TECHNICAL Maintenance
Maintenance recording should include all repair and servicing costs, labour, fluids, parts and environmental disposal. A robust, preventative maintenance regime will reduce and/or prevent unnecessary, costly and unexpected breakdowns. A proactive cleaning and greasing regime will protect the residual value of the investment and reduce overall service costs while prompt operator action to indicators such as noise, smell and vibration changes can save money through early intervention. Clean air and oil are the fundamentals to long engine life and reliability, in a similar way to cleanliness, good quality oil and controlled operating temperatures are key to hydraulic system reliability.
It is surprising how the areas of maintenance that generate service time or bills are relatively easily avoided, such as lack of greasing, contaminated fuel or oil and blocked radiators or oil coolers.
Downtime
Arguably the most important consideration. There’s nothing more frustrating than a machine out of action after all. Downtime costs money and time is money. Downtime is basically a record of the cost of lost operator hours, lost income (if applicable) and replacement equipment hire costs. When recorded accurately, it helps to
support an ‘instinct’ that equipment is unreliable and ‘costing’ money. It can also support a considered decision to change equipment before its planned time. There is a direct correlation with maintenance practices - preventative maintenance reduces downtime. An ageing or poorly maintained equipment fleet is likely to generate unwelcome repair costs and spiralling downtime, creating additional difficulty in controlling maintenance budgets.
Fuel
Fuel consumption is a significant component which can be up to 15 percent of the TCO. It’s determined by engine efficiency and the mower’s horsepower demand. Horsepower demand is dictated by the equipment’s design and the mowing conditions. The height, density and moisture content of grass and mowing frequency must all be taken into consideration and different heights of cut will require different amounts of fuel. In simple terms, the heavier or more extreme the conditions the more fuel used. Plus, fuel consumption is dependent on the type of mower - cylinder mowers, for example, will generally require 50 percent less horsepower of rotaries, per inch of cut. Air-cooled engines will consume 15-30 percent more fuel than liquid cooled engines, per horsepower per hour, while liquid cooled diesel engines can be 20 percent more fuel efficient than petrol
alternatives.
New and emerging power technologies can make a big impact. Hybrid and alternative energy technologies can save a further 20-25 percent over diesel. The Toro eTriFlex 3360 hybrid greens mower provides up to 20 percent fuel savings over comparable triplex mowers, and the Toro eTriFlex 3370 all-electric eliminates the need for a liquid fuel source altogether. Maintenance will also come into play and affect the amount of fuel used. Dull, blunt or poorly adjusted cutting blades will increase horsepower demand and fuel consumption, as will items like blocked hydraulic oil coolers.
Labour
Labour is the largest cost input when you take into consideration the hourly cost of labour, pay, pension, other social costs and training investments. The key is to ensure the operators are well trained on their equipment, comfortable and find it easy and intuitive to use. Factors that contribute to productivity, which is the key return on your team investment. Where mowing is concerned, productivity drives down the per hour or per acre/hectare costs, making labour more efficient.
In assessing total application costs, such as mowing, over the life, it’s possible to determine a ‘per hour’ cost. By recording all the TCO cost areas and dividing these by
A typical wide area five-unit cylinder mower, such as a Toro Reelmaster 5610-D, would have an engine size of approximately 43hp. If the engine were governed at a maximum engine speed of 3000rpm, in 100 hours of operation time the engine would have approximately consumed over 5.5 million litres of air and completed around 18 million crankshaft revolutions
138 PC June/July 2020
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