 110 kg. Wide forks for heavy industrial and drum pallets. This truck is outside the scope of EN ISO 3691-5 (which stops at 2,300 kg) and is built and declared to our own specification.

One thing worth saying plainly, because it is the most common mistake we see: capacity and effort rise together. A 3 t truck is not a 2 t truck with a bigger number on the plate. It is a heavier machine that takes noticeably more force to start rolling and more strokes to lift. Above roughly 2,200–2,500 kg, manual handling stops being practical for regular shift work — that is powered-truck territory, and if you are there, an electric pallet truck will cost you less in the long run than an injured operator.

Stainless Steel Hand Pallet Trucks

For food processing, pharmaceutical, chemical and other washdown environments we build the same truck in stainless steel. The difference is not cosmetic. A powder-coated frame will rust through at the seams and around every fastener once it is hosed down daily with chlorinated water or exposed to acid and caustic washdown chemicals, and the rust then becomes a contaminant in your process.

• Stainless frame, handle and fork assembly, with stainless fasteners throughout
• Open profile rather than boxed sections, so there is no hidden cavity for water and product residue to collect in
• Washdown-friendly: no exposed mild-steel components to bleed rust streaks onto the floor
• Food-grade or steam-cleanable wheel compounds on request
• Stainless steel is a made-to-order item, not a stock line — expect a longer lead time and a higher unit price than the powder-coated truck, and tell us which grade your environment actually needs when you enquire

We do not offer galvanized (galvanised) hand pallet trucks. Hot-dip galvanizing adds weight to a machine that is already at the limit of what an operator should push by hand, and both our standard and stainless lines cover the corrosion cases galvanizing would be bought for.

How to Choose a Hand Pallet Truck

A hand pallet truck is the simplest piece of equipment on this site and still the one most often bought wrong, because buyers compare on capacity alone. Capacity is the least interesting number in the specification.

Capacity — and Why 3 t Rarely Makes Sense by Hand

Rated capacity applies to a centred, uniformly distributed load on the forks. Move the load toward the fork tips and the effective capacity drops. More importantly, capacity and effort rise together: a 3 t truck is not simply a stronger 2 t truck, it is a heavier one that takes noticeably more force to get moving and to pump. Above roughly 2,200–2,500 kg, manual handling stops being practical for regular work — that is powered-truck territory. Buy 2 t rather than 3 t unless you genuinely move 3 t loads and infrequently.

Wheel Material Decides How It Feels

• Nylon — lowest rolling resistance, so the easiest to push. Hard and noisy, and it will mark soft or coated floors. Good on concrete docks and in areas with debris.
• Polyurethane (PU) — quiet, floor-friendly, and the usual choice for retail, food and pharmaceutical floors. Higher push force than nylon.
• Rubber / pneumatic — for uneven surfaces, outdoor yards and expansion joints. Softer ride, more effort, shorter life.

Fork Size Must Match Your Pallets

• EUR pallet (1200 × 800 mm) — 1150 × 540 / 550 mm forks
• Industrial pallet (1200 × 1000 mm) — 1150 × 540 mm forks
• GMA / North American pallet (48 × 40 in) — 27 in fork width
• Measure your actual pallets, not the nominal size. A truck that will not enter the pallet is the single most common return we see.

Low-Lift or High-Lift

Standard hand pallet trucks lift to about 200 mm — enough to move a pallet, not enough to stack one. If you need to place a pallet onto a rack or another pallet, you need a scissor-lift high-lift truck or a stacker, which is a different machine with a different stability case. Decide this before you order, because it cannot be retrofitted.

Which Standard Covers Hand Pallet Trucks?

This is worth understanding, because suppliers make loose claims about it and a buyer cannot tell one from another.

• Europe — EN ISO 3691-5:2015+A1:2020, the pedestrian-propelled industrial truck standard. It replaced EN 1757-2:2001, which is withdrawn; a supplier quoting EN 1757-2 is quoting a dead standard. EN 16307-5:2023 supplements it. Note the scope limit: EN ISO 3691-5 covers low-lift trucks up to 300 mm lift and 2,300 kg rated capacity, so a 3 t or 5 t hand pallet truck sits outside it and is assessed against the general machinery safety requirements instead.
• China — GB/T 26947-2023, which covers pedestrian pallet trucks up to 3,000 kg and 300 mm fork height.
• United States — there is currently no US standard written specifically for unpowered low-lift hand pallet trucks. ANSI/ITSDF B56.1 and OSHA 1910.178 both cover powered trucks, and B56.10 covers manually propelled high-lift trucks. Do not accept a claim that a hand pallet truck is "B56.1 certified".
• CE marking is the manufacturer's own declaration of conformity. It is a legal declaration, not a test certificate, and it is not issued by a third party.

Daily Checks, Maintenance and the One Rule Nobody Follows

A hand pallet truck has no brake. EN ISO 3691-5 excludes gradients from its scope for exactly that reason, and a hand pallet truck must never be used on a ramp or slope with a load on it. That single restriction accounts for more accidents than every mechanical failure combined.

