Spring is nearly here, and that means soon, construction jobs will be too. As you prepare your fleet for the busy season, it’s important to revisit your company’s maintenance plan. A good plan can help keep your machine productivity high and your downtime low, which is exactly what you want for the months ahead. Our tips for maintaining your construction equipment can help you make that happen.
Perform Regular Inspections
Inspections are some of the simplest and most essential components of equipment upkeep. Even so, people often put them on the back burner, especially when a job is behind schedule and the pressure is on to meet demands. But neglecting inspections can lead to accidents, which will put you more behind schedule and potentially injure your employees. Every day, workers should inspect the following:
- Fluid levels
- Tire and track damage
- Battery levels
- Seals and hoses
- Leaks
- Lights and safety devices
- Brakes
You don’t need to inspect every single aspect of a machine every day. The key is consistency. However, it still pays to conduct at least a brief visual inspection of machinery before firing it up for the day.
Keep Records
If someone notices something is wrong and doesn’t say anything about it, they might as well have not noticed anything at all. Workers should always make a record of damage to a machine. They should also note maintenance tasks like charging a battery or changing fluid. This will help you stop small errors before they become larger and help you avoid putting off regular maintenance for longer than you should.
Be Proactive
Anyone who has been in construction will tell you that downtime is expensive. There is the cost of repairing the machinery, but there is also the lost time, the blow to productivity, and the decrease in employee morale. Maintenance shouldn’t merely be a response to machinery issues. It should be proactive, stopping them before they even occur.
For instance, as your skid steer loader plows through the mud, dirt may enter its final drive motor, damaging it over time. You can wait until the dirt has accumulated to dangerous amounts and do repairs then, or you can make cleaning dirt off the axels or installing a floating face seal part of maintaining your construction equipment. Just a few of these proactive steps can save your company time and money.
