Practical excavator maintenance tips
Let’s go on with our chat on maintenance and talk about excavators. Read on the BKT blog 4 important tips to keep your excavator in perfect shape.
Back again, dear friends! Let’s go on with our chat on maintenance. We’d like to give you a few tips on how to enjoy a long operating life of your equipment and the best return on investment. Today, it’s all about excavators! How to keep your equipment in a perfect state even after long operating sessions? Don’t worry, just follow a few basic rules and your excavators will always be in tip-top conditions.
Let’s find out more together…
4 tips to keep your excavator in perfect shape
- Drive
Gear oil needs to be changed around every 1,000 operating hours. Gearbox oil levels are often disregarded. This can easily cause expensive damages. Low oil levels can be a sign of leakage or insufficient gear lubrication. Operators should hence always watch out for possible traces of water or other fluids that are evidence that something doesn’t run properly.
- Hydraulic cylinders
Always check the state of the hydraulic cylinder rods’ chrome surfaces. Any imperfection in the chrome surface enables foreign matters to affect the cylinder ring gaskets hindering the correct sliding around the shaft.
- Battery
A defect battery cell can cause electric failure. Most parts of the system shall have at least 18 volt at any moment during operations. If level goes below 18 volt, the system becomes unpredictable and may cause problems for accelerator control, hydraulic functions or cause false readings. That’s why it’s so important that during servicing and periodical checks specialized personnel controls every aspect of your equipment – from hydraulic to electronic components.
- Lubrication
Grease is vital for all pins and bushings. As a rule, operators should often lubricate pins and bushings. If there are more operators using the same piece of equipment, it is good practice to mark less evident parts to be greased by orange-colored paint to remind all users that this operation must be done.
BKT recommends... EM 938
For excavators, we recommend our EM 938 tire. It’s made of a special compound making it particularly resistant against cuts and snags. The special tread design ensures excellent traction, whilst the strong casing provides exceptional resistance against shocks and impacts even during toughest operations.
A last piece of advice when talking about equipment maintenance is that you keep accurate records of all interventions carried out on the entire fleet in order to have your equipment’s “state of fitness” always under control.
What do you think? Do you follow all these steps when you check your excavator?
