Category Archives: Heavy Equipment Mechanic

How to hire competent heavy equipment mechanic

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A manufacturing company can thrive only if it has a proper team of professionals who are competent in providing after sales service. They should be good at their job because it is perhaps the after sales service guys who are majorly responsible for the goodwill of the company. If the product goes faulty, the customer hunts for someone who can get that fixed and if he does not find anybody then he will never go for that brand in his life and will also suggest others to not buy product of that brand. This can prove really costly to the manufacturing company. The after sales team therefore plays such an important role in the growth of the company. The company therefore has to play a more crucial part by hiring competent workforce who knows about the subject well and will take less time to resolve the problem with the product.

Heavy equipment companies manufacture really expensive items and it is quite likely that a product may stop functioning after few months of its purchase. This is why you need to have men who can go to the clients’ jobsite at the word go and can check the problem. The construction business owner are usually loaded with too much of work and are also heavily dependent on heavy equipment and if any of the machine stops working, it costs them dearly. This is why they need a mechanic right away when they experience issues with their machines. It becomes the responsibility of the heavy equipment companies to hire the best mechanic. The crux of the matter is that they should be able to identify who are competent mechanics and who are not.

Check their qualification:-

The heavy equipment companies should check the qualification of the candidates at the time of the interview. They need to check the academic scores and ask questions by giving them different scenarios. This will let the interviewer know the exact standing of the candidate. If the candidate has studied hard to secure good marks, it will reflect in his academics score sheet. However that should be taken as the sole criteria to judge the competency of a candidate. The interviewer should keep this as one of the parameter.

Experience plays a mighty role:-

The experience of a heavy equipment mechanic increases his price in the market. Heavy equipment companies are ready to pay him a higher package if he has good number of experience up in his sleeves. Your experience should be also followed by a good track record wherein you are always punctual and do not take unnecessary leaves. Your overall conduct has been good in the past companies that you have worked and should not have stability issues.

The machines he has worked on:-

It is important for the heavy equipment companies to check with the mechanic on the kind of heavy equipment he has worked on. A mechanic who has only worked on graders and has no working knowledge of loaders or excavators is not a viable one for you.

Inexperienced mechanic can make a mess of your equipment

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A lot of difference can be seen in terms of the quality of work done by an experienced and an inexperienced person; wherein you will find the experienced guy doing lot better than the inexperienced one. This does not mean that one should never hire anybody without any experience. If that be the case, no one will ever be able to develop their skill as we all require some sort of practical training to gain expertise in the respective domain. Eventually, it is the person who will wants to get the work done needs to take the call. Ideally, one should hire few very experienced mechanic and the rest as newbie. The experienced mechanic will help train the newbie and will also guide them wherever it becomes necessary. In this fashion, the one with less skill will slowly and steadily develop their knack for their respective domain and that will help them to shape their future.

Servicing heavy equipment is the field where one requires good number of years of experience. You just can’t learn everything in heavy equipment in a short time. Other than that, there are high chances of the inexperienced mechanic spoiling the machine by trying to do things that he is not confident about and also without consulting an experienced person. Therefore, when it comes to maintenance work, it is always advisable that you assign the work to someone who has been doing this for a long time.

An inexperienced mechanic can really make a big mess of your machine. You may want to check with your peers and then give your machine to a mechanic. If you do not know how good he is, it is better that you stay away from him or try to get some information about him; like how good he is with his work, does people who gives their machine to him for servicing relies a lot on him for their work and things pertaining to his capability in resolving any issues with the machine. One you are convinced that your machine is going in safe hands you should give it for servicing.

Do not try things on your own. Going through a user manual is advisable. However, if you are not the person who understands user manual well, then don’t try to do things referring to the user manual. Though service manuals are written in the simplest language so that all can follow it without committing any errors, still we can find people who may have issues understanding what is stated in the document and can mess up things. Apart from that, if you have never worked on an equipment before, there are high chances that you may end up deteriorating it completely.

An experienced hand also comes handy when you need to replace a particular part of a machine.  They can even offer you some tips on what you can do to lengthen the life of your machine which you’ll not get from an inexperienced guy.

