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As part of daily engine maintenance, be sure to leave sufficient time to properly warm up the machine, especially in Northern climates at this time of year. "It's never good to draw huge rpms or power out of an engine when it's cold," Hall says.

"We have an auto warm-up system that registers the external temperature and the temperature of the machine," he continues. "It will run itself through a cycle that's up to 20 minutes long to warm the hydraulics and engine prior to operation. You can override the circuit if all you need to do is load the machine onto a truck. But if you're working to dig a trench, letting the machine warm up will reduce the dangers of damaging the engine."

In high ambient temperatures, pay attention to engine temperature to ensure it doesn't get too high.

"If you run repeatedly in the overheat mode, you will start damaging or distorting costly engine and hydraulic components," says Hall. JCB excavators have an automatic cool down mode to prevent overheating. It reduces the power demands from the hydraulic pumps, thereby automatically bringing the machine cooling system back to normal levels.

However, you still need to make sure coolers are kept debris-free. "If coolers don't get cleaned and become impacted, or if the system registers above normal operating temps, the machine will go into a shutdown mode to prevent it from overheating," says Hall.