Big Snow Storm On The Radar?
Use this quick guide to mitigate problems and ensure you're best able to successfully complete your snow clearing route.
1. Prepare Your Equipment
Big storms are rarely a surprise - take the days leading up to the storm to ensure your equipment and truck are prepared.
For your trucks and equipment we recommend checking or inspecting the following;
- Fluid lines
- Battery & wiring harnesses
- Differentials & transfer case fluid
- Engine oil
- Coolant
- Brake fluid
- Power steering fluid
- Shocks, struts & leaf springs
Big storms place the most strain on your equipment - even though you're moving slower you've got more stress on everything from your truck to your snow blower.
Addressing issues in advance of the storm removes the urgency that comes on service day and can prevent many catastrophic failures that take crews out of action before they've finished their routes.
2. Have Back Up Equipment Ready
Even the best maintained equipment fails. Plan on it and have backup equipment ready to swap into the starting line if something goes down. Extend this logic to common wear items - things like snow blower lines.
Some pros take another approach to back up equipment and just hit the nearest hardware store when a blower fails to replace damaged equipment. It's another way to solve quickly if you're already into your route.
3. Deflate Your Tires
If you've spent time off-road, you already know this one! Lowering your tire pressure increases the footprint and the traction of your tires. For AT tires, you can go as low as 22 PSI without much fear. For all-season tires, we'd avoid going below 26 PSI. Just make sure you reflate them when you're done so you're not hurting your mpgs.
4. Tune in to LawnGuru Texts
For big storms, we're extra communicative. Just make sure to keep up on the text updates we put out to all snow pros to stay in the know. You can expect us to clarify service windows, number of activations, and overall status updates regularly leading up to and during the storm.