The reccesion has hit our area hard, at least in the housing and commercial building areas. A majority of our trucks and machines have been sitting idle. I have a list and try to start and run everything at least once a month. Is this enough or is there something else I should be doing to make sure our trucks and equipment will be ready when things turn around?
I would at least put a can of fuel treatment in the fuel tanks. and keep them topped of if possible...
Is there a brand you'd recommend?
What you need is a boicide treatment because bacteria and fungus will grow in diesel fuel that is siiting for long periods of time. Power Service and Racor make a biocide treatment, and I am sure there are a few other good brands out there. Stop by your local equipment dealer/supply house, or a truck dealer/supply house and see what brands they carry. And definitely keep the fuel tanks topped up, to minimize condensation.
so is that what is growning inside the filler neck of our wood grinder. it looks like some kind of mold.
grease chrome pistons on machines to prevent rust. I just rub some on with my hands to coat it or brush it.
I would give every grease zerk an extra shot or two, make sure the fuel tanks are full, and mabey splash some BioClean in there. Cover up the exahust and the intakes, make sure the coolant level is good, and the freeze point isnt to low! Another good thing would be to put some De-Con, or some other sort of rat and mice poision in the cabs. Them little (dirty words) can destory more stuff inside a cab than a fat girl at a free lunch.
I like to Exercise the machines atleast once a month. Get them up to operating temp and cycle all the functions.
This is a topic on my mind at present. I'm just wondering about the best way to prepare a machine for it's first start up in,say,2 years.It's a small dozer with 4 cyl diesel. Machine has sat in a shed for 2 years... Are there "gentle" ways to start the engine & run the systems without doing damage?? Thanks for any tips. Jim