Chadwick-BaRoss’s Seasonal Guide to Winterizing Equipment

Sometimes, being an unstoppable force isn’t about force at all. It’s about strategy. With a well-formed plan, you can conquer today, tomorrow, and every season after. That’s what fleet winterization is all about. When you winterize equipment, you do more than protect it from the bitter cold and blind snow. You’re setting yourself up for a profitable spring.

Equipment that isn’t correctly winterized has a higher chance of experiencing breakdowns, failures, and other performance issues that can cost you on the front and back ends. So, whether you’re looking to winterize equipment for storage or to work through the winter, here are our tips to help you stand up to the cold front and remain unstoppable.

Winterizing Equipment for Hibernation:

Prolonged periods of inactivity come with well-known risks and hazards, and that’s on top of the subzero temperatures, snowstorms, and freeze-thaw cycles constantly testing your equipment. If you plan on storing your equipment over the winter, you must take a few key actions to protect and improve your equipment so that it’s ready to get back to work.

Clean the Cab:

A dirty cab may not seem like an immediate threat, but there’s a lot of sensitive and expensive equipment in there that can become compromised. Winterizing equipment for storage provides an excellent opportunity to give your cab a deep clean, including ditching food or crumbs that attract rodents. Small animals love using equipment to make their nests, especially when stored outside, and this can lead to thousands of dollars in damages and significantly push back your start date.

Providing Shelter Where and When You Can:

Another way to winterize equipment is to wrap the cab, engine block, and other areas featuring large airflow openings with a large winter-rated tarp or drop cloth. This will help keep snow and ice out, reduce moisture levels, and decrease the chances of rust and excessive stress caused by continuous freeze-thaw cycles. It’s also an added defense against small critters.

Proper Battery Care:

Despite disconnecting the power and setting up a trickle charge, dead batteries are still one of the biggest pain points for contractors come spring. Prolonged inactivity in subzero temperatures will destroy a battery beyond repair, even with a trickle charge. If you’re planning to winterize equipment for storage, the only way to protect your battery is to remove it from the machine and store it inside. Once there, you can properly clean it and set up a trickle charge.

This is especially important if your machines have telematic capabilities. It’s not common knowledge. but your telematic system bypasses your disconnect switch. That means even when there’s no power, it’s still draining your battery and will continue to do so all winter until there’s nothing left. Removing the battery is the only way to stop this.

Purging Your Fluids and Water Lines:

Everyone knows leaving unused fluids in a machine for too long can spell disaster. But leaving them to sit over the winter can be catastrophic. Frozen coolant can crack engine blocks, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, and half-filled fuel tanks can rust out due to condensation. Even when you winterize equipment for storage, your fluids still need to be properly treated. Ensure your coolant is calibrated to the correct temperature, switch to a low-viscosity oil and hydraulic fluid and fill up all your fuel tanks with winter-treated diesel to prevent freezing.

If you have machines with a water system, like paving equipment, street cleaners, or public works equipment, it’s important to purge the entire system so it doesn’t freeze. Frozen water can damage lines, fittings, and even the pump itself, forcing you to make costly and frankly unnecessary repairs. Refill the lines with RV coolant to reduce future condensation and neutralize any leftover water. Fluid management is essential to good construction equipment maintenance, even when the fluids are not in use. So be sure to keep this task at the top of your list.

Working Through the Winter:

Working through the winter is not impossible — but it does come with some unique challenges. The best defense is a good offense, so take the following additional maintenance steps for easier cold-weather construction.

Inspect Your Equipment:

To properly winterize equipment, start with a thorough inspection. Pay close attention to batteries, electrical systems, and oil and hydraulic lines. Leaks are notoriously difficult to detect in the winter, as fluids take some time to heat up and thin out. This is incredibly dangerous —no one wants to get stranded in a snowstorm — but it can also seriously harm your business. Unknowingly leaking fluids onto roads, parking lots, and private property can lead to fines, unhappy customers, and a bad reputation that can follow you into the spring. Work with your fleet manager to plan, schedule, and conduct an effective and efficient inspection of all your equipment. Using their equipment logs, you should be able to pinpoint recurring issues, problem areas, and other potential issues before the snow flies.

