On the Genie Z45 man lift I bought, I've noticed the boom arm attached to the basket that slides in and out is showing signs of scratching and minor rust.I know the paint isn't going to stay unblemished forever [the machine has about 600 hours on it now] but I want to be a good steward until the kids get it when I pass. To me that means keeping up with all maintenance and I want to be sure I shouldn't be greasing that sliding boom. The owners manual is silent on that issue and some of the local experts say leave it dry and just keep an eye on the wear blocks that guide it. Before I follow that advice and ignore the paint rub, I wanted to ask the experts here. Grease it or not?
Grease attracts/holds dirt and sand, which make things worse over time. I believe they were made to be left dry.
No grease or lubricant. Those wear pads are made of UHMW plastic which has a very low friction coefficient comparable to Teflon. As OFF stated, grease/lube only attracts abrasive particles. If the boom section is showing paint gone or rust, sand the steel clean and smooth and repaint allowing plenty of paint cure time before retracting the boom section. The slicker the paint application the better.
I remember when we saw our first Genie. We all stood around and laughed at the non-greaseable "plastic" bushings on all the pins. We were all pretty experienced at replacing pins and bronze bushings on the old JLG's, and we could not imagine how plastic was going to last longer than a month. Boy, were we proved wrong.
Good input. Thanks for taking the time to reply.