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How often do you grease?

Borkjerky · 2022-01-21 04:59

Newb question: how often do you grease? One guy I work with who owns 2 large excavators adamantly told me after every use. Now I will admit, I am a newbie: going on 2 months owning my first TLB and loving every minute of it; But that seemed a bit excessive considering there's like 50 zerks (I may or may not be exaggerating). Thoughts?

Replies5
  1. #1Swetz2022-01-21 06:34

    Here is a link to an extensive thread on greasing. You can search from the black box in the upper right corner. I just typed in backhoe greasing to run the search. Glad to hear that your machine is putting a smile on your face!! HeavyEquipmentForums

  2. #2Scout_19692022-01-21 06:37

    Yep, grease everyday. Some fittings require very little while others need more grease. Some fittings like backhoe buckets pins might need grease every few hours in extreme conditions like in rock. Older hoe rams require greasing every few if I recall they might have autogreasers by now. Once you get to know your machine you’ll know how much grease each fitting takes. It’s kinda easy to over grease and have lots of grease around the joints, just have to find the balance between the sufficient and excessive amounts of grease. The old saying “grease is cheaper than steel” is true. I believe perhaps the best part of greasing everyday requires the operator to get close to the joints and parts of the machine to see if there’s anything requiring attention. This was true on older equipment with grease fittings at the joints, but with remote grease blocks that’s changed.

  3. #3aighead2022-01-21 06:54

    I probably don't grease often enough but I'm a home user and I run my machine, usually, for only a couple hours at a time. I think my manual suggests every 10 hours? Normally, I'll grease when I start hearing parts bang around more loudly but by then I'm probably about 5 hours late.

  4. #4Scout_19692022-01-21 08:27

    I should have said to grease every ‘8-10 hours of use’ because the machines don’t always run a full work day. Especially for personal use.

  5. #5Shimmy12022-01-21 08:53

    Well, when everything is slopped out, and you're posting questions about "how to get this pin on my backhoe to take grease", someone will find this thread for you, and then you can decide if greasing every 10 hours would have been **excessive**