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Do not change heavy equipment mechanics quite often

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It is often said that we should stick to one doctor for our medical needs and changing doctors often can lead to more complications. It is because the doctor we go to know our medical history and we won’t be wrong in saying that he has a fair amount of idea on how our body reacts to a particular medicine and on the basis of those facts, he prescribes medicines to us. Similarly, when it comes to heavy equipment it is advisable that you stick to one mechanic rather than switching to several mechanics. It will not be a healthy decision for your heavy equipment if you think you should service the machines from different mechanics after every month. What is rather more important in this case is you find out the guy who is an expert in your place and check his work. If only you do not find his work to be satisfactory that you should search for someone else.

Do not change if you find them to be expensive:-

Heavy equipment is in itself an expensive stuff and in order to augment its lifespan you need to hand it over to somebody who knows how to treat it well. Maintenance of the machine is the most important part to ensure that your machine works for many years and in order to see t working for many years you need to get it serviced from a mechanic who has fair amount of knowledge about what he is doing. The guy should have good years of experience fixing machines and for this if he bills you a bit extra than the other mechanics, you should pay him happily rather than thinking how expensive he is and then decide to move to someone else. As long as they are doing their job to your satisfaction, you should continue with them.

Check the quality of work of the new mechanic if you have to switch:-

Just in case you decide to switch to a new mechanic, you got to do a fair deal of research to know how good he is in his work. You just can’t give it to someone without knowing about his quality of work. It should not happen that after getting your machine serviced from the new guy you experience plenty of other issues in it. That will only make your life and business miserable. Therefore try to get some reviews from people you know who services their heavy equipment from the guy who want to switch to and only when you are content you should go ahead.

Finding a good mechanic is a big issue:-

It takes time to get hold of a competent mechanic. It is sort of trial and error method that you go through during the initial phase when you are in search of an able mechanic. The alternative for this would be to take advice from your peers who are associated with this industry for years. You can check with them the mechanic where they service their machines and try them out. But once you get hold of a good mechanic, it will not be wise enough to drop them for any small reason.

 

Heavy Equipment Repair Technician

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Heavy equipment and machines are widely used in construction and mining industries. The equipments are very expensive and cost from hundreds of thousand dollars to millions of dollars. The work at these workplaces causes wear and tear, hence proper periodic maintenance of machines becomes necessary for the machine to be in good working conditions. If care is not taken, it will stop working and will lead to unnecessary delays. Most of the industries have heavy equipment repair technicians. These technicians install, maintain and service large industrial machines and vehicles designed for activities such as transporting objects, lifting material and earth-plowing. These workers are employed by equipment wholesale distribution firms, construction companies, mining industry, and other organizations which operate and maintain heavy duty equipment.

 

For a technician’s job a formal degree is not compulsory. Many technicians complete their high school diploma and undergo vocational training or obtain an associate degree in heavy equipment repair or are acquainted in handling of heavy duty machinery. They have to undergo several years of on job training. Most technicians start at entry level jobs where they work under experienced technician’s supervision. As they start gaining experience of wide variety of different equipments, they are given complex tasks to perform. Generally, it takes 3-4 years on job training to be qualified as a fully experienced heavy equipment repair technician. Salary for this profession is higher than average of all installation, maintenance and repair work.

 

Repair technicians generally work indoors but at times may have to work outdoors. To repair equipment they have to lift, handle greasy parts, stand and lie in awkward positions. Thus good physical conditions and agility are important. Due to size and complexity of equipment, safety is of prime importance. Small cuts, burns and bruises are common. Thus there is always risk while working with heavy equipment. Technicians use a variety of tools in their work: power tools, such as pneumatic wrenches to remove bolts quickly, machine tools, like lathes and grinding machines, to rebuild brakes, welding and flame-cutting equipment to remove and repair exhaust systems, and jacks and hoists to lift and move large parts. With many types of modern equipment, technicians use diagnostic computers to diagnose components which need adjustment or repair.

