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Protect your heavy equipment during winter

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Winter has often caused enormous problems for heavy equipment owners. Construction companies have at times suffered huge losses as they were unable to get the machine to operate. This is therefore very crucial to protect your heavy equipment during this time of the year when there is heavy snow on the road and the weather out is absolutely chilled. One of the prime reasons why heavy equipment fail to work during winters is lack of maintenance. You have to make it a point to service the heavy equipment regularly or else it is bound to give problems at some point or the other and winters can be really vulnerable.

Heavy equipment like graders that are used to get snow off the road should be really well maintained. Right from the engine to its blades every part of the heavy equipment plays an important role in removing snow. Just before winter arrives, you should do some tests with the machine and check if everything is in order. If it gives slightest of indication of any issues, you should get it resolved from a mechanic. If at all you have the skill to fix heavy equipment reading the user manual you can try that out as well.

Read user manual to protect heavy equipment during winter:-

The user manual of particular heavy equipment is quite a crucial book and one should always keep it handy. It speaks in volumes about the way and methods that one can adopt to keep the machine active and running during any weather of the year. So just before the onset of winter the heavy equipment owner should check the manual and see what care has been advised by the book. Try to follow the user guide as much as you can. It will really help you to lengthen the overall life of the machine and also protect it during winter.

Keep your heavy equipment parts well lubricated:-

Start with the engine oil and end to the various crucial parts of the heavy equipment which require oil to stay lubricated. The oil that you use for the engine should match the outside temperature and try to use low viscosity oil that flows faster. Changing engine oil is most crucial and probably the most neglected part in this business. People have to compensate it with changing the engine or other vital parts which are damn expensive. Coolant is another thing that you must apply on the machine. Try to keep a mixture of 70% coolant and 30% water during the winters and in other seasons, it should be 50:50. Also you must ensure that the radiator is filled to the cap. This should be done before the start of the winter.

Apply tire chains so that it does not skid:-

While the heavy equipment is busy removing snow, there is a high possibility that it skids off from the road and hit the other lane. This could be dangerous and therefore applying tire chains is of utter importance. It will protect the tires from skidding and will ensure the safety of the operator and the machine.

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How to protect heavy equipment during winter

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Heavy equipment has to go through a lot of hardships and unlike humans it does not complain. Well, it does break down when it is unable to take any further but it has a very high level of endurance which makes it the most important component of the construction industry. However, it also becomes futile in front of extreme weather and rough terrain. Be it the hot summer or the wet monsoon or the harsh winter, it is expected to perform throughout the year but there is always a chance of it breaking down if the weather becomes extreme. More so in the winter, when the weather outside is frozen and the inside of the machine needs to be hot. Most of the times, it cranks up and does not start. It is therefore that the heavy equipment owners have to take extra care when it comes to their heavy equipment operating in chilled winter season.

Check if the engine is well lubricated:-

Most of the parts of the machine need to be well lubricated in order to function without any hick-ups. Hence, the operator needs to keep a very close watch and check time to time if the machine is well lubricated and special care needs to be taken with the engine of the machine. The engine oil should be changed on a regular basis and especially during winters, it should be changed once in a month. Due to the frozen climate outside, the oil becomes thick and it does not act as a good lubricator then. This may also affect the health of other parts of the machine which will eventually lead to complete replacement of that part. It absolutely makes no sense to invest money on buying new parts when you can easily change the engine oil at regular intervals.

Clean the fuel tank:-

Cleaning the fuel tank may sound to be trivial but is very crucial when it comes to the overall health of the heavy equipment. You need to clean the fuel tank cap and ensure that the cap is doing well. The fuel should be clean and should not contain any sediment or water. The presence of these components can become a big problem pertaining to fuel injection system failures.

Ensure that the batteries are in good health:-

It is perhaps the batteries that are the affected the most with the beginning of the winter. In order to ensure that the batteries are doing well, the operator should check the battery electrolyte and make sure that it is up to the full indicator and also above the plates. Another trivial but important part is to clean the top of the battery. There happens to be a lot of dirt on the top of the stuff and that can result in energy drain. You can make use of baking soda and terminal bush to clean any corrosion that exists around the posts. If you see that the heavy equipment will not be used during the winters and will be needed some other time, you can just remove the batteries and keep them in a storeroom so that it avoids any direct contact with the outside freezing weather.

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