Servicing a Mini Excavator a Day From the Nearest Dealer: The Territory Spares Kit
What to carry, what to learn and what to order with the machine so a blown hose at Borroloola is an afternoon, not a fortnight.
In Darwin a hydraulic hose is a phone call. At a station on the Barkly it is a week of the machine sitting still unless the hose is on the shelf. Territory owners run their machines the way they run everything else: with the spares in the shed and the skills in the crew.
The kit that travels with the machine
Order it with the machine so it arrives on the same truck:
- Engine oil filter, fuel filter and water separator element (two of each)
- Air filter, primary and safety (dust eats them)
- Hydraulic return filter and suction strainer
- A set of bucket teeth and pins
- A hydraulic hose kit: the common boom, dipper and bucket hoses, or a length of hose and reusable fittings
- Drive belt
- Grease, engine oil and hydraulic oil for one full service
- For genuinely remote owners, a spare rubber track and a track pin tool
Services to learn
The 50-hour first service, the 250-hour engine service and the 500-hour hydraulic filter change are all within reach of anyone who services a ute. The manual gives the intervals and quantities; the servicing guide on this site gives the routine. Keep a log with hours and dates.
Dust
The Territory's dry-season dust is the machine's main enemy. Check and blow out the air filter weekly, clean the radiator and hydraulic cooler daily in the dry, and change the air filter far more often than the manual's interval. A blocked filter costs fuel first and an engine eventually.
Hoses
Hydraulic hoses fail from chafe, heat and age. Walk around the machine daily looking for weeping fittings and rubbed hoses. Learn to change a hose: it is a spanner job once you have the part. Reusable fittings and a length of hose cover the odd sizes.
Engines
Kubota, Briggs & Stratton and Yanmar are the engines in the Rippa range, and all three are stocked and understood by engine dealers in Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs. Engine parts are rarely the problem; Rippa-specific parts (tracks, hydraulic components, pins) come by air freight from the Gold Coast, which is days, not weeks, if you order early.
Heat and the wet
Summer-grade hydraulic oil, a full fuel tank against condensation, storage under cover on concrete, and the machine on high ground before the wet. See the cyclone and wet-season page.
Machine choice for remote work
Simple, well-known engines, mechanical rather than electronic where possible, and enough weight for hard ground. The R32 PRO and R57 PRO are the station machines; the R22 PRO for blocks and communities.