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Welcome to our latest installment of Focus On! Today we're talking about a bit of a mouthful: the Crown PTH50 Hand Pallet Jack.
Everyone knows that a pallet jack is a pallet jack right? Wrong! The key to a good comparison is to keep it apples to apples, and that's where the problem comes in here. Trying to compare a Crown PTH50 to some other no-name pallet jack isn't fair to either of them so today we're going to keep our Focus On our favorite hand jack.
As always if we miss something or you're thinking about adding this workhorse manual pallet truck to your fleet, we're here to help with each and every step of the process; because believe it or not, this pallet jack has options!
Crown PTH50 from the rear
So... its a pallet jack...
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck we can be pretty sure its a duck.
Fowl aside though, at its innermost core yes: the Crown PTH50 series of manual pallet jacks are indeed pallet jacks. Once you start looking at the details however that signature attention to detail that Crown is famous for grabs your attention pretty quickly. Other than the colour it looks like most pallet jacks do; a couple of forks, a pump handle to raise, and a handle to lower.
Crown though has built a pallet jack for the long haul. Long after you've replaced your no-name jacks, the Crown PTH50 will just keep trucking along. The pump valve is rated for over a million pump cycles and is built with tight seals and a hardened chrome piston to keep debris and contamination out the of pump body. One of our few criticisms about the PTH50 comes from the cost to reseal this pump, being nearly half the price we sell the jack for in the first place. Odds are good though that if you abused the 5500 lb (2495 kg) capacity of the jack bad enough to blow the pump seals, you might need a new jack anyway. One of the great things we've noticed about the pump action is that it is noticeably nicer to use, requiring a more shallow pump for a larger rise than other jacks.
Moving up the jack we have the reinforced lower handle with welded torsion bracing. Crown is famous for being generous with steel where it counts, whether it is the masts of their full size forklifts or, in this case, the handle of a humble pallet jack like the PTH50. Rising to a comfortable height for a wide range of users the top of the handle has a very slight angle to it so the user's hands, arms, and wrists are at a more ergonomic angle while pushing, pulling, or pumping the jack. Connecting the handle to the pump are a couple of small chain and pin links that mean even if this part is to break it can be easily replaced with common hand tools; the same goes for the lowering handle at the top end. Wide loops mean that even an operator using gloves or mittens can easily manipulate the mechanism of the three position lever. Pushing "down" on it locks the jack into raise mode for pumping, a firm but gentle pull "up" on the level gives you a neutral travel mode, and pulling "up" from neutral will give you lowering control.
When we start looking at the actual lift structure of the Crown PTH50 is another spot we start seeing big differences between it and a lesser pallet jack. Instead of grease fittings and greaseable bushings and bearings, the PTH has sealed and lifetime lubricated hardware that will withstand all but the most unforgiving environments (more on that later).
Connecting together parts of the lift structure are yellow chromate pins and shafts. If you're used to looking at the kind of hardware that goes into machines like this you'll spot the immediate difference here. Instead of the shiny silver of aluminum or the dull grey/black of steel, these yellow pins shine with a rainbow almost as if they'd been given a quick dip in gasoline. Preserving the most directly abused and exposed parts of the PTH50 against all kinds of floor debris and grime, this material is used from tip to tail on these jacks.
Hiding just forward of the pump and beneath the angled forward shield of the PTH50 are the hefty cross-braces of the lift linkage. Like just about everything else about this jack you can replace these parts, but if you've somehow damaged these the rest of your jack is probably scrap. Flowing down and forward from that front plate are the main forks. If you think "a fork is a fork" you've never looked at a Cascade catalog, but this is another spot where Crown has been smart with how they build things. Instead of a more conventional bent L shape to the edges of the fork the PTH50 has fully formed C-channel to help resist warping and twisting.
PTH50 fork tip
The PTH50 business end
Anyone who has ever pushed a pallet jack can tell you how much abuse the tips of those forks take. If your operators are less than gentle with it, you can probably see everywhere they've been bashed into in the 2"-8" (3-20cm) height around your work space; walls, doors, and hopefully kickplates instead of drywall all take the brunt of pallet jack attacks.
As you can see above, the Crown PTH50 has a number of improvements you won't see elsewhere. Boasting both entry and exit rollers (the orange in the above image) this makes the PTH50 that much easier to maneuver in an out of pallets while shifting them around. You can also see the forward chromate axle connecting the wheels to the rest of the lift structure here.
