auto lube system

[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.

 

[joeltross]

Auto lube systems

I have been working on off-road and on-road equipment for 35 years designing auto lube systems. If you are looking to reduce maintenance man hours and reduce replacement of warn parts, this is the way to go. I have a customer that works in a fine sand quarry and the machine had a system installed 10 years ago and they just had to rebuild the engine. The local factory mechanic commented that the bearings and pins were still like new.

You can get the same results on off-road and on-road equipment and even stationary equipment. You use less lubricant putting it into the bearing in smaller amounts just more often than manual lubrication.

There is different ways to design the systems and there are many different manufactures supplying systems. But I guess I am old school using what works for me in a system design. Oh even with auto lube systems you need to inspect for damaged or equipment failures.

Send me an e-mail if you have a question.

 

[joeltross]

Also I use mostly series progressive systems over injectors. The injectors are maintenance free as stated in on of the last posting because you will never know if it is not working. When using the series progressive system by design it shows you a problem when it happens. With injectors you find the problem after a bearing failure. Now I sell both but I prefer the series progressive systems

 

[joeltross]

need help

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.

Need any help to understand how it works?

 

[NAGreaser]

The bottom line with automatic grease systems is that they improve the efficiencies in your preventative maintenance schedule, increase operator productivity and ensure longer lasting component life. All of these things positvely affect the profitability within a company...be it in the transportation, heavy construction, industrial or trailer market sectors.

All systems are not created equal and as stated by some of the other posting members, install is critical. My experience is that a parallel system by Groeneveld works the best. Not only do they manufacture and promote specific systems for each market segment (eg. TWIN AGS for construction equipment) they offer localized technical/sales support. In many cases, their system is the factory system that companies like CAT, Volvo or JCB promote.

Check out their website @ www.groeneveld.nl

You should be able to find answers there. Or feel free to contact me with any questions.

 

[NAGreaser]

I agree with BrianHay...but if he used a bigger resevoir he wouldn't even have to refill 2-3 times a month. The refill could occur during the scheduled 500 hour maintenance. Just a thought to reduce downtime!