Best Practices

Maintenance Your Construction Equipment Needs in the Spring

To prepare for the construction season

After a long winter in storage, your heavy equipment will require some spring maintenance before it can be placed on the job. Reduce downtime by using our heavy equipment checklist to protect your machines.

Conduct fluid analysis

Fluid analysis is an important part of heavy equipment maintenance, because it tests the level of contaminants in oil, coolant, and hydraulic fluid. It can help you determine whether there are larger maintenance issues hiding in your heavy equipment which should be addressed before working with the machine in the spring.

Check your filters

Changing clogged or dirty filters is crucial for heavy equipment maintenance. Dirty filters can introduce contaminants into your systems, reduce efficiency, and accelerate wear. Have our certified technicians check your machine’s air, oil, and fuel filters and change them, if necessary, before beginning the season.

Change hydraulic fluid

A key piece of heavy equipment service in the spring is ensuring your hydraulic system is ready to go. Hydraulics bear the brunt of all the the digging and lifting that your machine does and can fail when its fluid becomes contaminated.

Inspecting and replacing your hydraulic fluid is an important part of spring maintenance.

Don’t mix different coolants

It’s important that you pick a machine coolant type, avoid mixing it with other types, and follow the maintenance recommendations suggested for that coolant. If you are unable to use the same product to top off your coolant, then choose a product that is a similar type to the one already in your engine (OAT with OAT, IAT with IAT, etc.)

Clean up your batteries

Without your batteries, your equipment won’t even start up in the spring. A key part of heavy equipment maintenance is to check for corrosion and debris in the spring, clean them using a terminal brush and battery cleaner, and then top off the electrolyte as needed.

Make sure electrolyte levels in all your batteries are up to the full indicator and above the top of the lead plates.

Inspect your coolant

Run the engine, then check the color of the coolant. Your coolant should be the same color it was when it was poured fresh from the bottle. If the color has changed, it may be contaminated.

If the coolant is okay, top off coolant levels as necessary. Always use the same type and brand of coolant that’s already in your system when topping off.

Belts, hoses, and seals

Before beginning work in the spring, an important piece of heavy equipment maintenance is looking for cracked, frayed, or bubbled belts and hoses. Ensure belts haven’t come loose and that they are free of any kinks.

Old or broken seals can cause leaks which can in turn damage your equipment. Search for signs of wear and replace any seals that seem to have suffered damage over the winter.

Make sure your tires are good to go

Check the tread and inflation of your equipment tires each spring. Always fill your tire to the pressure recommended by the manufacturer, and if your tires don’t have any tread left, it’s time to replace them.

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

Before you actually arrive at your first jobsite in the spring, the final step on your heavy equipment checklist is ensuring that your lights, flashers, wipers, and brakes all work properly. That way, you fix any issues before the season gets into full swing!

If you have any questions about heavy equipment maintenance or need heavy equipment service this spring, then please contact our team!