This will be an interesting thread moving forward......

[Welder Dave]

A lot of the old school operators started off as oilers and maintainance workers. I wonder if it's a lack of funds nowadays? I think there are new operators that have a similar attitude to kids joining the work force, it's not their machine so they don't care too much if it gets greased or not, I'm an operator not a grease monkey.

 

[BigWrench55]

The people that own these machines don't care if it's maintained either only the poor b*****d that has to fix it does. The only time that the owners get pissed about it is when production stops or several large repair bills come in. In the end machines still get torn up. Production takes priority and it's either the mechanics fault or we don't have enough mechanics. Either way there's no accountability anywhere.

 

[Mike L]

When did these “old school operators “ cease to exist? I don’t have nearly the years of experience around equipment like many of you but I’ve been around equipment and operators for 20 or so years and I’ve seen it go both ways. I know guys who take pride in caring and maintaining equipment they don’t own and I’ve seen owner operators who don’t give a s*** about a piece that makes them a living.

 

[DMiller]

Most of us Old School types are still working and still doing as noted, some are just sloughing it off as Not My Job and moving toward Retirement day.

 

[old-iron-habit]

How about a little opposite perspective - when the boss is running you as a driver for maximum production on OT 6 days a week plus night call. You want to go home some of the time. So the quality and detail of maintenance checks suffers. I second the idea of an oiler that can take care of little things. It would make the driver feel better regarded as well.

My next younger brother (Diesel Duck) was a oiler back in the later 70s on a small fleet of scrapers (666s, 660s, DW-20s and 21s and three new 657s) when we were building the power plants and associated work in N.D. He worked afternoon shift and fueled them, greased them, and gave them a good once over. Anything he found out of sorts such as a radiator getting dirty, crack in the metal, even a zerk that would not take grease he would report it to the mechanics and they took care of it. That spread had very little downtime due to breakdowns. The push cats, sheep foots, and other equipment had their own oiler to keep after them. The head mechanic had put in 24 years with a Cat dealer first was keen on maintenance and was sharp as a tack on teaching the oilers what to look for.

 

[cuttin edge]

A line I hear all the time is " They got lots of money, they can afford to fix it."

 

[Welder Dave]

They can also hire better operators who look after the machines they run. The really sucky part is when you do the proper maintainance and stuff still breaks down and/or needs refurbishing.

 

[suladas]

A line I hear all the time is " They got lots of money, they can afford to fix it."

I hear that so much from the brother's guys, if I had to deal with people like that i'd either be in jail for knocking some sense into them, or they'd all be fired. I've been close to saying "an attitude like that is why you don't have two nickels to rub together". It's really trying on my patience to see such stupidity. But the sad part is it's insanely common even from the better guys, you don't want to know what it's like with the bad one's. I'd bet maybe 1% of employees actually treat equipment like it's theirs and look after it. There's not much you can do. If you want to be the size of having employees you just have to find the best one's and keep on top of them knowing they are still pretty close to useless.

 

[suladas]

They can also hire better operators who look after the machines they run. The really sucky part is when you do the proper maintainance and stuff still breaks down and/or needs refurbishing.

They are nearly impossible to find. Virtually anyone with the care and ambition to look after stuff and do jobs well isn't going to work for someone else.

 

[Shimmy1]

Virtually anyone with the care and ambition to look after stuff and do jobs well isn't going to work for someone else.

And the ones that do come with a whole 'nuther bunch of problems. Those of you that sign paychecks know what I'm talking about.

 

[Welder Dave]

Or they are happy working for a company that appreciates them. I always treat other peoples equipment better than if it was my own. I have on occasion pushed my own machines a little too much. I know a guy who ran a successful auto salvage and then auto repair business for years. He got into raising chickens and bought a skid steer to clean out the barns etc. He bought a brand new machine because he had ran mine and liked it. I was gobsmacked at how little maintainance he had done on it. It was like he was allergic to a grease gun. The pins for the boom.lift cylinders seized and he had to drill them out. The pins and bushings for the bucket were so worn and mangled he just stuck long generic pins in the wallowed out holes. Nothing to hold these pins in either. The most shocking part is this was all achieved in less than 500 hours!!! I think the machine even came with the first 500 hours service included if you took it to the dealer. Mine did so I took advantage of it. He didn't have a trailer but knows lots of people that do. His excuse was you never have time to work on your own stuff. I was in disbelief. My machine with 4000 or so hours and a few years older was in 100 times better condition. He used to talk about customers of his neglecting their vehicles but he is the worst I have ever seen. You need to do more than check the oil and air filter.

