auto lube system

[cat320]

I was looking at an ad in one of the magazines about an auto lube system.Does any one run one in there equipment? How long does the grease last in a system that does not get used alot?

[motrack]

all the new loaders we sell to state of Indiana have auto lube on them and most of the new Terex end dumps.

systems are very reliable, just keep them full of grease and inspect you lube points once in a while to be sure they are geting grease. the install takes some time as you must route all the lube lines and watch out for pinch points that could damage them.

you can set the luber for how often you want it to cycle and how long the cycle runs. These setings affect how often you will need to refill the luber with grease.

now the down side......... once you set you luber up it pumps the same amount of grease eveytime it cycles, does not matter if you are working the machine hard or the machine is parked with the engine idleing.......I often see Indiana DOT machines with puddles of grease under them because they allow the loader to set and run so much.

hard to find that sweet stop between under greasing and over greasing.

[dozerman]

Personally, I like to grease manually, as it gives me the oppourtunity to inpect for loose pins, bolts and the likes.
Also getting off the machine is a nice break sometimes.

A cat guy told told me they inspected some pins and bushings on a 10,000 hour excavator with auto lube, and found them to be nearly new.

...Brad

[Steve Frazier]

motrack, does the system pump the same amount of grease to all locations, or are the lines adjustable depending on requirement?

[DKinWA]

I haven't heard much about the auto lube systems, but I did see something at the last Ritchie Bros. auction that I thought was interesting. It wasn't an auto lube system, but a remote lube system on a 330? cat excavator. All of the grease fittings on the boom had lines running down to the base of the boom with a zerc fitting on the end. Essentially you could grease the bucket, thumb, boom, etc all from one location with a standard grease gun. I thought it was a great idea and beats standing on your tippy-toes trying to reach that "one" grease fitting.

[motrack]

Steve, The Lincolin system we most often use has no adj to change lube rate on individual lines. Luber is pumping into a manifold and lube lines are taped into manifold.

most all excavators and loaders today have a bank of grease zerks to lub. Not a new idea.

[AFCS]

I would assume that if you wanted to regulate the amount of grease going to a particular grease zerk, you could do the following.
pick the line, say base of boom pins. install restrictor ( plug with smaller hole drilled in it) inline to restrict this lube point as the reccommendation for a komatsu pc 200 is to lube it every 100 hours. For the locations such as the bucket articulation points, leave the installation as is and allow full flow when lubed. this will save you money, and allow you to properly lube your machine without thought. But i would definately check all lube points on a regular basis and adjust size of restrictors to larger if you even think you may not be getting enough grease.

[Dozerboy]

I ran a loader with some kind of auto lube setup, I don't know what kind but I'm sure it was one of the better ones. I didn't like it, the lines broke all of the time, had to lug a 5 gal. bucket of grease up 7' to the cab to fill it, grease every where. Waste of $$$ IMO, gives guys a reason to be lazy isn't it bad enough were already operators.

[speedy]

We had auto-lube on 2 loaders and 3 trucks. Found that the loadersd used less grease (weren't always over-greasing the pins to flush the dirt out) and the trucks used more grease than before. (what trucker ever greases enough?)

The system we had, you had 3 time intervals to choose from, and they were programmable. (20 min, 40 min, 60 min - or 10min, 30 min, 90 min - whatever you ewanted.) And the individual points each had their own size injector - based on the surface area to be lubed.

http://www.cplsystems.com/

This maunufacturer also has a system that has the ability to grease a chassis and mounted equipment at different intervals. Chassis when it's driving and mounted equipment when it's being used.

They even has a system with 3 distinct functions. I am now a concrete pumper, and I can see the use for this on a concrete pump -chassis, pump cell, and boom. All require individual grease management schedules.

and the system worked well in our cold Canadian winters too.

[mflah87]

one of my loaders had an autolube on it when i bought it, but other than that the only machines with autolubes are the two excavators with hammers.

[06bowtie_guy]

On our cat scoops we run Lincon Lubricators. Let's face it in mining operators don't want to grease machines so now while in the fuel bay then can just top up the greaser and good to go. They come adjustable so you can choose the on time and off time. Very few problems.

[atgreene]

We have auto lubes on the fire trucks here at work, and they definitely have helped with maint.

Has anyone priced them? Or better yet, where is a supplier for the tubing and fittings to run all your grease to one point on the chasis?