 

Additional qualifications required for the repair technicians are: they must develop good reading and interpreting ability. They should learn and become comfortable with the latest technology such as; computers and electronics since these are used to adjust and diagnose problems. Further they should have certain attributes such as; the mathematical, mechanical and analytical aptitude, to work as a team-player and work with little or no supervision. Highly adept and experienced heavy duty repair technicians may advance to service manager positions and some can even start their own business.

Hire experienced technicians to take care of heavy equipment

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One of the biggest hindrances that many construction companies encounter is the abrupt breaking down of the heavy equipment which ultimately leads to no business activity in that area for the next few days. It is quite evident that not every construction company can afford to deploy more than one heavy equipment in one location. They simply do not have enough heavy machinery to manage their business affairs on the jobsite and on top of that if they experience a break down with any of the machines that are currently in use, they suffer heavy loss for the number of days the machine remains inactive. Taking this into consideration, the way out of this mess is to ensure that you have someone to repair the machine whenever it breaks down.

The easy solution will be to hire technicians who will be a call away from the jobsite and can fix things instantly. If for some reason the machine needs any crucial part to be replaced then that should be done without any further delay which means immediately. Such should be the instruction coming from the higher management that as soon as there is a problem you have men to resolve it and this is how things will be in place.

Now when we talk about hiring technicians, it is prudent that one should hire experienced technicians who have worked earlier with most of the heavy machines that are normally used in a construction jobsite. The benefit in hiring such technicians will be that they will take less time to resolve the problem and also they will provide with highly effective solutions. This is perhaps something that we can’t expect from an inexperience technicians. They will relatively take more time to identify the issue whereas the experienced ones by then will be over and done with it. It will make life lot easy for the people directly involved in the business. An operator will be always at ease as he knows at the back of his mind that there is someone to help him if the machine goes bad. So he can work without any limitations.

So when we talk about hiring experienced guys does not mean that you only have a bunch of experienced men working for you. This may create a level of uneasiness amongst the technicians and in order to avoid this scenario, it is advisable that there should be a mixture of both experienced as well as inexperienced technicians. In this way, people who want to become good technician gets employment and you on the other hand can get a bit of cheap labor. Remember, experienced technicians charges good chunk of money as their compensation which most construction companies find difficult to give. Therefore, they are compelled to have a mixture of experienced and inexperienced men in their company so that they do not have to pay more for their services.

Alternatively, there is a high risk that the experienced guys may switch companies for better salary and benefits. So, having a mixture helps them to a larger extent.

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Become heavy equipment technician and earn a rewarding career

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If we look into the spectrum of the construction industry or the heavy equipment sector, we can see immense opportunities for people who can get into it during their early life. They will benefit the most as they will get a lot of time to learn things and understand the zone that they want to marvel. It is true that the heavy equipment domain is quite big and complex and it is simply not possible for anybody to learn everything and therefore what can be done is simply know what you are interested in doing and work on that all your life. This will make you the expert in that domain and will also help you to earn a rewarding career. Simultaneously there are been a never ending demand for professionals who have their expertise in the field of heavy equipment and who are far better technicians.

We will be talking in length about how becoming a technician can earn you a rewarding career and make you the man that you have always wished to become.

Construction companies are on look of good technicians:-

Every construction company wants their machines to work at all times. They however do not spend much time on maintaining it but certainly expects a lot from it. As a result of this, there are high chances of them breaking down. Now if a machine breaks down, it directly impacts the work in that department and also to a certain extent the monetary part of the project. No work for a day can make a huge impact on the finances of a company who are handling big operations. This has resulted too many companies hiring heavy equipment technicians whose basic job will be to keep the equipment maintained and ensure that they all are in working condition all throughout the year. In case, if they see any problem pertaining to the machine, report it to the next guy up in hierarchy and get it resolved.

Knowing the importance of these technicians, the construction companies are always in hunt of good experienced men who can really make a huge difference as far as getting the issue resolved. They are indeed ready to pay them a fat package for their services. Unfortunately, they severely experience a shortfall of such men which has invariable increased their demand.

Can open a workshop of your own:-

Heavy equipment technicians who are pretty knowledgeable to this profession and have worked with almost every kind of machine do not wish to work with any construction companies. On the other hand, they find it better to open their own workshop and run their business from there. In this way, they become their own boss and do not have to share the income with anybody apart from his employees. So the plan is pretty simple. You become a technician, work for some company and gain experience and then if you feel like doing a freelancer job, you are free to do so.

