Plant & machinery breakdowns..... - Do you get plauged with breakdowns?

[Dave_L]

We seem to have been through a bad patch of late with plant breakdowns!

Firstly the road planer bursts a hose whilst out on a job, fortunately a replacement was close to hand....that was okay....

Then, on a job some 60 miles distant from our yard, our ped roller spits out a bearing and stops working - bear in mind we had this one fully reconditioned at a cost of £3500 back in May......so back one of us had to go to the yard to collect 'Old Faithful' - that was a horrible day!

Then, a few days later just as I had lifted the planer head out of the work, OIL EVERYWHERE from the area of the hydraulic motor!
This time the motor had sheared 4 of the 10 securing bolts and blown an O ring on the pump body.

Tommorrow is be D-Day - let's hope the planer works without any hiccups! Fingers crossed!

Anybody else have these runs of breakdowns?

[Stuarty]

yeah, its never just an odd item, its everything at the same time Always seems to be when the boss is away on holiday aswell heh. I remember when we were doing some demoltion work a couple years back, we were ripping down a small outbuilding, just like an old garage i think it was, and at the time i was just labouring, getting let loose with the sledge every now and then. All of a sudden we hear a crack, i look round and the guy in the mini digger ripped the sump clean off. That wasnt very handy. Once the building was down, it was my job to clean up the rubble with the telehandler. That was going fine untill the locking pin for the bucket fell out, and i only realised when the bucket fell off the machine, so after about an hour of wandering around where i was driving looking for the pin, i found it, and got hooked up again. Next morning when i was taking the last load, the bucket was a bit on the full side but i thought "im not coming back round for that wee amount" so we horsed it in, and off i went. I got to the tip, started to lift the boom and push it out just slighlty, my back wheels were around 2 foot in the air now, and just as i tilt the bucket to empty it the end of the ram shoots off, hydraulic oil everywhere, a very dead ram and an extremely fed up operator. Stressful times heh

[Dave_L]

My god that makes our breakdowns look small-fry Stu!!!!!!!

[Stuarty]

At least we were in the yard heh that must have been the only thing that was in our favour heh

[dig dug dan]

I brought a bobcat 440 off a mate of mine, and lent it to my mate who was using it to cart soil round the back of a house for a lawn.
A hydraulic pipe burst for the main lift arm. Oil everywhere. Machine couldn't be moved until it was fixed. I got pirtek out, and it cost me £400 for one pipe by the time I paid for labour etc. shant use them again. Half a day it took to repair.
The engineer didn't know how to take the thing apart to change the hose, hence i had to pay for his time!!
To be fair, I do not know how I am going to replace every flexi hose on the machine which is what has been advised. I cant see how it comes apart.
A winter job in the workshop i suppose!

[Dave_L]

"Lenders are loosers" so the old man tells me.

Perhaps he's right?

[Dave_L]

I got pirtek out, and it cost me £400 for one pipe by the time I paid for labour etc. shant use them again. Half a day it took to repair.
The engineer didn't know how to take the thing apart to change the hose, hence i had to pay for his time!!

Our Bobcat 843 is worth it's weight in gold to us, bu when it breaks down, it usually does in style! Fortunately our plant fillter knows his way around it pretty well. Even the handbrake works!!

We keep a stock of the most common hoses, but that's about as far as it goes. Gets expensive otherwise.....

Very important to carry spare inline fuel filters for it, coupled into the fuel lines with quick release clips!

[Stuarty]

If its anything like the tractors ive worked on in the past the collars on the pipe should be threaded, a couple of spanners and a bit of elbow grease usually frees them up. Alot of agricultural dealers will make up pipes for you, and usually cheaper than them call out lots heh. Friendly word and the promise of a beer or two seems to convince most round here

I think your old man might well be right Dave heh

[Dave_L]

I think your old man might well be right Dave heh

I'm certain he is right, but I'm too kind hearted with my own stuff.......

Plus I'd never tell him he was right!!! :p

[lutonlagerlout]

i have 2 stihl ts 350 petrol saws,1 of which is always in the repair shop getting a new summat fitted to it,its cheaper than hiring this way IYKWIM
we also lost 2 mixers in 1 day,jim was knocking up and he put too much in and the drum sheared off (cheapish mixer i spose)
so we got the other one from the lock up and guess what??
yup he was cleaning that one out and the same thing happened,had a job explaining that to the guvnor
as for sledges i used to break 1 shaft before dinner and 1 after in my youth,but now i delegate where possible
hehe
LLL

[Stuarty]

our old mixer went on fire about 2 years ago, that was entertaining to say the least. Our wacker plate is very tempremental to when it wants to work and when it doesnt, although the same could be said about the plook that works with me, i know ive not been in the game that long compared to some of you lads but i sure as hell couldnt have been that stupid, nor lazy. Atleast i hope not anyway lol

[Dave_L]

ha - in our game, the compaction plant HAS to start first time otherwise we'd be dealing with cold tarmac, which doesn't shape up very well!

Another breakdown today, the planer head hydraulic motor definately isn't happy. Got most of it done the rest was done by two breakers.......noisy!!

[slickboy]

We have two sthill ts 400's that we bought second hand recently and they both conked out on the same job last week..took them to local stihl repair man and he said they weren't worth repairing they were that fooked. Borrowed another ts400 off a mate that night and it was nicked out the back of the van while we were in the pub after work!! So we are 3 stihls down in one week! Bummer.

[Dave_L]

Yes - these TS400 saws do tend to lead hard lives......I'm surpised to hear they were beyond economical repair though! Don't chuck them out though, you never know when you might need a spare part in the future!

Remember when I said lenders were loosers? Not good to loose one to theft though. I guess you're gonna have to replace it for him?

[Stuarty]

yeah we had a TS400 pinched a while back. We also have a couple of oldies that have died in the workshop. As Dave says, there are plenty bits that you can salvage from them.