By: Jesse Lee
Another productive winter is just over the horizon, but there’s still plenty of work to be done for your landscape and lawn service clients. In fact, fall is your second-busiest season; it’s (hopefully) when the landscape revenue starts falling to your bottom line.
Brian Simmons, technical service representative for Fisher Engineering, and Patrick Dietz, product manager for Western Snowplows, offer the following five post-season preventative maintenance steps for your plows and other snow-fighting equipment.
With these preventative measures, you not only prepare yourself for a smooth transition into winter, but you could save thousands in costly repairs.
1 Clean and paint all scratches and nicks in the powder coat to protect against rust. Any nicks or scratches that show exposed metal have the potential to rust. These areas should be inspected, cleaned, prepped and painted to ensure that rust does not have the chance to start. Fisher and Western each have a specially developed lacquer product to treat these areas.
“Because powder coat is thicker than paint, rust can continue to work under the surface,” Simmons explains. “This unseen rust will continue corroding the metal, while everything may seem OK on the surface.”
2 Fully collapse the lift cylinders and lubricate the chrome rods to protect the hydraulic system.“Lubricating the chrome helps prevent rust, and helps keep contaminants out of the hydraulic system,” Dietz says.
Rust on the chrome lift rods could potentially flake off and enter the hydraulic system, leading to costly repairs. Fully collapsing the lift cylinders and lubricating the chrome rods protects the hydraulics, nearly eliminating the risk of contamination.
3 Perform a thorough inspection of the iron. Do an in-depth check of the plow, looking for wear, metal fatigue, cracks or any other issues that may affect performance. Check all of the welds; re-torque the nuts and bolts and make sure everything is solid.
4 Grease all electrical connections to protect against corrosion. “This is by far the most important pre-season maintenance step to take,” Simmons says. Use a non-conductive, dielectric grease to seal out moisture from electrical connections, preventing corrosion that can destroy the electrical system.
“This small step can save both in time and money,” agrees Dietz. “You don’t want the surprise of electrical components being corroded when getting ready for the first snowfall of the year.”
5 Drain the hydraulic fluid to eliminate moisture build-up. Draining all of the hydraulic fluid prior to storage helps to ensure that there is no moisture build-up that can lead to either performance issues or rust.
“Condensation that forms in the hydraulic fluid can build up,” says Fisher Engineering’s Simmons. “With enough build-up, it’s possible for the reservoir to literally rust from the inside out.”
In addition to these five tips, Simmons and Dietz both agree that a little common sense can go a long way. By simply checking your plow on a regular basis and keeping up on simple maintenance, you can add years to the life of the plow and avoid headaches in the process.
“The last thing you want going into a new season are surprises,” says Western Snowplow’s Dietz. “Practicing preventative maintenance helps minimize and even eliminate these surprises, saving money in the long run and starting the next season off right.”
— The author is a public relations specialist with Epic Creative. Contact him at
jlee@epicwi.com.
