Heavy equipment
maintenance checklist.
Daily, weekly and monthly inspection points for construction machinery — written for the yard, not for a manual. Use it as-is on paper, or run it digitally so every check is timestamped and every defect becomes a work order.
Daily checks
The daily walkaround catches the failures that strand a machine mid-shift. Five to ten minutes, same order every time, done by the operator who will run the machine.
Engine oil level and visible leaks
Check on level ground before start-up. Note any fresh drips under the machine — a stain that grows day to day is a bearing or seal on its way out.
Coolant level and radiator core
Top up only when cold. Blow out chaff and dust from the core; a blocked radiator shows up as afternoon derates long before it shows up as a fault code.
Hydraulic oil level and hose condition
Look for chafing, bulges and weeping fittings. Replace a hose that is rubbing, not the one that already burst.
Fuel level, water separator, DEF/AdBlue
Drain the separator bowl. Low DEF quality is a common cause of unexpected engine derates on Stage V machines.
Undercarriage, tyres or tracks
Track tension, missing pads and bolts, cuts and pressure on tyres. Undercarriage is up to half the lifetime maintenance cost of a tracked machine.
Greasing per OEM schedule
Pins, bushings, swing bearing. Under-greasing costs more than the grease ever will.
Lights, horn, beacons, camera, mirrors
Anything a site auditor will look at, plus the reversing alarm.
Safety: belts, ROPS/FOPS, extinguisher, isolator
Damaged belts and missing fire extinguishers stop a machine at a site gate inspection.
Fault codes and warning lamps
Note any active DTC or SPN/FMI before the machine leaves the yard, not after it stops working.
Log engine hours
Hours are the clock that every real service interval runs on. Record them at shift end.
Weekly checks
Weekly checks are the mechanic's pass: things an operator can't reasonably judge from the cab, and trends you can only see once you have a week of data.
Battery terminals, charge and cabling
Clean terminals, check hold-downs. On electric machines, log state of charge behaviour and charging faults.
Air filter restriction indicator
Do not blow filters out with a compressor — replace on indicator or interval.
Belt tension and condition
Glazing, cracks, and any squeal on cold start.
Attachment pins, quick coupler and wear parts
Bucket teeth, cutting edges, coupler lock function. A worn coupler is a safety incident waiting to happen.
Torque check on wheel nuts and key fasteners
Especially after any wheel or track work in the previous week.
Cab cleanliness, HVAC filters, wiper function
Operator comfort is directly correlated with reported defects — a driver who hates the cab reports nothing.
Review fuel burn and idle percentage
A machine whose idle share jumps week over week is usually a scheduling problem, not a mechanical one — but a rising fuel burn at constant work is often a clogged filter or failing injector.
Close out open defects from the daily logs
Every daily note either becomes a work order or gets signed off. Nothing stays open by default.
Monthly checks
Monthly is where planned service and compliance live. Book these against engine hours, not calendar dates — a machine that ran 400 hours this month needs two services, not one.
Scheduled oil and filter service per OEM interval
Engine, hydraulic, transmission and final drives at their own intervals. Keep the oil sample if you run analysis.
Oil sampling and analysis
Wear metals and coolant in oil predict failures months ahead of any noise the operator will hear.
Hydraulic system pressure and cylinder drift test
Measurable drift means a seal or valve, and it will only get worse under load.
Brakes, steering and park brake function test
Document the result — this is the first thing an insurer asks for after an incident.
Structural inspection: booms, arms, welds, frames
Look for cracks around the boom foot and cylinder mounts. Photograph anything suspect for the record.
Statutory inspections and certificates
Lifting equipment, LOLER-equivalent inspections, periodic technical checks. Track expiry dates, not just last-done dates.
Telematics and sensor health
Confirm every machine is still reporting: GPS, engine hours, fuel and fault codes. A silent unit is a blind spot.
Service history and cost review per machine
Cost per engine hour by machine surfaces the unit that should be sold before it costs you another season.
Why paper checklists quietly fail
Checks that are signed, not done
A paper sheet is filled in at the end of the week from memory. A digital check timestamped in the cab is not.
Defects that never become work orders
The note exists — in a folder in a site cabin. Digital defects route to a planner the moment they're raised.
Service planned on calendar dates
Paper systems can't see engine hours. Machines get serviced too early or, more expensively, too late.
No history when you sell
Complete, exportable service history is worth real money at resale and at audit.
Hour-based service plans
Talos reads live engine hours from any brand — CAT, Volvo, Komatsu, Liebherr, JCB — and triggers each service task at its own hour threshold.
Digital checklists in the cab
Daily, weekly and monthly templates completed on a phone, timestamped and attached to the machine, with photos on any defect.
Defects into work orders
A failed check becomes an assigned task with a due date, not a note on a clipboard nobody reads.
Audit-ready history
Every check, fault code and completed service exported per machine — for insurers, auditors and resale.
Questions we get about maintenance checklists
What should be on a daily heavy equipment maintenance checklist?
A daily checklist covers fluid levels (engine oil, coolant, hydraulic oil, fuel and DEF), visible leaks, hose and belt condition, undercarriage or tyres, greasing points, lights and safety equipment, active fault codes, and a logged engine-hour reading. It should take an operator five to ten minutes before start-up.
How often should construction machinery be serviced?
Service intervals run on engine hours, not calendar dates. Typical intervals are a daily walkaround, a weekly check at roughly 40–50 hours, and a planned service at 200–250 hours, with major services at 500, 1000 and 2000 hours depending on the OEM schedule for that model.
Why replace paper inspection checklists with digital tracking?
Paper checks are hard to verify, defects rarely turn into work orders, and service gets planned on dates instead of engine hours. Digital checklists are timestamped, attach photos to defects, route those defects to a planner automatically, and build an exportable service history per machine.
Does a maintenance checklist work across different equipment brands?
The checklist structure is the same across brands; the intervals and fault codes are not. A telematics platform that normalises data from every OEM lets you run one process across a mixed fleet while respecting each manufacturer's own service schedule.
Run this checklist digitally.
Talos turns these checks into hour-based plans across your whole mixed fleet — any brand, one screen. Book a walkthrough and we'll show it on real fleet data.