Scariest Things We Here From Our Customers
Avoid these frightening equipment snafus
Matt gets into the Halloween spirit this week to discuss scary calls we often get from our customers! Following recommended equipment upkeep on your tools helps ensure they last for years and years to come. A little grease here, checking on your wear parts, and winterizing anything with plumbing will make your attachments last longer and save you money on pricey replacement parts.
ABI Products Shown In This Video
SR3 Grading Rake
- For Skid-Steer Loaders (SSL) & Compact Track Loaders (CTL)
- 7.5' Width - Commercial-Duty
- Starting At: $218/mo.*
TR3 Rake
- For Compact & Utility Tractors
- 6.5', 7.5', 8.5', 10' Widths - Commercial-Duty
- Starting At: $116/mo.*
25, 50, & 65 ft³ GD – Compact Manure Spreaders
- 4-Speed - Ground Driven
- For Lawn Tractor, ATV, UTV, or Sub-Compact Tractor - Up to 11 Horses
- Starting At: $116/mo.*
550 Gallon Compact Water Trailer
- Farm Use: Compact Tractor
- Min. Vehicle Weight: 2,400 lbs. On Flat Ground, Towing Capacity 5,200 lbs. On Uneven Terrain
- Starting At: $195/mo.*
Transcript
Boo. Did I scare you? Get your heart racing? Good, ’cause it is a spooky time of year. So this episode, we are talking about the scariest things we hear from our customers when it comes to owning attachments. Hi everyone, welcome back to the ABI Dirt. You heard me correctly. Today we’re talking about scary things we hear from attachment owners. And so if you have an attachment on your property, whether it’s one of ours or not, or if you’re looking to purchase an attachment to take care of your outdoor work, listen to the next couple of spooky items here that hopefully after we go through this list, you can avoid some maintenance snafus.
“I Didn’t Keep Up With Wear Parts and ABI Replacement Parts.”
Up first on the scary things we hear from customers, ignoring wear parts. That one gives me the shivers. That hurts me in my spine. Listen, if you’ve got an attachment that has components that gets dragged through gravel, dragged through soil, it means that you’ve got sandpaper constantly rubbing some part of your tool. That’s eventually going to wear down. No matter what kind of metal it is, eventually you’re going to have soil start to wear back on those abi parts. So using a scarifiers and shank here as an example, when it comes to that scarifier digging into your soil, this is gonna wear.
What you don’t want to happen is for the shank itself to get into the soil. Once you start wearing into that, that means that you are spending more than what you want to be spending to buy both of these pieces where you could just be spending a fraction of it on this tip itself. So again, whether it’s an ABI Attachment or not, take a look at your attachments around your property. Look at the tool. Look at what is actually touching the ground and working this soil. Is there something there that needs to be replaced on a regular basis? Catch it before it gets into things that shouldn’t be replaced on a regular basis.
“I Didn’t Grease My Equipment.”
The next mistake we find downright frightful is not greasing equipment that needs to be greased. Listen, grease is like spooky magic, right? If there are two pieces of metal that are rubbing together, if you’ve got a metal shaft inside of a collar somewhere that is rotating on a regular basis on your attachment, it needs to be greased. Otherwise, eventually you’re gonna have happen to that rotating component what happens to your ground engaged components as it wears. It’s going to wear down and you definitely don’t want that on your attachment if it’s something that should be greased and turning regularly. Now around here, the good news is that ABI Attachments don’t have that many grease points because we try to make our attachments as simple as possible so you have less to maintain. So think about kind of the industry standard power rake, right? You’ve got the rotating drum and you’ve got the gearbox, you got the chains and the oil and all the moving parts, whereas our go-to is the TR3 or the SR3 where you have more mechanical motion, things that ground engage components that dig in deep and rip deep. That way you don’t have to rely on lots of grease and moving parts, just makes it more complicated than it has to be.
“I Forgot to Winterize My Water Tank.”
Another scary thing we hear often, and especially here around kinda this fall season where it’s getting cold. This morning was the first morning I woke up and there’s like a freeze warning, right? It’s getting cold outside. Please, please don’t scare us. Winterize your water tanks. Winterize your water trailers. If you’ve got an attachment, whether it’s a water trailer or an arena drag that’s got a water tank on it, if there is water inside of a contained thing like a tank or a hose, you’re gonna have to winterize that attachment somehow. Now, I know for those of you in the south, you’re rolling your eyes up means say, that’s why I live in warm climates. Good choice. You’re right, except that the freak winter storm does happen every now and then. A lot of you down in Oklahoma, Texas where you may not see a lot of freezing, you saw some nasty freezes last year.
So no matter where you’re at in the country if there’s at all a possibility that you could see some freezing temperatures, please either completely drain your water tanks, water systems, get water all the way outta the hoses so that nothing cracks and breaks or always remember, you can put some RV antifreeze and we’ve got other, we’ve got of the videos out there that you can reference in the description below to talk you through that process. Please winterize your water systems. Every spring we get calls from wonderful folks just like you that forgot to winterize their water systems and there’s a crack toes or a crack nozzle or a cracked pump, and those are really scary. So please winterize your water systems.
“There’s a Screw in My Tire!”
And perhaps the scariest thing of all is when we get a call and a brand new tool showed up on a property and it has a screw in the tire. Horrifying. I’m just kidding. If you have a brand new ABI Attachment, show up on your property and there’s a screw in the tire. It’s probably a foam filled tire. It’s either TR3 or SR3, and the screw is there intentionally. It’s part of the foam filling process to create that foam filled tire. We run here, we call ’em never flats. So don’t sweat it. Not scary, not a problem. If you see a screw in those tires when it shows up, don’t worry about it. It’s actually gonna help keep that tire and that tool running longer and better for you.
That’s all we’ve got today, everyone. Hope you enjoy the spooky holiday season. Enjoy the fall season. If you have any questions, remember that’s why we’re here. We love tackling big, scary problems and making your life better along the way. See you next time everyone.