The ten-minute daily check that prevents most breakdowns

A breakdown mid-shift costs far more than the repair. The machine stops, the crew stops, the tippers stop, and on a hired machine you are usually still paying for the day. The good news is that most failures give warning — a weeping hose, a loose track, a filter warning, a puddle under the machine. A disciplined ten-minute check at the start of the shift catches the majority of them.

Walk around before you start the engine

Start on the ground, with the machine off. Look underneath for fresh oil, coolant or fuel on the ground. A puddle that was not there yesterday is the single most useful thing you will see all day.

Check the tyres or the undercarriage. On a wheeled machine, look at pressure and at cuts in the sidewall. On a tracked machine, check track tension — a loose track derails, an over-tight track destroys sprockets and rollers — and look for missing bolts and damaged pads.

Look at the bucket, teeth and pins. Missing teeth cost you output, and a worn pin that is left alone turns into a much larger repair. Check the attachment is properly locked.

Fluids and filters

Check engine oil, hydraulic oil, coolant and fuel with the machine level. Oil that looks milky has water in it; oil that smells burnt has been overheated. Both need attention before the machine works hard.

Check the air filter indicator. In Indian site conditions — dust in summer, mud in the monsoon — air filters block much faster than the service manual assumes. A blocked filter costs fuel and, left long enough, costs the engine.

Drain the water separator on the fuel system. It takes thirty seconds and it prevents a large fuel-system bill.

Hoses, belts and greasing

Run your eye along the hydraulic hoses for chafing, cracked outer covers and weeping fittings. A hose that is weeping today bursts next week, usually under load, and hydraulic oil under pressure is dangerous as well as expensive. Check belt tension and condition.

Grease the points on the schedule — daily for boom, arm and bucket pins on a machine working hard, more often in wet or dusty conditions. Greasing is the cheapest maintenance there is and the most commonly skipped.

Start up and check the cab

Start the engine and let it idle. Listen: knocking, whining or a change from yesterday means stop and investigate. Watch the gauges come up to normal, and note any warning lamp that stays on.

Test the safety items before moving: horn, reverse alarm, lights, mirrors, seat belt, and on a crane the load moment indicator. Test the brakes and, on a machine with a swing lock, that it engages. A machine with a disabled alarm or a taped-over warning lamp should not work until it is fixed.

Write it down

Keep a simple daily log per machine: hour meter reading, fuel added, anything noticed, anything topped up. It takes a minute and it earns its keep three ways. It shows service intervals by real machine hours rather than guesswork. It gives you an early record when a hired machine develops a fault, which matters if there is a disagreement about who caused it. And it makes patterns visible — a machine that needs hydraulic oil every week has a leak somewhere.

On hired machines

The owner is responsible for the mechanical condition of the machine, but you are the one losing the day when it stops. Do the walk-around when the machine is delivered, with the operator present, and photograph anything already damaged. Report faults the same day rather than working around them — a fault you knew about and ignored becomes your problem when the damage is assessed at the end of the hire.

Agree in advance who handles servicing on a monthly hire, who pays for consumables, and what happens to the rate on days the machine is down. Getting that clear on day one prevents an argument on day thirty.