To Grease OR Not To Grease?

[Chris-PA]

A little grease on your beam will do wonders.

 

[blackdogon57]

Got thinking about this thread while processing today and decided to take a look at ram. Looks like it has been self lubing with hydraulic fluid. Off to the hydraulic shop for a fix. Hopefully the shaft is not bent.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Well hopefully it isn't too bad!!

SR

 

[7sleeper]

Actually some excavators now are grease less, specifically ditchwitch. They use a special plastic bushings and seals on the pin. Works very well. Most other high quality excavators if greased use seals on the pins as well now to keep the dirt out of the pivot point. Also the older ones without seals recommended purging the joint daily with grease to flush out any dirt. If this was not done it would result in new pins and bushing with some frequency. Flushing dirty grease out of a log splitter would be somewhat of a challenge I would imagine. Of course most logs don't have the sand on them, probably depends on local. Around here its just clay.

Kind of reminds me of the oil less air compressors...

7

 

[Joesell]

Kind of reminds me of the oil less air compressors...

7

Or sealed u-joints! LOL

 

[Chris-PA]

Kind of reminds me of the oil less air compressors...

7

"Lubed-for-life" bearings - by definition!

 

[7sleeper]

"Lubed-for-life" bearings - by definition!

Are we talking about the life time of mice or of a tortoise by definition?

7

 

[Joesell]

"Lubed-for-life" bearings - by definition!

Yeah, the life of the compressor. Which doesn't end up being very long.

 

[philoshop]

Like when they came out with the sealed car batteries: 'Never need to add water'!
Well you do, but you can't. How simple is that?

 

[7sleeper]

What was the term again, I believe "planned obselescence"...

But how would we ever have such evil thoughts....

7

 

[OnTheRoad]

Actually some excavators now are grease less, specifically ditchwitch. They use a special plastic bushings and seals on the pin. Works very well. Most other high quality excavators if greased use seals on the pins as well now to keep the dirt out of the pivot point. Also the older ones without seals recommended purging the joint daily with grease to flush out any dirt. If this was not done it would result in new pins and bushing with some frequency. Flushing dirty grease out of a log splitter would be somewhat of a challenge I would imagine. Of course most logs don't have the sand on them, probably depends on local. Around here its just clay.

Ditch Witch equipment is JUNK. I have a 20/20 drill sitting 50 feet from me right now. I have run every major brand of equipment in most every category, and Ditch Wich is garbage.

If you are talking about trackhoes, Cat is where it's at. Link Belt is good, Case is ok, Hitachi is fair, Komatsu is great for the money, Deere is another Chinese import Hitachi... I have run them all. If you are talking about Minis (I think you are) Ditch Witch is bottom of the barrel junk.

Grease is crucial to any piece of equipment. Every place two pieces of metal (really any material) make contact under pressure needs grease on a routine basis. No exceptions. Some companies use plastic rub plates and claim they don't require grease (Vermeer drills under the kelly, for example) but those plastic plates must be replaced routinely. On some drills that's a heck of a job. I guarantee you that those plates would last 10x as long if they were greased daily.

For those of us who operate equipment for a living, there is no doubt. Grease is required.

 

[firebrick43]

I wasn't talking about the minis, actually never seen (or realized they made) a ditch witch mini. I am talking about the loader back hoes. The ones that look weird as they have have 4 equal size tires. I actually have not been around them much but a friend has one and while he has had some issues he has told me the one nice thing about it is that the backhoe is not loosey goosey like his case got after several years. I have seen it operate and it definitely doesn't have sloppy pins and bushings after 5 years of decent use.

But my main point to my post is most new excavators have seals on the pins, grease less or not, keeping the dirt out is much better than trying to purge the grease out everyday, in maintenance time/cost, and for the life of the machine, which is impossible in the case of a log splitter. Grease and sand make grinding paste. Now a vertical splitter in a local with clay or loam soil grease away.

I like cat to! They pay my salary