Travis Airmen test equipment with AMC headquarters

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrick Harrower
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Members of the 60th Aerial Port Squadron worked alongside Airmen from Air Mobility Command headquarters to perform a special test Sept. 21 on an all-terrain forklift at Travis.

The test is designed to measure the amount of stress an attachment on the forks of the vehicle can withstand. The attachment is called the "prime mover."

The attachment fits onto the forks of an all-terrain forklift commonly used by aerial porters. At the end of the attachment is a pintle hook which enables the forklift to push and pull any cargo with pintle hook capabilities. Previously, the forklift could only raise and lower cargo, but this attachment allows it to perform all aspects of cargo loading, said Tech. Sgt. Rick Tenorio, 60th Aerial Port Squadron aerial porter.

The test was completed before on the prime mover. However, this time porters were looking to see if they could at least double the weight of the load on the equipment.

"If this test goes good, this piece of equipment will affect the entire Air Force," Tenorio said. "We have tested it in the past and it was good up to 10,000 pounds. Today we are testing it for 20,000 pounds, which has never been done before."

To assist with the test were several engineers from Caterpillar Inc. who monitored the test results. As cargo was loaded and unloaded from a C-5 Galaxy, sensors in the pintle hook measured the stress levels. The sensors sent the measurements to a receiver fitted onto the forklift. An engineer from Caterpillar monitored all the data on a laptop as it received information from the receiver.

"The goal here is to be able to do more with the same equipment," said Eric Woods, Caterpillar engineer. "Some of the older equipment was overbuilt and we found it was lasting way longer than we anticipated. If we find out this equipment can actually do way more than it was previously approved for, we can get higher limits approved at the Air Force level."

A trailer was hooked up to the forklift and weight was added to the trailer. The forklift then ran through its test. The same test was run for each increment as weight was added to the trailer.

"This is a very unique piece of equipment," said Senior Master Sgt. Greg Seeger, Air Mobility Command headquarters air transportation command policy manager. "It allows porters to lift, tow, load and unload cargo with one vehicle. It is a critical asset to have that capability."

Once loaded onto a plane, the all-terrain forklift only takes up three pallet positions and the prime mover eliminates the need to bring additional vehicles, Seeger said.

The test was successful as nobody was hurt and no equipment was damaged. The next step is to take the results and review them in an effort to get the equipment approved for widespread use across the Air Force, Seeger said.