Tips for Servicing Your Cotton Picker Throughout the Season

Regular cleaning and servicing of your cotton picker parts will help ensure the long-lasting quality performance of the machinery. It’s important to stay on top of your ongoing maintenance all season long to get reliable operation out of your equipment. Here are just a few tips to help you accomplish this.

Check fluids

Before you start your cotton picker’s engine for the first time each day, you should do a quick check of some of the most important fluid levels in the machine, including engine oil and coolant. Like with any other type of machine, it’s important to change the oil as needed so you can be sure the engine is properly lubricated and that it doesn’t work harder than it needs to. Changing your oils produces better efficiency and better results.

Washing

Washing your cotton picker with water is one of the easiest ways to keep it clean. You can use either low- or high-pressure washing solutions.

Low-pressure water from your own hose or other convenient water systems can help you spray debris away from the row units. This is an effective method of cleaning those units off, but if you have larger, multiple-row pickers, it might take a pretty good chunk of time to get this job done. It will also get the ground wet around the picker, which could turn into a safety issue if you’re not careful.

You can use a pressure washer to even more effectively remove debris and grease in row units. This is much faster than hand washing or using low-pressure washing solutions, but you need to be careful that you don’t damage the machinery at all with the high-pressure water stream. If you’re not careful with how you use the pressure washer, you could damage seals, mess with some of the wiring or even push dirt and water down into some important bearings and other parts of the machine. In addition, you should always wear protective gear any time you’re using a pressure washer with a picker. Protective eyewear and clothing can help you avoid issues caused by splash back. Never, ever direct a pressure washer toward people or animals.

Air cleaning

You can also clean your cotton picker parts with pressurized air. High-volume and high-pressure air can be quite effective at removing buildup of debris and lint from your cotton picker, and lower-volume compressors can also be effective in some situations with the proper type of nozzle. The volume you use influences the cleaning power.

With any of the above methods of cleaning or servicing a cotton picker, be sure to wear protective equipment, including gloves, boots, eyewear, long pants and long-sleeve shirts, hearing protection, a dust mask and a respirator. Once you’ve finished cleaning the picker chassis, you can clean the lights, cab glass and other cotton picker parts as needed.

To learn more about the steps you should take to keep your cotton picker in great condition all year long, we encourage you to contact the team at Certi-Pik, USA today with any questions.