Hello everyone and welcome back to our excavator series and with me today we’ve got our U 17-3a and this video is dedicated to go over the daily operator checks that you should be doing for a machine like this on long-term hire.

Now to start with we’re going to begin with our visual checks before jumping into our fluids and levels checks, and then finishing up with our final safety and electric tests. Let’s get on with the visual checks and what we’re going to do is going to start on the left-hand side of the excavator and work all the way around.

Right so straight onto these visual checks, we’re going to start on the left-hand side of the excavator and we’re going to start around the hitch-checking for any damage. Then up the arm and down the boom of the excavator, checking that our hydraulic rams aren’t leaking, or there’s any visible damage to them. Come down to the kingpin. Exactly the same there, and then we’re going to check the dozer blade is in good working order, as well as the ram that operates it as well.

Down the side of the cockpit, we’re checking out that the tracks that they’re in good working condition, and that there’s no obstruction stopping us from getting in and out of the excavator. We’ll go around to the rear of the machine.

And on the rear of the machine we’re going to check the body work, that’s in good working order. As well as checking that the rollover protection structure is intact and that is not damaged. And then we can work down the right-hand side of the excavator doing those final visual checks before we move on to our fluids and levels checks.

So as we come down the right-hand side we can check that the operating beacon is in good working order. As well as the rollover protection structure on the right-hand side. Check the bodywork that it’s all in good condition, and also we’ll work all the way up the boom and then down the arm on the other side, double-checking that the hydraulic rams are in good working order, and there aren’t any visible leaks from them. Now we have finished these visual checks we can move on to the fluid and levels checks which is going to require us to access the service compartment on the rear of the machine.

So we’re on the rear of the machine I’m going to open up this service hatch with our operator’s key and it will just open up as so. It should lock into place for you allowing you to service all the fluids and the levels. So here we’ve got our engine coolant . We’ve got oil dip stick.  We’ve got our fuel filter and our air filter.

Now those are the components that you can access from this service hatch. The final two things we need to double-check are the hydraulic fluid which is on the right-hand side and the fuel filler cap. I’ll show you how to do so but first let’s just close this service hatch up.

Okay so we’re going to do our firstly our hydraulic fluid check which is this indicator just here on the middle of the machine. Then secondly we’re going to do our fuel levels check by taking out our operator’s key and popping it into this little compartment here. Which, if we unlock will expose our fuel filler cap and fuel gauge. Make sure that your machine is adequately fueled before starting your day’s work. And then when you finished just lock that compartment back up.

Now that you’ve done these checks we can move on to the final safety and electrical tests that need to be done from inside the excavator’s cabin.

Okay so before jumping into the machine ensure that you use the handlebars supplied on the rollover protection structure to ensure that we use three points of contact for your own personal safety.

Okay when safely in your seat the first safety check we need to do is our seat belt. We’re going to take this out we’re going to pop it in on the other side and then we’re just going to give the seat belt a little tug to ensure that it works correctly.

Once you are happy with that you can detach the seat belt and then we can do our final electrical test. This is going to require your operator’s key going take this out and pop this into your ignition turn it to position one. Then what we’re going to do is turn on our headlights and our operating beacon to ensure that these both work correctly. Once you’re happy with those checks you can turn both of those off. Key off, remove your key and then exit the machine so we can do our daily greasing checks before starting your day’s work.

Right so on to the daily greasing checks. We’re going to double-check that the greasing nipples in and around the hitch, the arm, down the boom are adequately greased. Along with in and around the kingpin and the dozer blade as well. Once you’ve conducted these greasing checks and you’ve made sure that the machine is adequately greased your machine is now ready for its day’s work.

If you come into any problems when conducting any one of these checks that we’ve gone over in this tutorial video, you must get in contact with your local WHC Hire depot as soon as possible, so we can ensure that the machinery is safe for you guys to use.

For any more information on how to operate the machinery or get the most out of your hire, feel free to scan the QR code that you’ll find inside the equipment that will link you to a number of step-by-step guides to help you with this excavator.

Thank you ever so much for joining me in this tutorial video and we look forward to helping you in the next one but until then take care bye-bye for now