[Countryboy]

We have auto lubes on everything that has tires or tracks at the quarry. We have a company come in and install them, and if I'm not mistaken, they are the same people we buy the systems from. The hardest part of the installation is getting the regulator manifold set correctly to where everything gets the correct amount of grease. They are great systems and we have very little problems from them.

Has anyone priced them? Or better yet, where is a supplier for the tubing and fittings to run all your grease to one point on the chasis?

I don't know how much these run but I will try and find out. As far as lines go they use regular grease lines and fittings. We replace the lines in-house and use a smaller version of a hydraulic fitting crimper that fits in a vise. Cut the line to lenngth, crimp on the ends with the crimper and vualla you have a grease line. You will need to make something for it to mount to, run a power source to it and install your lines. Thats about it, they look more complicated them they really are. You can buy bulk grease line in spools. I will try to find out where we get the line and also the price for the crimping tool which I'm sure is under $150.

On edit:

does the system pump the same amount of grease to all locations, or are the lines adjustable depending on requirement?

Steve to answer your question, yes and yes. It depends on the system. The system we use has a 1" line that goes from the tank to a regulator manifold where the amount of grease going to a particular place is adjusted using a set screw. The manifolds or "grease blocks" we use can have up to 20 lines connected to them.

[06bowtie_guy]

http://www.lincolnindustrial.com/asp/products/auto_lub_sys.asp

Can see the different systems they offer.

[BrianHay]

A company I used to work for had auto greasers on all their scrapers (the one pictured in my avatar is what I ran for them for 4 years. Its a series 2 637) I loved them and so did the company. Scrapers have a lot of grease points on them and lots of operators get lazy greasing them all. It extended the life of the pins by thousands of hours. With the auto greaser the only ones I had to grease manualy were on the bail, the brakes and the rams that lift the bowl. I only had to refill it about 2-3 times per month and it only took about 15 minutes. The hoses off the pail you refilled from were long enough to reach from the ground. The amount of grease each pin got was easily adjustable with a half inch wrench and a pair of pliers. There was a light in the cab that came on each time it cycled so you knew it was working. As well there was a button you could hold down if you wanted to cycle it manualy. This system not only saved the pins but signifigantly reduced down time for servicing. We only stopped a half hour per day for lunch/service (our own choice btw. We liked it that way because then we got paid for our full 12hr shift)

[mflah87]

On the 2 excavators that have hammers I have autolubes, and on 1 loader because it came with it. On the hammers i got them as an insurance policy that way i dont need to worry about guys not greasing them and destroying the hammer.

[MKTEF]

We buy Lincoln atolube systems on all our new equipment now.:)
We have found Lincoln best, because they have the highest pressure, and then gets grease out to all points without questions.

The amount to each point is calculated at mounting, together with the time of greasing and pause time.
The points just gets exactly the correct amount spesified by the produser.

But u get smaler amounts more often than when greasing manualy.(smal amounts every 3 hours, instead of a big amount every 10)

How often u need to refill is a question on how big reservoir u by with the pump.
All this is calculated by the mounting firm. And u can say that u want it to last for a week if so.
The Hitachi EX5500 on Bauma had a crane and a barrel with grease on top....

[artherd]

I'm very interested in these, how do you tell (any other way besides visual inspection?) that a point is not getting grease for whatever reason?

Can they be set to hit every point on an excavator, or should bucket linkage pins, etc. still be done manually?

[MKTEF]

Hey Artherd

The distributing sentral/block has smal pistons going back and forth inside.
If a point dosen't get grease this piston will be stopped.
Then pressure rise in the system, and the pump will give a warning, or the grease will come out of the safety valve.(next to the pump)

So the points gets it amount everytime. If it dosen't you got a leak between the sentral/block and the greasing point.(this block is near each point)

You can get systems that grease everything.(and thats the solution)
Problem on the exc is to protect the lines. The smaler the exc is, the more problematic it gets to protect the lines.
I have seen solutions where u veld on a smal angled iron and tread the tube inside, weld on a ring around the greasepoint with a hole in the side for the line and so on.

I do think they have a "smalest" size that they would recomend installing it on.;)
But of course this depends on the produser and the tecnical design.
Some might be worse than others.
I recomend a phone call to a dealer and discuss it with them.:)

[BrianHay]

Its kinda hard to explain but I will try. On the machine I was on that had the auto lube there was a bank of plungers in view of the operator. That was the same place you adjusted the amount of grease each point got. The further the little plunger went down when the system was greasing, the more grease that point was gettng (provided non of the lines were off past it of course). Twice a day, once in the morning and once at service time I would kik it on manualy with the button on the dash and watch the plungers to make sure they were all going down as far as they should and inspect to be sure they were all still connected.

