Tractors and Grease . . how to make it less messy.

[AxleHub]

The best way to keep grease off of yourself is to pay the neighbors kid to grease everything for you and let his mom deal with the grease on his clothes. My wife has thanked me for this for some time now and the kid is happy because he is making money and learning things when he is here.

Sounds good, but is he getting all the grease points . . and more importantly . . is he greasing them enough to keep the spots from getting "dry" ? Having someone else do it is great . . . but the neighbor kid ???? My mmm deck alone has 12 spots to be greased. My fel has 12 more. My tractor has xxx points to be greased. Then there is 13 on the lawn mower etc. Etc. Etc.. what happens if the kid gets 75% of them greased and misses the other 25% ?

Or he gets 2 pumps on each mower spindle but it needs 6 pumps to each spindle to be done right ?

 

[ray66v]

what happens if the kid gets 75% of them greased and misses the other 25% ? Or he gets 2 pumps on each mower spindle but it needs 6 pumps to each spindle

Once a kid can do it that well, he won't need you, he can work at the dealer, prepping brand new tractors. :stirthepot:

 

[AxleHub]

Once a kid can do it that well, he won't need you, he can work at the dealer, prepping brand new tractors. :stirthepot:

Good observation lol.

 

[newbury]

Sounds good, but is he getting all the grease points . . and more importantly . . is he greasing them enough to keep the spots from getting "dry" ? Having someone else do it is great . . . but the neighbor kid ???? My mmm deck alone has 12 spots to be greased. My fel has 12 more. My tractor has xxx points to be greased. Then there is 13 on the lawn mower etc. Etc. Etc.. what happens if the kid gets 75% of them greased and misses the other 25% ?

Or he gets 2 pumps on each mower spindle but it needs 6 pumps to each spindle to be done right ?

That is where training comes in.
Train him and spot check. Trust but verify.

 

[bdog]

Rubber gloves and a roll of paper towels help me a lot. I carry a trash can right by the machine I am greasing, put on the gloves and use a lot of paper towels. I wipe things off as I go and throw the towels away before they get so much grease on them that they themselves are making a mess. We often go through multiple tubes of grease a day with our various machines and it seems to work well.

 

[AxleHub]

Bdog . . Hiw often do you grease the equipment and is it personal use equipment or farming or business based uses ?

 

[bdog]

My tractor does not have a FEL and all I really use it for is to plow, plant and shred my crops. I usually grease it before each use which amounts to a couple times a year.

I have a skid steer and a backhoe and they are more for business type use. We are digging a pond at my place and have a dump truck and are selling the dirt to people which often leads to us taking our skid steer over to them to spread it out. We also do gravel driveways and stuff like that for people. When we are digging all day we grease the machines daily. Sometimes we might hear the pins creaking and will grease more than once a day if digging hard. I also do oilfield related work and a lot of that equipment takes grease. Most of it get used on the skid steer and backhoe though.

 

[CurlyDave]

Rubber gloves from Costco help a lot.

I bring an empty cardboard box and a roll of paper towels with me, when the towels get greasy, put them in the box.

Another tool I use is a 16d nail. It has two purposes. First it allows me to force a paper towel into the areas around a recessed zerk. Second use is that when the little ball in a zerk gets stuck, I put the point of the nail on it and push hard on the head. Usually frees it right up.

 

[TomSeller]

Cut the end off an old white cotton sock and use it to sheath the grease gun body. Youll be surprised how much grease they will absorb before they must be replaced.

Dang it, I was never wearing any of my white socks so I gave them to charity.

 

[paulfun9]

Sounds good, but is he getting all the grease points . . and more importantly . . is he greasing them enough to keep the spots from getting "dry" ? Having someone else do it is great . . . but the neighbor kid ???? My mmm deck alone has 12 spots to be greased. My fel has 12 more. My tractor has xxx points to be greased. Then there is 13 on the lawn mower etc. Etc. Etc.. what happens if the kid gets 75% of them greased and misses the other 25% ?

Or he gets 2 pumps on each mower spindle but it needs 6 pumps to each spindle to be done right ?

Wow have we no faith in ourselves to teach the young?

I remember well being a youngster and having an interest in almost anything mechanical. I also remember very well all the time all the older Men in the family took teaching me the right way to do things. I also remember well all the extra money I made when word got out that I could actually fix things and did things right. By the time I started high school I was doing engine and trans rebuilds under the table for the local garage and eventually became the owner of it. Here we are Many years later and I think I can take a little time to give someone else a chance at something just the same as I was given a chance many years ago.