4 Bad Habits to Quit for Mini Excavator Operators & Owners

It is crucial to ensure that your mini excavator is ready for the job it’s scheduled for. However, there are certain bad habits that most mini excavator owners and operators succumb to. This can compromise your mini excavator’s performance a great deal and even affect its useful life.

Here MTS Plant will discuss four bad habits that operators and owners of mini excavators need to stamp out.

Ignoring Gear Oil in the Final Drive

The final drive is an essential part of your mini excavator. It is what keeps the excavator functioning. Once in every 100 hours of operation, check the level of the gear oil in the final drive. If the gear oil runs low while you are running the drive, you will damage the drive.

It is important to understand that gear oil degrades over time and due to exposure to heat. It is important to change the gear oil on a yearly basis lest you end up with a costly final drive failure.

Not Cleaning the Undercarriage

The undercarriage makes up a huge part of your M&O expenses. You can enhance the life of your undercarriage by cleaning it regularly. When you don’t clean the undercarriage regularly, the debris can pack in tightly and can push the seals aside. This can let in abrasive contaminants, which can cause huge damage to your machine undercarriage.

We have also found that often you can’t detect any problems during routine inspections such as track wear or leaking oils when the undercarriage is dirty. When there’s a lot of debris, your equipment will also become heavier which will, in turn, increase the fuel consumption.

Forgetting to Change the Hydraulic Fluid

Be sure to change the hydraulic fluid of your mini excavator once every 2,000 to 4,000 hours. Look up the owner’s manual to understand the exact timeline. Just like gear oil, hydraulic fluid will also degrade over time and with constant exposure to heat. Any time there’s a significant failure in the hydraulic system, be sure to flush the hydraulic system and replace the hydraulic fluid.

Not Greasing Bushings & Pins Appropriately

It is important to grease your mini excavator’s bushings and pins before it heads out for a job. As a rule-of-thumb, use 1 to 3 shots of grease. Very little grease will only accelerate the wear as there’s not enough lubrication. Similarly, too much of grease is also not good for your compact excavator. Too much grease will create a mess. Moreover, it can attract and trap abrasive materials (such as sand, dust and gravel), which can cause a lot of damage.

In Conclusion
If you want to ensure that your mini excavators have minimal disruption, a long life span and operate to highest efficiency, (we are sure you do) it is important to get rid of these bad habits.

Be sure to check and replace the gear oil in the final drive, clean the undercarriage on a regular basis, change the hydraulic fuel according to the manufacturer’s recommendations and grease the bushings and pins on the excavator appropriately.

MTS Plant is your trusted partner when you are looking for mini excavator hire. With service centres throughout the UK we can offer expert plant machinery repairs, maintenance and servicing when you need it.