With the spring mowing season around the corner, John Deere fashioned some mower maintenance tips for landscape contractors to prepare their equipment.
They are as follows.
1. Quick tune-up. Tighten nuts and bolts, replace filters, check for belt fraying and replace as needed. Check the safety shields and guards. Look for missing parts and plugs and replace them.
2. Tires. Check tire pressure and examine treads for wear.
3. Fuel. Add a fuel stabilizer to the gas tank to prevent separation that can lead to corrosion. After adding the stabilizer, run the engine for five minutes to let it settle in.
4. Blades. Contractors should check blades regularly. Make sure blades are sharpened and replace any that may have logged too many hours. It’s important to check blade balance for even cut. (Reference “Grinding logic” from the February issue of Landscape Management for more on this topic.)
5. Height-of-cut. Revisit the height-of-cut on all your equipment. This is one of the most important aspects of machine prep.
6. Manuals and technology. Whether you’ve used an iPad or print manual to log maintenance schedules and any issues form last season, read through them to see what is preventable this year and what can be improved on. Make sure equipment operator manuals are readily available and give them a quick read through to refresh on safety and other troubleshooting information. Share with your colleagues as well.
7. Daily checklist. Create a daily checklist for your service crew and operators. Encourage equipment cleaning, blade checks/sharpening as needed and lubricating the pulleys and spindles.
