Patent ID: 7360628

Claim:
A forward facing lift truck for transporting a vertical stack of tires located in front of the lift truck, the lift truck comprising: grasping means mounted on a frame of the lift truck and comprising a pair of upper vertical clamps and a pair of lower vertical clamps, said grasping means being adapted for grasping all of the tires of the stack only by pressing horizontally said vertical clamps against circumferences of treads of all of the tires of the stack, picking up and dividing the stack vertically into a vertical upper section and a vertical lower section, so as to open up a space between the vertical upper section and the vertical lower section, each of the vertical upper section and the vertical lower section comprising a plurality of the tires, wherein this space is created at a height above the floor such that a field of vision of an operator of the lift truck passes through this space at an angle such that the operator can see the floor in front of the lift truck, at a predetermined safe distance and beyond, and also has a distant view.