At last, after a cold, dark winter, spring is finally here. As snow melts in colder climates and the weather warms up, it’s time to think about cleaning out all the gunk in the engine and hydraulic systems of your equipment before it becomes a problem.

Left to itself, a buildup of dirt is very costly to logging contractors. In fact, approximately nine out of ten hydraulic system failures are caused by dirt contamination. John Deere has found it to be a more common cost than any other maintenance problem, and it’s entirely preventable. Oil analysis is a necessary step to determine how clean your engine and hydraulic systems are running, and to avoid damage down the road.

Machine systems, whether it’s hydraulics, the engine, or gear trains, are not totally sealed as we may think they are.  Not even sealed systems stop small particles from passing through seals on shafts and hydraulic cylinders.  To make things more complicated, the use of attachments like felling or processing heads, or attachments with quick couplers, promote the ingression of contaminants. The contaminants come typically in particles not visible to the human eye, and some of them are very harmful from a wear point of view. If we think about liquid contaminants like water, fuel, or coolant, they often find their way into the systems where they do not belong. Water is the most difficult to control as it is present in the air, and air is unavoidable in every compartment. 

Oil analysis is useful in determining a lot of things for your machine. It can detect changes in the physical properties of the oil that diminish the protective properties of  the oil. It can detect the wear metals inside the machine that the machine is losing little by little from its components. Oil analysis can also measure the rate at which the machine is wearing out, giving the user the opportunity to calculate the life expectancy of the equipment.  

Oil change alone is not a guaranty that machines will survive longer. The idea that oil change replaces the need for oil analysis is wrong, and the concept is perhaps inherited from the automotive industry, where vehicles do not necessarily work on dusty roads or do hard work hauling materials up and downhill. The forestry environment is often much more harsh, facing more severe temperature variations, deep snow, mud, and other more challenging conditions.  

Oil analysis is not only necessary, but it can extend the life of your forestry equipment by providing information to adjust maintenance schedules and activities. Don’t be blind to unseen dirt contamination, but make the time for proper oil analysis this spring. It can save you time and money down the road.

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