6 Care Tips to Keep Construction Equipment in Top Condition
Construction equipment is a huge investment for most companies. If well maintained, it’s an asset that can continue paying dividends on job sites for years to come. If not well maintained, that same equipment can quickly become a liability that never surpasses its initial investment regarding what it contributed to your company. With that in mind, below are six tips for keeping your construction equipment in top shape.
1- Keep Records
One of the most important steps to ensuring that all your equipment is well maintained and operating at peak efficiency is ensuring that records regarding that equipment and its operation are well maintained and archived. This should include records regarding when and how maintenance was performed. It should also include relevant information regarding depreciation for accounting purposes as well as records of all breakdowns, repairs, or other relevant events. These records should not be shoved in a filing cabinet somewhere. Instead, they should be backed up in the digital databases used by the company and tagged with relevant information so they are easily searchable and accessible by the parties that need to examine them.
2- Track Efficiency
You should also attempt to track the overall efficiency of your construction equipment. This can be done via software designed to monitor certain pieces of equipment and then feed you with data that can later be analyzed. The software, for example, may be able to predict when a piece of equipment may need maintenance or repairs.
3- Routine Cleaning
Construction equipment doesn’t remain in storage for perpetuity. Instead, it is brought outdoors and subjected to a lot of dirt, grime, severe weather, and other strong environmental conditions. Any kind of equipment when subjected to this kind of exposure to the elements will begin to deteriorate over time. Instead, construction equipment, as well as many of its working parts as possible, should be cleaned regularly. This should not only be done when a piece of equipment appears dirty to the eye. Instead, it should be done on a routine basis as dictated by a schedule that is strictly adhered to. This way, every piece of equipment will be clean and avoid much of the corrosion and deterioration that would have occurred without those routine cleanings.
4- Protect Electrical Systems
One of the elements of construction equipment that is most likely to go bad is the electrical system. Protecting things like electrical wiring is paramount for ensuring that equipment lasts for the long term. You can do just that by limiting your equipment’s exposure to the elements when not in use. Storing such equipment indoors or even simply covering it with a tarp may be enough to make a difference especially when it comes to the deterioration of electrical wiring and systems that may be more prone to the elements than other parts of the equipment.
5- Replace Seals
Certain things, however, should not only be maintained on construction equipment, they should be replaced. This is, of course, true for filters. However, you should be aware that seals should also be replaced. These may be made out of either rubber or plastic. In most cases, plastic and rubber seals are not designed to last forever. Instead, they should be replaced on a schedule. If not, they could fail unexpectedly and put construction processes and safety in danger.
6- Inspect Proactively for Problems
Each piece of equipment should not only receive routine maintenance, but it should also receive routine inspections to spot problems and problem areas before they develop into much bigger issues. For example, valves should be checked routinely to find leaks. Something else that should be checked for is misalignment regarding construction vehicles. Some of these vehicles have to travel over rough terrain, and misalignment is a common issue.
Overall, construction equipment is very important for the operation and health of many small to large companies. This asset should be cared for with the attention it deserves. This requires maintaining it, repairing it, and replacing it as needed to stay efficient and profitable.