Fluids:

Oil:

Standard oil becomes thick and viscous when it gets cold, leading to start-up problems, performance issues, and an increased likelihood of future engine failures. Drain all your oil when winterizing equipment and switch it with a winter-rated low-viscosity version to maintain optimal performance.

Hydraulic Fluid:

A question we often get is, “Does hydraulic fluid freeze?” The short answer is yes. The freezing point of hydraulic fluid is -10°F, after which the fluid becomes useless. However, don’t let that number fool you. Like oil, hydraulic fluid becomes thicker when it gets cold, damaging pumps and motors, and causing hoses to burst. The best hydraulic fluid to winterize equipment is a low-viscosity ISO 32 or 22. Remember to give your hydraulics time to heat up before getting to work. This will lower the viscosity to its average level and reduce the chances of a breakdown.

Coolant:

Most coolants are made to handle temperatures between -20 and -30°F. However, water and other impurities introduced throughout the season can cause coolants to fall out of this range, making them vulnerable to colder temperatures. Use your refractometer to test your coolant to ensure it’s still within the acceptable range, and that you’re not making your machines vulnerable to overheating and other issues.

DEF Fluid:

Of all your fluids, your DEF Fluid is the one you must monitor the closest in the winter. DEF Fluid can quickly gel and freeze in low temperatures, greatly increasing your emission levels during cold weather construction. Since its chemical composition must follow a specific ratio, no treatments can be used to winterize it. The only way to keep your DEF fluid from freezing is by storing it indoors when not in use and giving your equipment time to heat.

Diesel:

When it comes to winterizing your fuel, there are two steps you can take.

1. Switch to a #1 winter-rated diesel blend
2. Add fuel treatment to your current supply

If you add fuel treatment, follow the directions so you don’t overtreat and remember your cloud point. All diesel fuel contains paraffin wax, which gels at low temperatures, turning the fuel cloudy. If this happens, your fuel isn’t properly treated and will gel further as the temperature drops, clogging fuel lines and freezing you in your tracks.

Finally, remember always to keep all your fuel tanks as full as possible, as this will reduce the chances of condensation, which can accelerate corrosion and rust.

The Pros of Working Through the Winter:

Though not without challenges, working through the winter can be a huge benefit to your business.

• Turning your earthmoving equipment into a snowplow can be a great way to utilize your equipment year-round.
• Setting up contracts with the city, town, or state you live in, gets you access to lucrative revenue streams and partnership opportunities.
• It’s a great way of retaining talent. Seasonal layoffs come hand-in-hand with closing up shop for the winter. Though you may intend to rehire people in the spring, there’s no guarantee they’ll be available. Working through winter means you’ll have to spend less time hiring and training new people at the beginning of the season.

The Cons of Working Through the Winter:

All that being said, working through the winter doesn’t come without pain points.

• Cold weather forces your machines and operators to work twice as hard to get the same amount done. Something as simple as patching a small leak or changing a gasket becomes incredibly difficult after the cold has robbed you of all dexterity.
• Vehicles may have to be tented to keep their fluids from freezing, cutting production down to a fraction of what it could be, and causing you to pay employees to stand and wait.
• Materials may also be increasingly difficult or downright impossible to get as suppliers halt production over the winter.

Ultimately, the choice to work through or wait out the winter is up to you. But, regardless of what you do, you must winterize equipment properly to set yourself up for success and give your machines the ability to take your next season by storm.

If you have any more questions about winterizing equipment or would like a little guidance, give us a call. Our skilled service technicians have experience winterizing every type of equipment, from heavy-duty construction to public works, and can walk you through any part of the process.