Office Tenders understands the importance of maintaining your fleet of vehicles. If your company employs the use of a snow plow, you should understand there are certain procedures to follow when you store the plow away at the end of the season. Following a simple checklist, you can increase the service life of your plow, save money on repairs, and ensure your plow is properly stored. For those that have snow plows, use these 5 tips for putting the snow plow away at the end of the season.
5 – Wash Your Snow Plow
Before parking the plow and putting it into storage, give it a good wash. After a season of plowing snow, a plow can gather a large accumulation of salt and sand. This can lead to corrosion of parts and rusting of the body of the plow. Thoroughly wash away any buildup on the plow and think about using a coat of vehicle wax.
4 – Keep Your Plow Stored Indoors
If you are done with the plow for the season, there is no reason to keep it parked outside. Rain and moisture throughout the year can cause more rusting. The best option is to keep the plow parked indoors during the off-season. If you need to keep the plow parked outdoors, it is a good idea to keep it elevated on some type of platform, to keep the plow from being exposed to the ground.
3 – Change the Hydraulic Fluid
Throughout the off-season, moisture can build up in the hydraulic system of your plow and lead to rusting. Drain the hydraulic system and then add new hydraulic fluid. You may also want to clean or replace the plow pump assembly filter.
2 – Grease Moving Parts
In order to offer some extra protection against corrosion, you should grease all of the moving parts. Apply grease to the chrome on the angle cylinders and the lift cylinder rod. Then move the lift tower until you have the lift cylinder fully compressed. Greasing electrical components is also recommended. Disconnect plugs and coat the connections with dielectric grease.
1 – Loosen the Spring Tension
Trip return springs are often tightened during use, but when it comes time to store your plow, there is no reason to keep this level of tension. The trip return springs should be loosened before storing.
Follow these simple tips to maintain the condition of your plow. Wash the plow, store it indoors, change the hydraulic fluid, grease parts, and loosen the spring tension. By checking these 5 suggestions off your checklist at the end of each season you will help increase the life of your plow.
