Heavy Equipment Maintenance Checklist for Dump Trucks and Pit Equipment

Engine makers publish each service interval in miles, hours, and months, and Detroit’s manual applies whichever comes first. Take 5 tri-axles hauling out of one pit, 5 loads a day each, 25 tickets a day. As an illustration, assume each truck logs 10 engine hours and 150 miles a day and runs a Cummins X15 on its severe schedule, which changes oil and fuel filters every 25,000 miles, 500 hours, or 12 months. Each truck reaches 500 hours after 50 working days, about 10 weeks, with 7,500 miles on the odometer. A reminder set on 25,000 miles would come due after about 167 working days, more than 3 times as long. Detroit’s DD13 severe interval of 35,000 miles or 750 hours gives 75 working days against 233.

Federal rules expect the schedule in writing. A carrier keeps, for each truck it controls for 30 consecutive days, a record showing the nature and due date of each inspection and maintenance task, along with the work done. Part 396 covers commercial motor vehicles, which for a truck means 10,001 pounds or more in interstate commerce, so check your state’s rules for trucks that never cross a state line.

Which schedule applies

Detroit puts a truck on severe service if it runs up to 30,000 miles a year, averages less than 5 miles per gallon, or works in severe conditions, and any one of those is enough. Its fuel economy figure includes idle time, so an hour a day running in the scale line lowers a truck’s mpg and adds engine hours without adding miles.

Daily pre-trip

Before the first load, the driver has to be satisfied that these parts work.

• Service brakes, including trailer brake connections, and the parking brake
• Steering, lights and reflectors, horn, wipers, and mirrors
• Tires: at least 4/32 inch of tread on the steer axle and 2/32 on every other tire, with no exposed ply or belt, no tread or sidewall separation, and no flat or audible leak
• Wheels and rims, the coupling on a pup or trailer, and emergency equipment
• Suspension: springs, shackles, and air bags
• Oil pressure, coolant temperature, DEF level, and every gauge and warning light on the dash
• Dump body: the rear hinge area for loose or missing pins and cracks, the tailgate pins seated with their keepers, and the latch hooks over the pins
• Body safety equipment: the locking control lever, the body prop, the body-up light, and the backup alarm
• Hoist oil gauge, if fitted, read with the body fully down and the truck on level ground
• Tailgate seal and tarp, since the load must not leak, spill, blow, or fall on a public road

If the last inspection report listed a defect, the driver reviews it and signs that the repair was certified. A written end-of-day report, covering the same federal list, is due only when a defect was found or reported, and the defect is repaired or certified as not needing repair before the truck runs again.

At the pit

On mine property, the operator of each piece of self-propelled mobile equipment inspects it before using it on that shift, and a defect that makes operation hazardous takes it out of service, tagged, until corrected. Safety defects left unfixed are reported to the mine operator, who records them until the repair is done. MSHA applies the standard to on-road trucks used on mine property as well as to loaders, and holds the mine operator responsible for enforcing its standards on every vehicle that enters, customer and third-party trucks included. For the loader, the pre-shift walk adds these items:

• Service brakes that stop and hold the loader with a typical load on the steepest grade it travels, and a parking brake that holds it there
• Horn, and a backup alarm or an observer wherever the operator cannot see to the rear, which also applies to trucks backing to the loader
• Seat belt and ROPS, with the seat belt examined as part of the pre-shift inspection

Since July 17, 2024, surface metal and nonmetal mines, which include sand and gravel and stone operations, have needed a written safety program for surface mobile equipment that sets schedules for routine maintenance and non-routine repairs, reviewed at least once a year.

Weekly

• Grease every fitting on the dump body and hoist. Pik Rite calls for weekly, and at least every 2 months or 150 uses
• At each greasing, put a drop of hoist oil on a blotter. Any residue means drain and flush, because dirty oil is the main cause of pump and cylinder repairs
• Tread depth, measured with a gauge, and tire pressures, since a tire overloaded by low pressure fails the federal inspection standard
• Scale: clear rock and fines from the gap around the deck so nothing touches it, and confirm the empty deck returns to zero

Monthly

• Tailgate: lubricate the upper hinge pins and the latch, check the latch linkage adjustment, and bleed trapped air from the hoist cylinder, as Lufkin schedules for its dump bodies
• Air tanks: drain and check for moisture. Bendix sets this at every month or 300 hours for high air use, which includes heavy-duty off-road work, and every 3 months or 900 hours for standard use. It discourages daily draining on a truck with a working desiccant dryer
• Brake stroke: with the engine off, 80 to 90 psi in the tanks, and the brakes fully applied, measure pushrod travel at each chamber. A standard-stroke type 30 chamber is past its limit above 2 inches, and a long-stroke type 30 above 2 1/2 inches

Quarterly and annual

• Engine oil, oil filter, and fuel filters on the hour meter: 500 hours on the Cummins X15 severe schedule, 750 on the Detroit DD13 severe schedule
• Periodic inspection: every unit, each trailer and pup included, passes the federal minimum inspection at least once every 12 months by a qualified inspector, with the report or a decal on the unit. A state program that meets the same standard counts. Brake work is the responsibility of a qualified brake inspector
• Loader: Cat’s planned maintenance runs at 250, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 hours, with each task list in the machine’s Operation and Maintenance Manual
• Scale: a test by the scale service company against the current Handbook 44, which many state and local weights and measures authorities adopt, on the schedule your authority sets

Downtime and out-of-service orders

During CVSA’s International Roadcheck on May 12 to 14, 2026, inspectors placed 10,350 vehicles out of service, 23.5% of the 44,047 inspections that examined the vehicle. Of 13,924 vehicle out-of-service violations, 3,379 were brake systems, 2,914 were tires, and 2,072 were vehicles with 20% or more of their brakes defective. Together that is 8,365 violations, 60% of the total, on the 2 systems the daily walkaround and the monthly stroke check cover. During Brake Safety Week in August 2025, 15.1% of 15,175 vehicles were put out of service for brakes alone.

An out-of-service truck stays parked until every repair on the notice is done, and a tagged loader stays down until the defect is corrected. In the 5-truck example, a truck parked at 9 a.m. after its first load leaves 4 loads uncovered. At an assumed $150 a load, that is $600 of hauling for the day before the repair bill. In Tread the dispatcher reassigns those loads on the order from the web app, and drivers see the change on their next push notification. The swap still costs dispatcher time and usually a late load, and that is the reason to do the brake and tire checks every morning.