How to change a transmission on a bulldozer

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It is never easy to work on things that you do not know especially when it comes to fixing your heavy equipment and you have absolutely no knowledge how to go about with it. This is when you should depend on guys who are into fixing problem pertaining to heavy equipment. It is better that you give the machine to a mechanic who after checking the stuff will do what needs to be done with it. However, at times it becomes important for you to know a bit of fixing thing as well. You do not always get the mechanic handy and in situations like this you may experience the real trouble. You have work in hand and your machine is just not ready to work. It could be due to some problem with the transmission and in order to get it fixed, you need to open up a lot of stuff and the transmission out.

Ideally in a bulldozer, the transmission is located near the engine crankshaft and it remains attached there with the help of a flywheel or a clutch. In order to change the transmission, it is first critical to remove the stuff carefully from the place it is located. In case of a bulldozer once has to be very careful while getting it removed beside the engine crankshaft. He needs to be make sure that he does not mess up with the crankshaft or that will lead to further complication with the machine. You got to be absolutely sure that you know how to work things out and get the transmission replaced.

To learn things in a much better way, it is advisable that one should go through the user manual as the procedure is stated with pictures so that one does not go through a lot of hardship to understand how to change the transmission. You can also check how the mechanic works on your dozer. The way he spreads out the engine crankshaft and from there he pulls out the transmission. You can even ask the mechanic if you can give it a shot while he is there monitoring your work. In this way, you can practically try to change the transmission but if you feel that you are confident and can do it again, it is prudent that you do it in front of an expert so that in case you go wrong somewhere dealing with it, there will someone who can set things right for you.

One more method that you can adopt to learn to change the transmission is through training videos. Well, you get to learn a lot of stuff from there. You only have to enter the things you want to see and you get ample of options. Just pick the one you feel you should watch and check if that is the one you are looking for. For instance, if you want to check videos where people are shown changing the transmissions, you can do that on YouTube. It really helps but if you want to do it practically, better try things in front of an expert.

 

Ask a Heavy Equipment Mechanic a question

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When it comes to the health and well-being of your heavy equipment, you can’t trust anybody but the best. Heavy equipment is a complex subject in itself and it takes ages for mechanics to learn it completely. As a matter of fact, many expert mechanics agree that they can work fantastically on some types of heavy equipment but if they are asked to work on something that they have never worked previously then they have to start with it from square one. This means that they will spend time to first learn the machine well and then only will start working on it.

This indicates us the fact that if an expert mechanic can experience problem dealing with a new machine, what will a newbie do who perhaps do not have any experience whatsoever. He may ruin the stuff if he does not get proper guidance. Therefore, it becomes very important for people who have little or absolutely no knowledge about the working of a machine to ask question to a mechanic. Alternatively, if they experience any problem in fixing a machine, it is better that they put their question in forth of a mechanic and see what he suggests him to do. It will not be wise to act without the guidance of a mechanic or else the consequence could be drastic and appalling.

We would be discussing what one can do to reach a mechanic and ask him a question or two.

Join a forum run by a mechanic:-

This is one of the interesting ways to interact with the mechanic. You will find most of the mechanics who deals with heavy equipment to be tech savvy and they also write articles pertaining to heavy equipment on their websites. You only have to get in touch with one such mechanic and if you have any question you can shoot it out there in that forum. There are chances that they might reply you with the solution. Just in case you do not see any reply, the next option would be to try and contact the person over the phone.

The contact details will be available on the website. You can fetch those details from there and probably email him first and if he wants you to call him, you can do that as well. Ideally, they will help you with some trouble shooting solutions and may even provide you a link that talks more about the subject issue. You check the link and see how it helps you.

Contact your local mechanic:-

Just in case, you do not get much help from the mechanic after having written to him on his blog/forum, the next best viable option would be to ask the same question to your local mechanic. If the question is related to some new technology that is available in the market and if that can be installed in your machine, you mechanic will at least take the effort to know about the new stuff and inform you if it is at all compatible for your machine.