On a hoe I think it can be done although I'm not sure how you go about protecting the lines. mflah87 can probably answer that one for you.

[BrianHay]

I was still typing when the question got answered...lol again. The solution to protecting the lines that MKTEF gave sounds like it would work purty good.

[DirtMan]

I heard that over 80% of the excavators in Finland, (which is mostly water), are outfitted with Vogel automatic, central lubrication systems at the dealership, and believe that this is a window into the future for the rest of the planet as well. Why not?

True, it's better for the operator to take a hands on approach, and walk around his machine every day, greasing, and inspecting, BUT......in the real world, only about 8% of the operators actually do it, SO....bottom line, call Vogel!

The LA Dept. of Transportation has begun making this a standard, first with their road sweepers, then eventually the rest.

Vogel even has a system to include the Rototilt in the excavator lube kit!!!!

[Rockbreaker]

Auto lube system on machines is great,but you must always take a walk every day around the macine too see if there are leaks on the system.
Not many operaters do that but if there is a leak the grease dont get to the lubrication point and thats not the meaning is it?
Machines get better and more greasing by an auto lube system.
And the operater can refill once a month.
I have tried Lincon and Groenweld and both where good and user friendly.:waving

[Per Eriksson]

Let me take a wild guess here Dirtman, You also sell Vogel?

Cat's own system is made by Groeneweld.
Lincoln are very common around here as well.

Both can be setup to lube every point on a machine except the driveshafts.
Fit a quick connect fitting and you can have the systems extended on your Rotitlt or bucket whatever brand you choose....

Protecting the lines and lube points can be a bit tricky sometimes but an install on a medium sized excavator takes about a full day.

[Ray Welsh]

all the new loaders we sell to state of Indiana have auto lube on them and most of the new Terex end dumps.

systems are very reliable, just keep them full of grease and inspect you lube points once in a while to be sure they are geting grease. the install takes some time as you must route all the lube lines and watch out for pinch points that could damage them.

you can set the luber for how often you want it to cycle and how long the cycle runs. These setings affect how often you will need to refill the luber with grease.

now the down side......... once you set you luber up it pumps the same amount of grease eveytime it cycles, does not matter if you are working the machine hard or the machine is parked with the engine idleing.......I often see Indiana DOT machines with puddles of grease under them because they allow the loader to set and run so much.

hard to find that sweet stop between under greasing and over greasing.

Auto-greasing is great on production machines. Around 1976 we had 475B Michigan/Clark loaders which came with auto lube for all pins. They were adjustable and worked after "X" times the brakes were applied. I forget how this was done, but the system worked OK. The 475B's were good production loaders of their day (out performing 992s) but didn't last as long!!!!!

[telescooper]

We use several manufacturers auto greasers. I like them, but the grease lines can be a pain. They can be easily torn out if not hard plumbed, but that is not always possible. Brush and other stuff will pull them apart. Some things will still have to be greased by hand, like bucket pins and links. I think they save grease, and time if properly set up. The greasers we have are easily filled. I don't fix them so I don't know about setting them up or repairing them.
Telescooper

[637slayer]

the auto greasers on cat scrapers need to be redone. i noticed you said all cat grease systems are made by the same company? cause i noticed that the scraper setups especially around the neck,where all the pins and the other major components are,there are grease lines going everywhere,i dont think that all the mojor pins get enough grease.

[Goat]

I worked for an OEM equipment manufacturer in my recent past and we used Lincoln systems for our equipment from backhoes to wheeled loaders to large excavators. Do not manipulate the system. It is no different than restricting the flow on an AC system. A certain amount of flow and pressure is expected in the system. If you have multiple operators with questionable levels of accountability, I would highly recommend installing an auto-lube system. Reduce the amount of operator accountability and increase the level of machine longevity. Just my thoughts....

[DirtMan]

Let me take a wild guess here Dirtman, You also sell Vogel?

No...you?

[Dwan Hall]

Here is the one on my M-9 street sweeper. great system unless you smash a line. 3800 hours with only 1 bearing replaced.

The amount to each location is controlled by the fitting at the beginning of the tube to each grease joint. they are color coded. The system is set to run 1 cycle ever 10 minutes.

[Northart]

Cat has a Lincoln Auto Lube installed on this new Cat 14M grader.

[95zIV]

Maybe I missed it but it seems to me like another advantage is there's no dirty fittings or tips on guns to have to make sure are clean. In this manner there's not even the slightest bit of contamination in those fittings that would normally be hand greased?