Daily (Operator)

• Forks for cracks, bends or a bent tip
• Hydraulic oil weeping at the pump, the release valve or the ram seal
• Wheels and axles turning freely and clear of stretch wrap, string and grit
• Control lever clicking positively into all three positions — raise, neutral, lower
• Capacity label present and legible

Monthly and Annual

• Grease the wheel, axle and pivot points
• Measure fork tine heights at full lift; if the two tines differ by more than 5 mm, the push rods need realigning — the truck is lifting unevenly
• Check the hydraulic oil every 6 months and replace it annually (about 0.3 L, ISO VG32 or L-HV46). Never top up with engine or gear oil.
• Spongy forks mean air in the system: set the lever to LOWER and pump the handle 10–15 times to bleed it
• Store unloaded with the forks fully down, and move the truck in the drive position so the hydraulic seals are not under pressure while it rolls
• Push the truck rather than pulling it — pulling puts you off balance and the load between you and the truck

Container Loading and Shipping

A hand pallet truck is one of the few pieces of material handling equipment that ships as ordinary general cargo. There is no battery, no motor and no fuel, so there is no Class 9 dangerous goods paperwork, no UN38.3 test report, and no carrier that will refuse the booking — all of which apply the moment you move up to an electric pallet truck or an electric stacker. For importers this is the single biggest practical advantage of the manual truck.

This is how the loading works out in practice:

• Trucks are shipped either fully assembled or knocked down, depending on order volume and destination. Knocked-down packing fits substantially more units per container; assembly at destination takes a few minutes with basic tools.
• A 20 ft container typically takes a few hundred units in knocked-down packing. Exact counts depend on the model mix, because the 5 t truck is both longer and wider than the 2 t.
• Mixed orders are normal. Most of our shipments combine several capacities and both wheel types in one container.
• Tell us your order volume and destination port and we will send back a loading plan with the unit count and the packed weight, so you can price the freight before you commit.

OEM and Custom Fork Sizes

Custom fork lengths, fork widths, wheel configurations, paint colour and branding are all available. We are stating the commercial reality up front, because it saves everyone a wasted quotation round:

• Custom tooling is expensive. A non-standard fork length or width means new fixturing, not just a different cut. The tooling cost is real and it is charged.
• There is a minimum order quantity on any custom specification, and it is well above the MOQ for a standard truck. One-off custom units are not economic for either side.
• Lead time is longer than for stock specification, and the first article usually needs your approval before the run continues.
• Branding and paint colour are the cheap customisations — your logo on the handle and your colour on the frame carry far lower minimums than dimensional changes.

So: if your pallets are unusual, talk to us first rather than assuming you need a custom truck. In a large share of enquiries the right answer turns out to be one of the four standard fork sizes, and we will tell you so. Our manual hydraulic stacker and manual vs electric pallet truck guide cover the adjacent cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a hand pallet truck and a stacker?

Lift height. A pallet truck lifts about 200 mm and is for horizontal movement only. A stacker lifts to 1600 mm or more and is for putting a pallet onto a rack or onto another pallet. If you need both, you need both machines, or a powered stacker that does the horizontal movement as well.

What is the difference between a hand pallet truck and a pallet jack?

Nothing mechanical — they are the same machine under two names. Pallet jack is the usual term in the United States, Canada and Australia; hand pallet truck and manual pallet truck are the usual terms in the UK, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. Pump truck and pallet truck are also used. If you are comparing quotations, check that suppliers are quoting the same capacity and fork size rather than assuming the names line up.

What are the standard hand pallet truck dimensions?

Our standard forks are 1150 mm long × 540 mm wide for the 2 t, 2.5 t and 3 t models, and 1220 × 685 mm for the 5 t. Maximum lift height is 200 mm on all four. Net weight runs from 75 kg for the 2 t to 110 kg for the 5 t — the full table is above. 1150 × 540 mm fits a EUR pallet (1200 × 800 mm) and an industrial pallet (1200 × 1000 mm); North American GMA pallets (48 × 40 in) take a 27 in fork width. Always measure the pallets you actually receive rather than the nominal size on the drawing. If you need a dimension that is not in the table — overall length, lowered fork height, turning radius — ask us and we will send the drawing for the specific model rather than a generic figure.

How much does a hand pallet truck cost?

Four things move the price: capacity (a 5 t truck is not simply a 2 t truck at a higher rate), fork size, wheel compound, and whether you want the stainless steel build. Order quantity moves it more than any of those — hand pallet trucks ship efficiently in containers, so the per-unit landed cost falls sharply between a sample order and a full container. We do not publish a list price because freight to your port is part of what you are actually deciding; send us the capacity, fork size, wheel type and destination port and we will quote the whole thing.

Hand pallet truck or electric pallet truck — which do I need?

Manual if the loads are under roughly 2 t, the distances are short, the floor is level and the truck is used intermittently. Electric if you are moving loads all shift, over long distances, up ramps, or above 2.5 t on a regular basis — an operator cannot push that all day. There is also a shipping difference that importers feel immediately: an electric truck carries a lithium battery and travels as dangerous goods, while a manual truck is ordinary general cargo. Our manual vs electric pallet truck guide sets the two side by side.

Can I use a hand pallet truck outdoors or on a slope?

Outdoors, yes, with rubber or pneumatic wheels and on a hard, level surface. On a slope, no. There is no brake on a hand pallet truck and none can be fitted. On a dock ramp, use a powered truck.

Why is my pallet truck hard to pump or slow to lift?

Usually low oil or air in the hydraulic circuit. Check the oil level and bleed the system first. If the forks still creep down under load, the ram seal has failed and needs replacing — it is a cheap part and a straightforward repair.

What does the truck weigh, and will it fit in a container?

Standard 2.5 t trucks are around 60–75 kg depending on fork length. They ship knocked down or assembled depending on quantity — tell us your order volume and destination port and we will confirm the loading plan.

Do you supply OEM branding?

Yes. Custom fork lengths, fork widths, wheel configurations, paint colour and branding are all available. Send us the specification or a sample and we will quote against it.