Why You Need To Maintain Construction Equipment To Cut Costs In The Long Run
Are you in the construction industry? Maybe you own or operate your own construction company or you work for a construction company. Whether you are new to the business or you have been doing it for awhile, you probably know how important it is to assess your job, have the right tools for the job and to make sure your tools and machines are in the best condition to get the job done safely and efficiently.
It is essential to make sure everything is in top condition from the bulldozer wear bar, to the grouser track bolts and bushings, to the tipping grids that may be involved in your upcoming construction job.
Construction is a large business in the United States. Every year, it continues to increase in need and money earned. Currently, expenditures for construction in the United States exceed $900 billion. That makes the United States the second largest in the world for the construction market. In 2014, private construction companies spent quite a bit of money. These private construction companies alone spent $687 billion.
One factor of the construction industry that is booming is the mining sector. From 2009 to 2014, the gross output of the mining industry significantly increased. We saw numbers in the United States go from $380 million in total mining gross output to over $667 billion. Not to mention, the number of employees in the United States who work in mining is significant. There were 659,000 mining employees as of 2016 working in the United States alone.
With 21 percent of worldwide revenue coming from construction equipment from the North American market alone in 2014, it is easy to see how expensive, costly and necessary having the right tools and equipment is in the construction industry whether it?s grouser track bolts and bushings or a crushing bar.
So, how do you know if your grouser track bolts and bushings are right for the job?
There are a few indicators you can look to when trying to decide what grouser tracks you need. For instance, you have to decide if you want grousers with single, double or trip teeth. Single grouser have one tooth which bulldozers will usually use. Double grousers have two teeth and are used for loaders. Triple grousers have three teeth and are most often used as excavators.
Once you decide the number of teeth you need your grouser to have, you can move on to the tracks. When you lay the track down, it should sag around two inches. You will be able to know it is right when you lay the track from grousers to the grousers tip, and it perfectly sags two inches down. Additionally, you can check on the wear of the tracks over time to know if you need any repairs, maintenance or replacement tracks. If the tracks are not correctly adjusted, they will wear three time fasters on average. Make sure you correctly adjust them so they are not too tight before you start the job.
Be prepared, though, if you are in the construction industry. It is known that over time, many owners end up spending more on repairs and maintenance for an item than they did on the actual cost to purchase the item originally. If you make sure you are knowledgeable about the tools and equipment and you take good care of them in the long run, perhaps you will not have to spend so much on repairs year after year.
Do you own your own construction business or do you work for one that uses grouser track bolts and bushings? Do you regularly maintain and take care of all the construction equipment and tools you use so that the job can get done efficiently? Let us know in the comments how you take care of your construction equipment.