A Guide on How to Maintain Ground Engaging Tools (G.E.T).
What does your maintenance routine for ground engaging tools (GET) look like? Do you have a routine? Maintenance is a crucial part of your daily operations, particularly in the heavy machinery and construction industry where neglecting maintenance can be costly, dangerous and counter-productive. Covering buckets, blades, rippers, and more, read our useful guide to GET maintenance.
Buckets
When installing new ground engaging buckets, it’s important to pay attention to configuration. The bucket positioner needs to be in the correct position according to specifications in order to ensure that the bucket is used at the correct angle to prevent wear. It’s also essential to ensure that the correct size of bucket is being utilised for your applications as this improves the efficiency of your dozer or excavator and aids safe operating.
Bucket Tips
Maintaining bucket tips is essential to the performance of your ground engaging tools, after all the tips should be making the most contact with the ground and so it’s crucial to choose the best ones for the type of ground you’re working with. There are a range of tips on the market, from general purpose to heavy duty, the latter being up to 60% more wear resistant than the general purpose tips.
Every so often, tips can be rotated, as corner tips wear out at a faster rate than their central counterparts, so some rotation can help keep tips even and extend their lifespan. However, it should be noted that this is not an excuse to avoid purchasing brand new tips! Rotating your tips for too long can lead to failure, so keep on top of this and buy new tips as and when needed.
Cutting Edges
To maintain base edges, keep an eye out for scalloping between teeth which indicates wear and replace cutting edges once this is the case. Furthermore, cracks on the top or bottom of the cutting edge’s rear weld need to be dealt with as soon as the issue arises to ensure safe and efficient operation.
For bolt-on blade edges, bolts need to be tightened and secure, and regular inspections will mean that loose bolts are prevented. Always remember to wear safety glasses when striking bolts!
Blades
Your dozer’s blades are secured with nuts and bolts and all these need to be tightened to specification and kept clean. Taking the time to keep them tightened and clean means that you’ll get maximum clamping force from your dozer, and this in turn translates to better productivity and performance.
Wear can also be reduced by taking care to avoid corner loading, as this distributes force more evenly across the dozer’s blades.
Rippers
As with your dozer’s blades, rippers also benefit from regular checks to spot wear and tear. If your ripper shank tip is worn too close to the shank itself, replace it, and the same advice goes for the shank protector too. The ripper mount, frame and carriage all also need to be checked for cracks around joints especially, and loose or missing retainer bolts should be tightened or replaced immediately.
Keep a Written Log
Maintaining your ground engaging tools doesn’t need to be difficult. A good way to keep on track is by keeping a written log or file in which maintenance tasks are routinely scheduled and those carrying out inspections or parts replacement can sign off each task as completed. Including the date, and time if the particular task might need to be done more than once in a 24 hour period, keeps you on top of your maintenance tasks and keeps everybody accountable and on the same page.
Benefits of G.E.T maintenance
The benefits of properly maintaining ground engaging tools include:
- Increased longevity- parts and heavy machinery lasts longer if wear and tear is caught early on and prevented from turning into a larger issue.
- Reduced costs- things like rotating bucket tips can save on costs, but even larger savings can be made down the line by replacing parts on time, instead of waiting for the issue to escalate in scale and in price.
- Reduced downtime- heavy machinery that needs to be repaired has an impact on your productivity as you simply can’t get all your work done. Regular maintenance, again, prevents escalation and keeps repairs smaller and more manageable.
At Jaytrac, we advise everybody to ensure they have a thorough maintenance schedule in place for all parts, including GET. To find out more about the high quality replacement parts that we supply for heavy duty machinery, including ground engaging tools for Caterpillar, Komatsu and Volvo machines please fill out an enquiry form, give us a call on +44 (0) 1604 491 133 or email sales@jaytrac.co.uk.