 

[cuttin edge]

That's where the automatic greaser is good to be sure a machine gets greased, but on the other hand, I find that while you are crawling over the machine, that's when you find things that are broken.

 

[Welder Dave]

An automatic greaser on a skid steer seems a little overkill. I would bet a lot of owners/users either forget or don't bother to grease the double U-joint for the pump drive. Some machines don't have it or it's not greaseable but if it is, it's worth the trouble to grease it. Replacement isn't a simple process. I heard that if your control levers get sloppy it can be because the double U-joint is either dry or worn out. I grease it every oil change.

 

[Mike85]

Auto lube depends on what you use the machine for. Sometimes the guy fixing the lines spends more time at the machine than the operator

 

[suladas]

That's where the automatic greaser is good to be sure a machine gets greased, but on the other hand, I find that while you are crawling over the machine, that's when you find things that are broken.

Yea I would never own something with auto-greaser. Most newer stuff with the quality of the bushings only say grease every 50 hours or more, so it's not that often even if you cut it in half it's only every 2-3 days if it runs all day. Not a big deal at all especially with a cordless grease gun. I know some places for the bigger stuff when the fuel truck comes around they also grease the machine, that makes sense and you know it's getting done that way.

 

[DMiller]

Quarry operations across the Midwest have adopted Auto Lube systems, DEERE and CAT install them as a Factory System, work reasonably well but as noted do not grease U Joints in drive shafts or much smaller stuff in or under cab. Bucket and loader arms along with pivot points get a 'Hit' on a timed meter interval, pins do not squeal or show signs of materials damage(Metal Dusting) nor do they show excessive lube discharge so have been dialed in pretty well.

 

[Truck Shop]

My two cents-I'm hired for a reason, so do me a favor stay the f@ck out of my way. Go micro manage
the golf coarse if you have nothing better to do. Just another big shot boss that's full sh!t and himself.

 

[John C.]

The broken tube stuff happened a lot when the systems first came out and there would be issues. I didn't like them at all back in those days. In the last ten years the installs are done better and the systems are far more efficient and have alarms that will alert the operator that something is wrong. I've looked at machines with auto lube where the implement joints were original at 12,000 hours. I've looked at machines with 3,000 hours dependent on the operator greasing where the joints were like a lot old lady's knees, completely worn out. I would recommend them every time now. I don't know of anyone who has a machine with a system who would buy another machine and leave it out. I know of a couple of construction companies that now put those systems on their highway dump trucks.

The opinions of those who have never had a machine in their fleet that had an auto lube system are basically talking from a position of ignorance.

 

[DB2]

Yes having spent time around both there’s something to be said for pushing pins out when it’s time with a hammer handle as opposed to a torch, lance or hydraulic power.

 

[kshansen]

Yes having spent time around both there’s something to be said for pushing pins out when it’s time with a hammer handle as opposed to a torch, lance or hydraulic power.

Wish I had a record of the hours on a Cat 966C that was at one of the companies quarries many moons ago. That machine had one of the very early auto-lube systems around. It used 80W-90 gear oil and the system worked off the air brake applications each fitting had a valve that regulated the amount of oil each one got.

By todays standards it was crude and the small nylon lines carrying the oil tended to be fragile. But the operator and his boss were very good about keeping the system working. If operator noticed a broken line or fitting while loading a truck he would finish that load and run to the shop and repair it before going to the next truck.

I had to rebuild a couple hydraulic cylinders on that machine when they started leaking due to age and when removing the pins the only sign of wear on the pins was a slight difference in the finish of the chrome plating. When that machine was sold off due to it's age it left the company with all the pins it left the factory with and was tight as the day it first hit the first stock pile!

But on the other side of the coin I have seen machines with much new and sophisticated auto-lube systems that were lucky to last over a year with out needing some new pins and bushings. Point is no system is better than the person maintaining it! Auto-lube can save a ton of work but it is no replacement for proper maintenance!