Can you fix it at home? Introducing self-maintenance of farm equipment

This is the article translated from NOUKINAVI blog.
You can find the original post (in Japanese) here: 自宅でできる！？農機具のセルフメンテナンスを紹介 | ブログ｜ノウキナビ (noukinavi.com)

Hello everyone.
We’re going to show you how to maintain farm equipment easily at home.
Some farm equipment is used throughout the year, while others are used only a few times a year. If farm equipment is stored without maintenance for a long period of time, it will have various adverse effects such as the engine will not start next year because the gasoline will rot, or the tire will be deflated and punctured.
Let’s be able to do self-maintenance to prevent that.

1. Self-maintenance: “Carburetor”

If a gasoline engine is left with fuel in it for a long period of time, the gasoline will go bad, causing problems such as engine malfunction or inability to start.

In order to prevent this, it is important to empty the fuel before long-term storage. The procedure is:

1.Close the fuel cock
2.Remove fuel from carburetor. (The way to pull out the carburetor depends on the manufacturer. Read the instruction manual carefully before operation.)
3.Drain the fuel tank.

2. Self-maintenance: “Tyres”

Rubber, which is the material of tires, has a property called gas permeability, and as time passes, air is released.
Therefore, the air pressure of tires is one of the places you should check before work or storage.

There are many tires of agricultural equipment that look like they are inflated at a glance, so there are no people who worry about the lack of air pressure. However, when we actually measured the air pressure, there were many cases in the past where there was almost no air pressure.

Let’s keep the tire pressure at the proper value. The proper pressure is written on the side of the tire, so please check and adjust it. In particular, please be aware that the proper pressure of the binder tire is set low.

3. Self-maintenance: “Cleaning”

Among agricultural equipment, especially machines for threshing such as combine harvesters and harvesters need to be cleaned.

If you don’t clean it, mice will come in to eat the inside fir. Then, the wiring of the electric system will be bitten and the repair cost will be very high.

The parts that can be disassembled need to be disassembled and cleaned to every corner. However, since the internal structure is complicated, if you are not sure, it is better to ask the nearest agricultural equipment shop for cleaning.

How was it? There are also engine oil, air cleaner, belt and so on, but I would like to talk to you next time. Just by doing the maintenance you can do at home, you can make a big difference in the life of your farm equipment, and also in the purchase price when you sell it. You can say that self-maintenance is necessary to use it for a long time.

If you have any questions, I recommend you to ask a nearby farm equipment shop.