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Lisbon, OH | Keeping them clean is one of the most important things to keeping these scales alive. I have seen scales over 10 years old that looked like new because the owner washed them every time they used them. And I also saw a 4 year old set that was completely ruined. The owner of those never cleaned them. The actual load cells on Gallagher scales are made of aluminum, and the manure and urine just corroded them so bad the only fix was a new set. Keeping the manure from piling up is key. You don't have to do it every day, but when we ran cattle over ours nearly every day, we cleaned them out about once a week. You can hose them out with water, you just don't want to use a pressure washer. We have seen quite a few failures on load cells over the past couple of years on scales that looked like new. It seemed like the common thing between all of them was the owners pressure washed them. Gallagher found out that the epoxy that sealed the cables to the cells would sometimes leak if high pressure was applied to it.
The other important thing is to protect the cables on the loadbars. They cannot be spliced or repaired, so the only fix is to replace them, or shorten them if the damage is at the scale head end. They must be matched, and repairing loadbar cables is EXPENSIVE. I have had numerous customers have cows chew the cables, run through them, step on them, set their chutes down on them, etc, etc. I hate giving an estimate on cable repairs, because most of the damages are preventable.
We have a set of rental scales here where I work that probably gets moved and abused more than any set out there, and it is about 14 years old. I have only sent it in for repair once for a replacement battery.
Sorry for the long post. Just some of my observations about scale issues. The worst part about scales is that they always seem to work, except when you need them. If they are handled and maintained, they are usually pretty trouble free. | |
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Livestock scales