High quality rollers (the black wheel above) are also standard in a poly compound with pre-pressed, sealed bearings coming with new rollers should you manage to wear yours down. We've had customers who use these jacks every day finally come in after ten years to replace the front load wheels on their PTH50, but obviously your mileage may vary depending on application. There are also Nylon rollers available (the poly has better grip in wet environments, and the nylon has lower rolling resistance to help you move it more easily) and, if you have a truly intense environment, you can even get steel rollers. About the size of your fist and 5lbs (2.3kg) these suckers are best reserved for places where heat or chemicals would destroy the poly/nylon compounds used in a more conventional roller. They're loud though, but where they deserve use you're likely already running with hearing protection.
Lastly for the front end are the push rods. A lot of other brands will use a rod with a circular cross section, which often leaves them vulnerable to twisting or torsional stress from the lifting they're constantly responsible for. Not so with Crown's pallet jack though; the PTH50 uses box-formed push rods to give itself far more strength in resisting the kind of use it will see every day.
A not so weighty prospect
Now we've done a lot of talking about how heavy duty and robust the PTH50 is. All this steel making it tough, etc... So you might be surprised to learn that Crown has actually made a pallet jack that is lighter than many of its competitors! With a standard 27x48" (68.6-121.9 cm) PTH50 weighing more than 20 lbs (9.1kg) less than a no-name jack, the PTH50 will be easier to use for your operators because they're dragging around less jack! Crown accomplishes this by carefully studying where jacks have failed and then engineering around these stress points. Hard wearing locations get beefed up, and places where stress never manifests can be carefully stripped back until you're left with a pallet jack that's strongest where it needs it the most. Because survivorship bais is a thing to account for in engineering.
You said there'd be options?
So earlier I did mention there were some options for the Crown PTH50 manual pallet jack. I even talked about a couple when mentioning the wheels that could be chosen. That's not even the half of it though.
First off we've got a PTH50 tricked out with Work Assist components. Side-saddle storage bins, a Work Assist tube with mounted pocket, an additional load tray, phone/device holder, and clip pad all deck out this mighty little jack. There's also a drink holder and stretch wrap holder you can add, but I guess the folks at Crown didn't want this image to be too extra.
Next up there's the Skid Adaptor. Kept vertical with a simple pin hitch system, it you pull the pin and lower the adaptor it takes the forks from 2.95" (7.5cm) to 5.5" (14cm), and the raised height to 10.5" (26.7cm).
Next up is an option mostly for freezer applications. A Galvanized PTH50 to keep the jack from rusting out in the constant condensation of being in and out of a freezer means the jack will last that much longer in this demanding application.
Moving right along is a bit of a twist. No longer purely manual, the PTH50PS is a Powered Scissor Pallet Jack. Designed to use onboard power to assist with raising the forks, this part of the PTH50 series can raise the forks up to 31.3" (79.5cm) to bring work or containers up to your operator's level. Enhancing the already great ergonomics of the jack with helping your team avoid bending and lifting makes it a workhorse for the right application.
Last in our gallery of wonders is sort of a side-grade from the last option. the PTH50S is an unpowered version of the same scissor jack. Maybe your operators like the workout of pumping the jack, or maybe you don't need that function really often but just often enough, either way this makes a great addition to any operation that benefits from a changeable work height.
Not pictured but also available are load backrests in 48" and 60" (122 and 152cm respectively) heights. Just so you know the product won't be coming back toward the operator while they're pushing this jack along.
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- PTH50 with a few options
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- PTH50 With Skid Adaptor
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- Galvanized PTH50
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- Powered Scissor PTH50 PS
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- Manual Scissor PTH50 S
Bigger is better right?
Sometimes not so much, especially when you're working in a tight space. Lucky for all of us Crown makes the PTH50 series in a wide variety of sizes.
The normal PTH50 comes in everything from the practically pocket sized 16x36" (40x91 cm) model which is downright adorable, all the way to the monster 27x72" (68-183 cm). More than a few of our customers have also found use for the narrow models in more conventional lengths (20" wide and 36-42-48" long (51cm and 91-107-122 cm long)).
Skid adaptors are available for all of these except the largest. Load backrests are only available on 27" (68 cm) wide jacks.
The scissor models are a lot more limited though. Either 21.25" or 27" (54 or 68.5cm) wide and 45.3" (115 cm) long. They also only have a 2200 lbs (1000kg) capacity; the physics of raising these kinds of weights on a scissor base are not kind to small machines.
That's all we have to say about the PTH50 for today. Who would have thought there were so many options to think of when it comes to pallet jacks?
If you have any questions or comments you can Get In Contact with us for more details.
Keep an eye out for the next installment of our Focus On series; likely about another Crown lift truck. As usual we'll bring you the quick and dirty version of these machines instead of the polished ad-copy produced by the manufacturers along with why it's a great option to add to your business operations.