[MKTEF]

Nice Northart.

Did the system grease all the points, or do u have to go out and do some manualy?

Our 976 still got 4 left on the blade pitch sylinders, two on the blade slide and one on the support bearing for the power axle from gearbox to diff.;)
(we also have one grader where u need to grease the axles for the sprockets on the turntable. The rest got a svivelling connection)

[cat 385]

the co. i work for has set just about all the iron up with auto lube i cant remember the make of ours but it has 3 different settins for the amount of grease depending on conditions and has a orange light let you know it is getting low and a red light when it runs out.

[tylermckee]

Whats a ballpark amount of the cost to set up an auto lube on an excavator, 120-200 size machine. Is the grease line something you cave to crimp on or is it a compression fitting?

[Dwan Hall]

tylermckee

on a new Volvo L60E it is about a $7000 option. I have found used pumps on E-bay for around $1200 to $1500 each without lines or a timer. Fittings run around 5 to 7 dollars each and the line is cheap. 2 to 3 cents a foot.

[Northart]

Hello MKTEF,

I dunno about if every point is serviced by the auto lube.

I know there was several grease manifolds, and grease lines everywhere. There was a relief valve at each manifold, and a zerk fitting for a manual grease gun, in case the lines got plugged for some reason.

The service oiler had to get out the book just like me, as it was new to everyone.

We looked , to see if grease was present at the lube places. So it was working.

Just don't remember:beatsme if the ripper was serviced , but I think it was.

[MKTEF]

I guessed that, just wondered if there was a svivel down under to the main blade..
It dosent show good, but looks like a black hose to the pitch sylinder in that pic.

[Paystar]

Not equipment, but I had a Groenveld CPL on my Paystar dump truck. I swear by them. Never would have a machine without. My truck cost $4000.00 Canadian, but that was for everything on a tri-axle dump, even the clevis pins on the auto slack adjusters. The amount of grease is adjustable, you just change the size of the jets in your distribution blocks. And you can easily add or delete grease points. In three years of year round work I used 2 five gallon pails of CPL grease (EP-0 and EP-0 winter grade). So at $90 to $100.00 a pail I think it pays for itself, considering what you'd pay for a tube of grease, and use at least two tubes every time (in which you always end up overgreasing). The timers on CPL's are adjustable. I had mine set to grease every two hours when the engine is running. Sounds excessive but you have to remember they only push about 10 cc's of grease, so they basically just keep all your points wet. Provided you have professionals such as CPL design your system for it's application with the right size jets and lines.
The thing I like about them is they grease when all your parts are moving and at operating temperature. It was a lot nicer to crawl under the truck daily to just inspect, not stick my hands all over greasy fittings. Ya I know, I'm a wuss, lol. I don't like getting dirty:D
Mine was flawless, only cut one line when I had the back axle burried at severe articulation (my own fault), but they are easy to fix. I can only comment on the CPL system because that's the only one I have any experience with.

[Pecord Exc]

5000 hours on out 312B all original pins and bushings that are tighter than on almost any excavator with over 200 hours! I think it works out pretty well for us! Ours is the Lincoln System I am not sure wich one because it has been ten years since we got it with the machine. I think that they are worth the $$$.

[trainwreck]

we had a deere 824j loader with a Lincoln auto lube system. it was a pain in the back side for us tons of trouble with the lines on it and some parts of the loader were not getting grease. so after 3,000 hours of fighting it the boss told me to take it off and put it in the trash.
so after dealing with this thing for 3 years i will never have one again.

just my .02

[sudhir.tandon]

all the new loaders we sell to state of Indiana have auto lube on them and most of the new Terex end dumps.

systems are very reliable, just keep them full of grease and inspect you lube points once in a while to be sure they are geting grease. the install takes some time as you must route all the lube lines and watch out for pinch points that could damage them.

you can set the luber for how often you want it to cycle and how long the cycle runs. These setings affect how often you will need to refill the luber with grease.

now the down side......... once you set you luber up it pumps the same amount of grease eveytime it cycles, does not matter if you are working the machine hard or the machine is parked with the engine idleing.......I often see Indiana DOT machines with puddles of grease under them because they allow the loader to set and run so much.

hard to find that sweet stop between under greasing and over greasing.
Brain,
its easy to adjust the digital moitore installed in your geasing system. Once the machine is on idle you can adjust the system and you shall see that there is no grease falling off. Ask the guy who installed the system to teach you how to do it.

