I recently purchase an older Ford 655D backhoe and started buying all the basic filters and fluids. A buddy of mine asked me why I was changing it myself vs paying someone else perform the basic fluid and filter changes as well as greasing the machine. I told him I was trying to save myself a little money to do more or other things. So my question is do most owner operators perform their own basic maintenance or do they pay someone else to do it? Just curious.
You are crazy to pay someone to do your PM. It is a good chance to check over the machine and catch small issues before they become huge problems.
I would go as far as to say you are crazy to pay someone to do any job that you are capable of doing for yourself, unless you want to throw your money away....... tell your buddy that IMHO he has more money than sense if that's his MO. The only case where I wouldn't consider the owner doing PM work is if you don't have the time available to do the work at the time it needs doing, because skipping periodic maintenance can cost you big bucks long term.
Unless you are making money on jobs so fast that you can't find a spare moment, and have to hire a mechanic to come in at night and do it...but not many of us are in that situation
If everything goes as planned you can usually have the filters swapped in a few hours, not worth the hassle of driving 30 minutes one way to the dealer and back for them to have it a whole day and then have to pick it up again. And at the $112 a hour our Cat dealer bills labor out at I'd rather "pay myself" the couple hundred bucks instead.
The only argument against doing it yourself is that a "pro" might catch something that may cause you problems down the road while he is working on the machine. I worked for a guy in a truck shop who was an excellent mechanic. He took his Harley to the dealer to get the oil changed. His rational was that they work on them everyday. They know what to look for. If they see a problem and fix it, that's better then him trying to fix it on the side of the road.
Yair . . . . Yeh, roadside issues can be a problem with Harleys. (ducks for cover, grins) Cheers.
I echo the others sentiment. We have 8 pieces of equipment and 3 trucks. The only PM that I hire out is the oil change on my truck as it's newer and still under warranty. The records from a third party for PM can be invaluable in a warranty dispute. PM is not that difficult and you want to make sure it's done regularly and correctly, with just one machine why in the world would you pay someone to grease it? I do technically pay people to grease and do PM but they are my operators as well and I'm not afraid to get greasy either.
The only thing I might add to the others would be if you have never done the job before and do have a good mechanic you go to for major repairs. I might ask if he would be willing to, while being paid of course, walk you through the basic maintenance procedures pointing out things he feels are important items to watch out for to prevent problems. This would be with the understanding that if you do find something questionable he would be the guy you would call to make the repair! I worked all the time for a major company but did see from time to time small contractors come in the quarry for a project who had absolutely no idea about even the simplest things about their equipment. All they knew is "If I push this button it usually starts!" Their livelihood depends on that machine and they had not the faintest idea about how it worked or how to care for it!
That's why you see so many skid steers for sale with blown engines. They never check the oil and wouldn't know what to do if it needed oil anyway.
I had one of my scrapers engine oil changed on the job by the dealer lube guy, cost me over $500, 1st and last time.
If it's in my capabilities to perform it, I'll do it. I've seen way too many screw ups by so-called "professionals" at dealerships. The last one was on a brand new mini ex waiting to be loaded for delivery to a customer. The salesman was showing me the under hood features and I noticed that the oil filler cap was missing. It was sitting on the mechanic's bench...he was at lunch.
By all means do what you can yourself, as said previously it is an excellent way to look over the entire machine to catch any other issues. If you don't know how, just start, and you will learn as you go, quickly.