Keeping An Eye On Excavator Maintenance

Contractors and manufacturers give simple tips to help you take care of your excavators and make them last
Keeping An Eye On Excavator Maintenance
A contractor performs maintenance on an excavator while on a job site. A walk-around of the machine should be completed before each use and a more thorough maintenance inspection every couple days. (Photos courtesy of CASE Construction)

Interested in Excavating?

Get Excavating articles, news and videos right in your inbox! Sign up now.

Excavating + Get Alerts

Excavators have come a long way since being invented over 60 years ago. The equipment is more reliable, meaning fewer mechanical breakdowns. Contractors don’t have to bring in their excavator for repair nearly as often as they once did.

However, general maintenance is still a must. Keeping your excavator in tip-top shape with frequent checks could pay dividends, while waiting to get something fixed could certainly hit an owner's wallet hard in the long run. “It’s either pay now or pay more later,” says Michael Peters, president of Red’s Excavating, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Peters, whose company owns three large and three small excavators, is big into sticking with a preventive maintenance schedule.

“The main thing is you have to stick with the program,” Peters says. “At so many hours, you have to do your preventive oil change, filter change. If you stick with that, any other items that may occur or breakdown, you can hopefully see them develop. You can order the parts ahead of time or you can contact the equipment supply company ahead of time, so that if you are down, you are down for the shortest period of time. I feel like downtime is more expensive than anything. If you can’t depend on the equipment, then what do you have it for?”

Peters notes a company is asking for problems if it skips a maintenance appointment because the excavator seems to be running well and the company crew doesn’t think it needs a checkup.

Performing regular maintenance
“Doing regular maintenance is definitely going to prevent premature failures that could be extremely costly,” says Dan Kakareka, product sales training manager for excavators at CASE Construction. “If you’re not using OEM filters and changing those out during regular scheduled maintenance, you’re going to wear those out a lot faster than they should, which is going to cause additional cost for the failed part and the service time to get it fixed.”

A preventive maintenance schedule, set by the number of hours logged by an excavator or by a certain number of days, is generally suggested by every equipment company. Most contractors use in-house maintenance crews to deal with minor issues. Bigger problems should be serviced by a local dealer.

Kakareka says that at a minimum of every six months or 2,000 hours an excavator is used it should be inspected by a professional. Peters sends in every machine for regular maintenance at least once a month.

“As far as inspections and stuff like that, it really comes down to what the risk is,” Kakareka says. “When you’re walking around your equipment, you’re doing a risk assessment. If you’re seeing things that are out of the norm, then you should bring that machine in for a full inspection. If you are checking filters and you notice that you’re getting water in the water separator, maybe you should bring the machine in and have somebody check it. Maybe check the pumps and make sure major damage isn’t done due to that water getting into the system.”

Daily checks of the excavator
Kakareka recommends conducting a thorough walk around each excavator prior to every use.

“The most important thing is lubricating everything — making sure your attachments are greased, your center swing is getting the proper amount of grease,” Kakareka says. “Check your fluids and make sure oil is in the system, and your hydraulic oils are good.”

Jeff Pettiecord, president of J. Pettiecord of Des Moines, Iowa, has his operators look over their equipment for about 10 to 15 minutes prior to each use. “They take constant attention,” says Pettiecord, whose company owns 35 excavators. “They need to check fluids, check for leaks, check for cracks. Just go over the machine.”

Kakareka suggests jotting down what you see during each inspection — noting cracks, leaks and anything else that stands out — because little things can add up. Knowing when parts or filters are starting to deteriorate could be essential in the long run.

“You’re looking for anything that catches your eye, if something’s cracked,” Kakareka says. “You never know what you’re going to run into.”

All the little stuff
After using an excavator, if the tracks or undercarriage got substantially dirtied, make sure it gets cleaned up. If that hardens and builds up overnight, it will be twice as difficult to clean the next day.

“One of the most ignored things would probably be undercarriage cleaning,” Kakareka says. “With excavators, some people don’t tend to pay that close of attention to undercarriages as they would do a dozer, because excavators generally aren’t doing a lot of tracking. With pipeline applications, they might be doing a lot more tracking than if they were just on a regular construction site.”

Kakareka stresses using proper fuel in the equipment to avoid damage. If a company isn’t using clean, high-quality diesel, it’s possible to damage the pumps and injectors. Also, always remember to check the cooling system and make sure it’s cleared out. On the engine, make sure the radiators and coolers aren’t clogged up.

Any attachments that are used with the excavator should be examined, too.

“You’ve got to pay attention to the wear on it, because it could really cut down on your productivity,” Kakareka says. “If you’ve got worn-down teeth or the bucket is not up to standard, that’s something they want to keep in mind as well.”

Making money for you
Keeping an eye on your excavators and how they perform will keep those expensive pieces of equipment from breaking down and keep you from losing work because of it.

The winter months often bring a slowdown of work for contractors, which would bring ample time to do a thorough check on your excavators. “It’s always important for safety reasons to make sure that machine’s in tip-top shape before you get in there and start running it,” Kakareka says.



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.