Hello, I work for my father and he has a jcb 804 mini excavator and it has been wonderful, though I swear my dad never maintenances it. He greases it alot and changes engine oil every once in a while, but that's it. How often do you guys recommend changing final drive oil, engine oil, filters, etc anything you recommend let me know because I would like to tke a little better care as the company may be mine someday. Thanks!
. Anyone want to comment on their maintenance ?
engine oil 200 hrs final drives dont hold much fluid but they can cost you as much as $10,000 to replace on a 5 ton mini so check them every oil change and dump them every 1000 hours or yearly. hydro oil and filters I would do the same. clean fluid makes everything last longer. all fluids in a mini are cheap when you compare them to a 40 ton excavator, so dont get cheap on the small dollar items like oils and filters. I even run syn oil in the hydro system for two reasons , one it starts much easier at cold temps , two the overall friction fighting propertys of the oil are better. hydro system in my CTL only holds just about 6.5 gallons when I changed it last so cost wise its only about $100 more.
. That is not what my father does.... Lol so I am going to change his fluids soon. I think his machine has 2000 hours on it with the same final drive oil and engine oil gets changed maybe every 700 hours and hydraulic oil never changed so he has some serious changes that need to be made.
Could you quietly get oil samples tested. Then you will have supporting documentation to prove your thoughts. Just changing the oils with out his concent will not change his ways.
. Yea I know, I don't know how to change his ways. He's just so busy his equipment never gets a rest lol