The Winter Season at Lightning Landscape

It has been warmer than average. Hardly any snow. How will it finish out? We won’t know until spring arrives. It could very well turn colder and more winter-like as spring approaches.

In the meantime, what keeps us busy through the winter?

Full-Service Landscaping Contractor

First-As a full-service professional Landscape Contractor we like to have as much landscape, lawn, and sprinkler system work as possible as we head into winter. That is our primary business! Typically we are able to work up until Christmas. Then all of us need a break through the Holidays regardless of the weather. After we get a break and relax after a long season, it is time to start preparing all of our trucks and equipment for the following season. Of course if weather allows we will continue working on our landscape projects as long as we can.

Winter Maintenance and Repair

Lightning Landscape & Irrigation does almost 100% of our truck and equipment repair and maintenance in-house. We are discussing what we do in the winter, but the winter equipment work starts much earlier. Snow removal and ice control is a service that we provide to our full-service customers. Starting in September we start to pull our snow and ice equipment out of storage and begin maintenance and repairs to all of it. Snow plowing is terribly hard on the trucks and the plows. Salt is our primary de-icing agent, and it is very corrosive to the application equipment and trucks. All of the equipment is inspected and test-run for proper operation. Repairs are completed and everything is lubricated and tested so it is ready to go when the winter weather arrives. Now what? 

We have a large fleet of trucks, trailers, mowers, and related supporting equipment. It takes a lot of work to keep it all operational through the season. The goal is to inspect and do preventative maintenance and repair on it all during the ‘off-season’ so that we have minimal issues when we need the machines the most. What is involved?

Trucks all get brake service. We don’t want to have brakes wear-out while we are in the midst of the season so we inspect and replace as required all brake components during the winter. Engines are washed and fully serviced-oil changes, air & fuel filters, etc. During this process belts and hoses are inspected and replaced as needed along with batteries and battery cables.

The batteries and cables are also crucial to proper snow plow operation as is the alternator. Once the trucks are mechanically correct (and DOT inspected) we assess the appearance of them. Lightning does all of our body work and paint in-house, along with performing all of the equipment repairs including heavy engine and transmission. We re-paint and apply new door decals as needed each season to try to keep our growing fleet looking at its best.

Equipment gets a similar treatment. Washing and inspection is first. Mowers are very high- maintenance so we have to look very closely at all the components to determine what could fail during the season. Bearings, belts, tires are the high-wear items we look closely at. The same engine and transmission (hydrostatic in this case) service is performed as the trucks.

And along with a full inventory of all of our hand tools and small equipment we are going to be ready for a busy season! If you’re looking for a full service landscaping contractor, give us call today!