36 years of Heavy Equipment, Landscape & Construction machinery Maintenance tips and tricks

[Music] [Applause] It's 40° in Minnesota and it finally feels like mother nature's is not punching you in the gut every time you step outside. So, we are going to be doing maintenance. We're going to be doing a lot of maintenance today and we're going to be talking about some of the subtle differences and not so subtle differences. The things like deferred maintenance versus daily maintenance and what that exactly means. So, without wasting any more time, let's see what the guys are up to. What's up, boys? Up. Boys and toys. What are we looking at? That doesn't mean that's what you want to run them at. Some people prefer to keep the tires a little bit lower because that actually adds a little bit of cush to their ride, believe it or not. What else do we got going on today? Well, during that snowstorm, we had uh all the wafer blades fall off. So, we were able to keep working. So, let's talk about the main difference between daily maintenance and deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance means those things which break, but you can still operate long enough to keep yourself in business when you have when you're down. So, here's another tool that I'm going to recommend you guys put in your tool case. It's this thing right here. Let me see if I can find it. Go ahead and lock that on, Xander. Lock it on. Now, you locked it. Mhm. Now, go ahead and put grease. Watch how hard this thing stays locked on. Look at them push. That thing doesn't come off. That's pretty slick. If you guys don't have one of them, get one. I'll put a link to it below, but go ahead. Show them. And it just slides off. You even consider this. You're not running both. The reason I use a marine grade grease is specifically in the wintertime in that odd cycle where everything the snow is starting to melt and I have to go out and stack giant piles of snow up. What happens is all of the pivot points of machine are subjected to lots of water. This stuff has a higher stick point to it and it helps resist corrosion. And it's only at those times that I really like to make sure that I get this stuff in my equipment. The marine grade grease. I just go with an allpurpose. And allpurpose grease is exactly what it's meant for. It's going to go in just about every application that you guys Xander is going to learn how to use the Milwaukee grease gun cuz we've upgraded years ago. We've got the old style grease guns, but we've also found that How do you like this thing, Tim? This has been your baby for a couple years now, hasn't it? Yeah. This makes greasing real real fast and real easy. The time it saves you, it's it's nice. So, it's it triggers itself. Um, if you adjust it at 50 20, you'll hold down the button and it'll go 20 seconds 20 on speed one as you hold the trigger down. So, so here, let's dial this thing up. I usually just put it on 50, speed two, so it's just quick. That's done. So, started squeezing out. Okay. So, there's spots where you just can't use regular grease. on it. Little things that still have movable parts that you probably want to hit with grease, but the grease gun isn't going to work. So, we've used this stuff called Lubal in the past, and it works pretty good for all the little tiny things. One of the things that I like about this stuff is it's also a dialectric grease. Did I even pronounce that right? Yeah, dialectric. That uh that's good. Yeah. Are you wearing makeup, dude? Are you wearing make Shut up. I lost a bet. Okay. What? Holy crap. Not I was hoping no one was guideliner on or what the what the hell? I lost a bet. I clean it up best I could. I'm just going to squirt some lube ball on all the components that are metal. So that was really corroded. Yeah, it was bad. [Music] Yeah. So, we use that not only in our electrical components, but we use it for general greasing applications, too. All right. So, not all of you guys have snow plows, but if you do, you you will have an electrical connection, and that uses what's called dialectric grease. Tim dialectric grease. And it's that typically is a specialty grease. You're not going to have that handy. That's why I like this stuff cuz this is a dialectric grease, but it's also a general lubricant as well. It's one of the few that I found actually is kind of a multi-purpose giving it a You're going to want to carry it with you for other things is what I mean. So, I mean, here's the thing. If your door hinges are are squeaking, you use it there, but but you can also use it where you you really need it, like points like that. If I'm having problems with my snow plow, the first thing I always do is come out. Electrical problems. things don't seem like they're reacting quite right. Always check this first and always add dialectric grease to it. So, this is important to squish this in there. Tim, you propose that we nickname him Zoolander from this point cuz his name's Xander. Kind of goes Zoolander better than Guelliner. I'll take it. I like better. We know. All right. But it's up to you guys. In the comments down below, tell us what his new nickname is. Is it Zoolander? Is it Gueliner? Is it something you create all on your own? What do you think? Are you up for it, Xander? Yes. Name it. Name. We literally write the hours and the date on all of the filters so that we know exactly when it was changed last. Can't get at the 300. Shut up. Sit down. So, that's another thing. The guys parking here, you always got to park so you can check the oil before you start and to be able to jump that piece. That battery is dead. We're we're dragging it out just to jump it. So, good point. How you parked the equipment is almost as important as the maintenance ahead of time. By backing that thing in like that. Yeah. If that doesn't start, you got issues. True story. When we first started getting into excavating, we didn't think about how we parked the piece of equipment was very important. So, we parked it in a low spot on the job site and we had a flash flood come in overnight. We had to get up at 3:00 in the morning and run out to the job site and move the excavator because the waters were starting to fill up around it. So, when you're parking your piece of equipment, if you're leaving it out on the job site, give yourself an exit strap. You look at this wing that you see right here. This is a perfect example of where you need what I call a sticky lubricant. When you look at this wing, it it's subjected to a lot of movement, right? In and out all day and all night. and it's in a highly corrosive environment. Now, you would think you would need have you'd have to have grease on it. I want to show you guys what I'm talking about right here. This is going to wear pretty fast if you don't have lubrication. And when you use a regular lubricant, it's going to disappear on you. That's where you get that's why you use this stuff. This is the sticky lubricant that I was talking about. I like to squirt it in all of these areas because I know that it's going to stay with me. You can get it in there. Now, hey, don't worry if you don't get it just right. Something is better than nothing. But now, this stuff is going to be there every time I go to move this uh snow plow. Now, I can't reach all of it. And that's when I I've used this bad boy right here. Even on joints like this, I can work this in here. [Music] And I work it. I like to work it from the bottom up. Although it will it will roll down. I like to make sure that I get it in here. This does not have The problem is this doesn't have a greaseer, but it's still a joint that moves up and down. Every time that I raise and lower this snow plow, this is subject to wear. It doesn't have a greaser, but it should have some kind of lubrication to protect it. Otherwise, you're going to have uh premature issues happening. So, although it may not look like you have grease and you need to lubricate stuff, it's just common sense. It boils down to common sense. That's why they make these things. That's why I use them. Okay, so now I've lubed it up. Now, I like to move it around a little bit and then I'm going to hit it again. I'm just going to make sure that I can get it from all the different angles. [Music] I'll go to the backside and get some in there, too. It's got a little bit of a different nature to it, but I like it. [Music] So, for those areas, I'll use this. For the other areas where I got better access, I'll use the other