Hit 500 hours on my Liebherr LTM 1050 with zero downtime

I hit 500 hours on my Liebherr LTM 1050 last week without a single breakdown or unplanned stop. That might not sound like a lot to some guys running bigger iron, but for me it's a big deal. I do a lot of tree work in tight residential spots where I'm threading the boom through power lines and over houses. One bad swing or a hose blowout and I'm stuck in someone's backyard for hours. I keep a strict PM log, grease every 10 hours, and I replaced the turntable bearings at 400 hours just to be safe. It paid off. The machine ran clean through a job in Raleigh where we had to set a 40 foot oak section between two houses. I'm curious what maintenance routines you guys stick to that keep the uptime high.

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_carr267d agoMost Upvoted

Why blow money on fancy grease when @stella121's cheap stuff keeps my machine running just fine?

fisher.thomas6d agoMost Upvoted

Have you tried using the OEM spec for the turntable bearings? I ran a similar setup with a cheap grease on a 944 loader and had to rebuild the swing bearing at 2,000 hours. Switched to the Liebherr stuff for the 10 hour intervals and the machine felt tighter through the whole cycle. The cheap stuff might hold fine for light work but in tight spots with constant back-and-forth it just doesn't last. I learned that the hard way.

stella1217d ago

Did you go with factory spec for the turntable bearings or aftermarket? I'm wondering if the cost savings is worth it when you're running in tight spots like that. And what grease are you using for the 10 hour intervals, something like Chevron Delo or are you sticking with the Liebherr stuff? Just trying to see if there's a difference in how the machine holds up on those long swing cycles.