Irrigation System Pivot The what & why of By Kenneth Bracht With a pivot, you don’t have a backup.
A week of downtime at a critical stage in the growing season could significantly reduce the yield. That yield loss could equal a substantial amount of money, which could in turn have a considerable impact on your operation, especially in challenging economic times like growers are facing now.
The “why” of regular maintenance for your irrigation equipment is to assure reliable uptime. If you perform this maintenance during the off-season, trouble-free operation throughout the growing season is much more likely. Now that you understand the “why,” the “what” follows naturally.
maintenance P
eople often ask what steps they should take to maintain their irrigation equipment and ensure it has a long life. That’s a good question, but to understand the value of preventative maintenance, it’s important to know why it should be done.
Irrigation machines will run a long time without maintenance, but like a car (or anything else), they will eventually have failures. When your car needs transmission work or your truck’s brakes start to squeal, you have options. You could take it to the repair shop. You might have a spare vehicle you could drive for a few days, or you could even keep driving it (not recommended!).
Check the gear motor junction box for moisture and to ensure the wire connectors are tight.
irrigationtoday.org 13
Photo credit: Valmont Industries Inc.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
