Good Concrete Boom Pump Maintenance Schedule
Regularly-scheduled concrete boom pump maintenance is essential to protect your investment in your equipment and to increase your workers’ safety. It is too important to allow office administration, customer project deadlines, and other demands on our time to cause us to forget to take good care of our concrete pump.
In fact, concrete pump maintenance pays for itself in time and money. With fewer breakdowns, you, your workers, and customers will have fewer emergencies and problems with getting the job done. There are 2 kinds of maintenance: preventive and repairs. Frequently, pump owners do the minimum repairs to keep the pump going for the next job.
At JED Alliance Group, we buy used concrete pumps from many different companies and individuals in the United States. After seeing hundreds of used concrete pumps, we know that most pump owners forget to take care of their machinery. Often, if they had maintained their pump, it would still be working for them. With deferred maintenance and repair, they end up selling the pump to us because it has become unreliable, with a lot of problems.
Want to extend the life of your concrete boom pump? Here are some tips on how to maintain your concrete pump and keep your company’s concrete jobs producing good cash flow.
Every 8 Hours or at the End of Every Day
ON THE PUMP:
Grease the back end. Check the pretension on the accumulator’s gas. Then check the oil. Finally, check the water box, stroke it a few times and dump it.
ON THE TRUCK:
Check the tires, oil, diesel, power steering, and radiator fluid.
Every 40 Hours
ON THE PUMP:
Check the grease pod. Then check the boom filter gauges to make sure they are still in the green. And check the prop switches; make sure both at the top and the 2 at the bottom are working.
ON THE TRUCK:
Check lug nuts on the wheels. Inspect the alternator and air conditioning belts.
Every 100 Hours
ON THE PUMP:
Grease the whole boom, all the sections and the turret; make sure not to over grease the turret. Check the pretension on the cutting ring (if it’s a Putzmeister concrete pump). Check the switch-over cylinders. Inspect for leaks on the boom and cracks on all the hydraulic hoses.
ON THE TRUCK:
Check the belt tensioner on the belts, break pods, and air lines. Do a leak down test on the brakes by getting the truck at 100 PSI the shut it off and keep pressing the gauge until the switch pops out. This will ensure the brakes will engage at low pressures. Check the frame bolts to make sure there are no loose bolts.
Every 250 Hours
ON THE PUMP:
Change all the oil and dump the 2 main tank filters and boom filter. Check for leaking in the hand valves on top of the boom. In the back of these, check the coils for rust on the end caps. Check the water box. Look for oil in the differential cylinders, if there is oil, you will need to repack them. Check wear fatigue on the water tank. Check for pretension on the cutting ring to make sure there is a compression seal inside the cutting ring. Open up the outriggers and look for leaks and pretension on the chain that drives the outriggers. Check the blowout hose, hard line box, and wireless control.
ON THE TRUCK:
Check the shift tower, dump all fluids, and change all filters. Remove the power steering filter out to take a HARD look at the belts (it’s cheap insurance). Blow out the radiator with air from the engine to the radiator and from the other way around. Verify the slack adjusters move. Inspect the exhaust pipe from the turbo to the muffler. Look at the fluid in the transmission. Grease the transmission. Check the pretension on the clutch to make sure there is no more than 1 1/2 inches in gap (as recommended by Mack). Inspect the output shaft to ensure there is no play. Check the carrier bearing and the 4 universal joints. Also check air tanks, lines and dryer. Finally, check the first and second drive axles for oil.
Every 500 Hours
ON THE PUMP:
Do a boom inspection, check the turret for play and torque, and gauge the material cylinders
