An old deckhand in Norfolk told me to grease the swing bearing every 40 hours, I figured he was full of it

Six months into running a cutterhead on the Elizabeth River, I skipped that maintenance for two full cycles and the bearing started grinding loud enough to hear over the engine. Took a full weekend to tear it apart, clean out the grit, and re-pack it, plus $160 in parts I could have avoided. Anyone else got a piece of advice from a senior operator they ignored and paid for later?

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xena_hernandez984d ago

Old Man Callahan told me the same thing about the bucket pins on my excavator, and honestly, greasing every 8 hours felt like a waste of good time. Turns out, that extra 30 seconds a day kept the pins from wallowing out, and now I'm the one telling the new guys to do it. Maybe that old deckhand was just trying to sell you more grease, or maybe he knew that a little bit of routine beats a whole weekend of cussing and wrenching. Either way, you paid the tuition, so now you get to be the salty old timer who warns the next guy about it.