Becoming an expert mechanic of heavy equipment can ensure lucrative career

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It takes ages for a person to establish his career in any sector and top of it is abundantly painful as you have to strive for every inch that you make of yourself. In today’s time when time is money, it becomes difficult for people to wait this long. However, patience always bears fruit and thus the one who works harder can expect good returns. Same goes for becoming heavy equipment mechanic. A person who aspires for this profession as his career may have to go through lot of troubles and hardships and then he can expect to start getting some returns. Nevertheless, the one who is able to stick his foot to the ground and take all the struggle with a smile can make it to the top. Becoming an expert mechanic of heavy equipment is not a joke. One has to invest a lot of his time and energy studying about different kinds of machines, know the in and out of the machine and only after gaining enough experience can expect a lucrative career in this profession.

One thing is for sure that the guy who knows the most of a machine has huge demand in the construction sector and sky is definitely not a limit for him to grow. We will be discussing on few pointers that one should keep in mind if he has decided to make it big as a heavy equipment mechanic.

Getting basic education on heavy equipment is a must:-

Basic education on heavy equipment is a priority for any aspiring person. You need to know certain terminologies that can only be explained in a classroom session. Therefore a classroom training of approximately 1-2 years is essential. Once the classroom training is cleared, then the basic practical training begins and it is from here that one can pull it off.  Classroom training helps an individual to understand the basic principles which becomes very important when the person goes for practical training. He gets to know the jargons which otherwise is never taught in a practical class. There you are expected to know those jargons and if a person is not aware of it, he will have a hard time knowing things.

Always ask questions:-

Asking questions is something that we basically like to avoid. We get the feeling that our question is a stupid one and everyone knows what could be its answers. However, the reality is not many know the answer and you should not think if it is indeed a stupid one or a sensible one. A question is a question and if it has come to your mind, you need an answer for it.

Work under an expert:-

If you ever get the opportunity to work under an expert heavy equipment mechanic, stick to him for as long as you have gathered enough knowledge from him. Please understand that everybody wants to have good mechanic who can get their machines fixed in no time. Therefore, working under an expert will give you all the knowledge that you require to establish yourself as an expert heavy equipment mechanic.

Where should a Cat Diesel tech seek advice from?

In the construction and heavy equipment industry, it is very simple to get advices from people. However, you never know how far those advices are accurate and will work for you. So, before you start looking for any advices, it becomes quite instrumental that you find out the right set of people who can advise you on things. People who know about the subject you would be asking and if at all they do not know much about it, they will be frank and tell you to check it from someone else. There are many people who just for the sake of giving advices give you any wrong recommendations which turn out to be dangerous for you. There are people who have set up their office and consult others on various issues. Well, one can’t know anything and everything to consult others. Therefore, you should be aware of such thugs and go to the right place in case you need any consultation. Other than that, in today’s world where internet has brought all of us so close and has made the world a small village, it makes no sense to approach a person directly without checking things on net.

Create a forum and invite people to give advices:-

People love to give advices on things they know and at times even on things that they do not know much about. The best way to get some solid advices is to create a forum ad put up the question you want to know. You will see people flocking in to answer your question. As long as the question does not request others to give their business tactics, they will be more than willing to tell you know what you want to know. A forum will allow experts and intellectuals belonging to the construction and heavy equipment industry to come at a common place and speak on the topic in question. They can give you ample of options that you may have not even heard of. Having experts in your forum will always help you to develop your knowledge about the particular sphere an make you more competitive and a person who has an edge over others.

Simple search it on the net:-

At times you may just want some simple answers and may not require lot of opinions on a given subject as that might confuse you further. In such a situation, it is recommended that you simply search for it on the net. Internet can provide you distinctly what you are looking for and you may ignore the rest. As a matter of fact, it makes no point in getting confused with multiple options and we all expect a straight and simple answer to our questions.

Take advices from your colleagues and peers:-

When you are in trouble, you always depend on someone who is trustworthy. You can do the exact same thing here. If you are eagerly looking for something, you can depend on people with whom you have been working for years. They will be the right choice for you when you need them the most.