Maintenance and Defect Reporting
What this domain tests
How routine maintenance, defect reporting and isolation work together, and where your competence as an operator stops.
Routine maintenance
Follow the handbook intervals for greasing, oil and filter changes, and fluid sampling. Grease articulation, steering ram pins, body pivot pins and tailgate hinges at the stated frequency, more often in wet or dusty conditions. Check and adjust tyre pressures cold, using the handbook figures. Keep the machine clean: mud on walkways causes slips, and packed mud around the articulation joint hides leaks and restricts movement.
Defect reporting
A defect log entry needs the machine, date, hours, a clear description and your name. Defects fall into two broad groups: safety-critical (brakes, steering, tyres, seat belt, ROPS/FOPS, alarms, hydraulic leaks under pressure) which down the machine immediately, and minor which are planned in but still recorded. Safety-critical machines get a 'do not use' tag and are quarantined; the tag is only removed by the person authorised to sign the machine back into service. Report verbally as well as in writing so nobody relies on a form being read.
Safe isolation
Before any maintenance, park on firm level ground, lower the body, apply the park brake, stop the engine, remove the key and isolate the battery. Fit the body safety prop before going under a raised body, and the articulation lock bar before working in the joint. Release hydraulic pressure before opening lines. Tyre inflation and wheel changes are for trained fitters using a restraining cage.
Worked example
You spot hydraulic oil weeping from a hoist ram seal and a drip on the ground under the body. This is safety-critical: a ram seal can fail suddenly and drop the body. You lower the body fully, park, isolate, tag the machine, report it and clean up with the spill kit. You do not top up the oil and carry on.
Traps
- Leaving a raised body supported only by hydraulics.
- Removing a 'do not use' tag yourself because the fault 'looks fixed'.
- Treating a slow hydraulic weep as a minor defect.