It never ceases to amaze me how neglected some machinery can be.
Often when a customer asks me to service their newly acquired, used excavator, I always suggest a full service to give their service records a clean slate. Most times we find the final drives to be completely neglected, with the condition of the oil to be far beyond, what would be considered to be normal in appearance.
Most manufacturers suggest a 1000hr service interval for these compartments – most mini excavators contain about 1litre of oil working in an environment containing a huge amount of gear contact area.
TIP – service your final drives every 250hrs along with your engine oil & filter – A small investment of 2 litres of oil can possibly save you $5000 – $6000 in unnecessary repair costs down the track.
Thank you for the information on excavators. I find it really interesting that servicing it could save you $5000 – $6000 in unnecessary repairs. It seems like that could really put out a company for repairs that could have been prevented.