[sudhir.tandon]

I haven't heard much about the auto lube systems, but I did see something at the last Ritchie Bros. auction that I thought was interesting. It wasn't an auto lube system, but a remote lube system on a 330? cat excavator. All of the grease fittings on the boom had lines running down to the base of the boom with a zerc fitting on the end. Essentially you could grease the bucket, thumb, boom, etc all from one location with a standard grease gun. I thought it was a great idea and beats standing on your tippy-toes trying to reach that "one" grease fitting.
Its not so tough to have an auto lube system on cat excavator and that size. depending upon where you are and how many equipments yu have , you can easily negotiate a price.

[Andy512]

Auto lube option has become a pretty frequent request on our machines. Some customers still prefer the centralized manual lube points.

[gggraham]

Groenveld CPL is the approved system for us with Volvo and Case. the installs have been very clean and very few problems.

[Speedpup]

Wonder if anyone ever did a Lull telehandler seems like it would be a nightmare?

[BritOperator]

I've run plenty of machines with auto lube systems on them and found the Groenveld system to be the best, simply because you can adjust the flow rate from the cab. It is better if you can have an air supplied grease filler bucket as it certainly saves alot of pumping. I also fill them every week instead of when they run dry as you only spend 5-10 minutes or so in stead of 30 minutes filling the grease.
But when all is said and done I still prefer to do it manually cos I think some of the systems pump too much grease around and it ends up making a mess. Atleast when you do it manually you can be more precise with the amount you pump into each fitting and do a machine inspection at the same time.

[MrKomatsu]

:usathumbs up on the auto lube....we run all equip with the Lincoln system....

[megamover]

Are Lincoln auto pumps sold at pump specialty dealers? I called a local equipment and parts dealer and talked about auto lube systems, said they would have to order one and he wasn't sure what system would fit. Where can you install auto lube systems?

[JA_LUBE]

I actually run an automatic lubrication company. JA Lube Central. They use NGLI 000/00 grades, which is a fluid grease. We offer systems for any equipment as well as replacement fittings. Check out our website www.jalubecentral.com and please feel free to email me or post any questions you have and I will assist you as quickly as possible.

[oldseabee]

Clark Michigan's had optional lube system years ago, there was a manifold built of different volume blocks so you could apply lots of grease to pivot pins and boom and bucket linkage and less to other areas. It could be set up with a timer or pressure switch, so you could have it grease whenever you hit reverse or any gear. That way it wasn't dumping grease on the ground when it was just sitting there. Can't remember the name, but it wasn't Lincoln.

[JA_LUBE]

This sounds a lot like the type of system that we provide. The grease is fed to each lube point via piston distributors, where each point can be metered separately in volumes from 0.1ccm - 1.0ccm. The system is controlled via an electronic timer which can be set to run in intervals of 30min-15 hours of run time. We utilize fluid grease in our systems as we've found that it is better able to lubricate joints. Hard grease doesn't have the ability to flow throughout the joint when it is pushed in. Hard grease cannot seep into the high friction areas like fluid grease can. Our system also works in such a way that if the vehicle is not in motion when the lube is dispensed, it will hold line pressure so that once the joint actually starts moving around, the grease can then make its way throughout the joint and lubricate more effectively.

[CKUHN]

I install Lincoln auto lube systems on Wheel loaders and large excavators. And all are powered with machine elec. and pilot oil pressure. They are also 100% metered injections, either through the pump timer or through a series of pressure regulated spool valves and a ssv-d adjustabe divider valve, mounted on loader arms, or stick/boom.

[coalrulz]

heavy mining equipment relies on auto-lube systems. draglines, trucks, and production loaders and shovels. Most I've been around are Lincoln systems, and very reliable. they are not cheap to maintain and few people outside of mining understand how they work.

[JA_LUBE]

Our soft grease systems incorporate the use of piston distributors rather than progressive feeders. Time and again we have seen that our system is far more reliable than a progressive type system. We can also boast that our systems are not expensive to maintain as there aren't many components that are susceptible to failure. Generally if there is ever anything that fails it will be a plastic line, which we use on Over The Road equipment, getting snagged or pinched, and this is generally the fault of the individual installer when someone installs their own system. We use plastic lines on Over The Road equipment as it is cost effective for the end user and suits the application well. For Off Road equipment we use high pressure hydraulic hoses, which can withstand a much more harsh beating. All of these facts give us the ability to be extremely price competitive against a progressive system manufacturer being that our system pricing itself is lower and our system requires practically no maintenance.