Heavy Equipment Maintenance Tips for Spring

If you store your equipment during the winter, then there are certain spring maintenance activities that you need to do to be ready for the spring season. Minimize your downtime and reduce the chance of machine damage by following our heavy equipment checklist.

Complete a fluid analysis

Fluid analysis is a key piece of heavy equipment maintenance, because it analyzes the level of contaminants in the oil, coolant, and hydraulic fluids. Fluid analysis will let you discover larger maintenance issues that can be taken care of before restarting the working season in the spring.

Inspect your filters

Swapping out clogged, saturated, or dirty filters is an important part of heavy equipment maintenance in the spring. Dirty filters can allow contaminants to enter your systems, lower machine efficiency, and lead to greater wear and tear. Our certified technicians will check your machine’s air, oil, and fuel filters and change them, if necessary, before you start the busy season.

Replace hydraulic fluid

An important service to complete for heavy equipment in the spring is to make sure your hydraulic system is ready to work. Hydraulics handle the stress of all the digging and lifting that your equipment does and can fail if its fluid becomes contaminated or contains debris. Inspecting and changing your machine’s hydraulic fluid is an essential part of spring maintenance.

Clean up your batteries

You need your batteries to operate at top performance to start up your machine this spring. As part of your heavy equipment maintenance checklist, we recommend inspecting them for corrosion and debris, cleaning them up with a terminal brush and battery cleaner, and then topping off the electrolyte if it’s low.

The electrolyte levels in all your batteries should reach the full indicator and should be above the top of the lead plates.

Check your coolant

Before heading to the jobsite this spring, you should start up the engine, then inspect the color of the coolant. Your coolant needs to be the same color it was when it was new and poured from the bottle. If the color has changed, it may be contaminated.

If the coolant looks okay, top it off as needed. It’s important to utilize the same type and brand of coolant that’s already in your equipment when topping it off.

Look at your belts, hoses, and seals

An important piece of heavy equipment maintenance is looking for cracked, frayed, or bubbled belts and hoses. Ensure your belts haven’t come loose and that they are free of any kinks or other signs of damage.

Old or broken seals can result in leaks, which can then damage other components in your equipment. Search for signs of wear and replace any seals that became damaged over the winter months.

Are your tires good to go?

Inspect the tread and inflation of your equipment tires before beginning the spring season. Fill your tire to the pressure recommended by the manufacturer, and if your tires look like they don’t have any tread left, then it’s time to replace them.

Spring maintenance: Check to confirm that all the machine’s systems are working correctly

Before you actually arrive at your first project in the spring, the last step on your heavy equipment checklist is to make sure that your lights, flashers, wipers, and brakes are all working properly. If you find any problems, you can make sure they are fixed before the season begins!

Do you have any questions about heavy equipment maintenance or need heavy equipment service this spring? Please contact Star Equipment today!