Since 1977, Icon Health & Fitness Inc has been getting Americans out of their seats and onto their feet with a well-known array of fitness brands including NordicTrack, HealthRider, Proform, Reebok, Weslo, Image, Weider, and FreeMotion. Continued growth led Icon to build a new 600,000 sq ft facility, located near the port in Savannah, GA. Functioning mainly as a DC, the building also includes an area used for light assembly of some products.
While the new facility enabled Icon to get product to their nationwide market more effectively, there were some problems in regard to truck access. Fortunately, the LoadHog modular dock bridge soon had the dock in as good shape as Icon’s customers.
Some of the company’s product comes from Asia through the Port of Savannah, arriving via container. The problem arose when forklifts attempted to back out of a trailer with a load of product.
“We had edge-of-dock levelers and the bump on their ramp caused the load to hang up between the roof of the container and the dock doorway lintel,” according to DC manager Darren Turley.
Drivers would often use one of the large wheel forklifts to muscle their way over the bump. But when traffic got busy, these trucks might not be available to them. When a forklift got stuck in the doorway, the crew would have to get a yard jockey to raise the truck to smooth out the incline. Furthermore, when boxes got wedged coming out of the truck, there was the risk of damaging product.
“We pretty much lived with the problem until our distributor Ameridock showed us a video of the LoadHog,” says Turley. “That looked like what we needed. The LoadHog offers a much more gradual incline so our loads do not get trapped in the dock door.”
For a standard dock leveler to provide the type of access afforded by a LoadHog would have required cutting a pit into the dock floor and pouring concrete at a cost of roughly $1,500 per position.
“I’ve seen this done before back at our facility in Utah,” recalls Turley, “and the cutting caused dust to coat product throughout the warehouse. It was a mess…If we had gone with the pit levelers we would have lost time. I know from experience the construction would have been hard on our people who would have to work around the area.”
Another benefit of purchasing LoadHogs was that the order for 12 units arrived in only a few days -- not weeks. Once the LoadHogs arrived, Icon’s personnel were able to handle the fast, easy installation. Just 4 bolts are needed to anchor the LoadHog to the floor, and 8 attach the bumper assembly to the dock wall.
LoadHog’s rugged design stands up to Icon’s heavy equipment, including dumbbells, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, and treadmills. Furthermore, the unit does not require the maintenance demanded by mechanical pit levelers and EODs.
The LoadHog is easy to use. Once the truck doors are open, the user steps on the LoadHog’s side-mounted pedal to enable the vertically stored platform to gently descend into place until the lip contacts the truck bed. Once in place, a security latch engages the spring counterbalance mechanism to ensure the bridge remains downwardly biased.
When the truck is ready to leave, the user pivots the operating handle. The operation is ergonomically friendly, with approximately 38 lb of force needed to raise the ramp and no bending required to work the handle. The deck rises to its stored and locked position.
When stored, LoadHog protects the dock door against forklift damage and provides an extra measure of protection against energy loss since the overhead door can close tight to the warehouse floor.
For its many customers, Icon Health & Fitness equipment defines fitness. Thanks to the LoadHog dock bridge, the Icon dock is in great shape as well.