As the autumn harvest enters its peak season, agricultural machinery dealers across China have launched "Autumn Tractor Special Maintenance" programs, deploying technical teams to visit rural towns and villages to provide farmers with free equipment inspections, troubleshooting, and operational guidance. To date, over 2,000 dealers in provinces such as Hebei, Jiangsu, and Anhui have participated, serving 120,000 farmers and maintaining 150,000 tractors. This has effectively reduced equipment failure rates and ensured a smooth autumn harvest.
Autumn is the peak season for tractor use. Coupled with the large temperature swings between morning and evening and high field humidity, equipment is prone to problems such as poor engine cooling, hydraulic system leaks, and reduced brake sensitivity. This special maintenance campaign addresses these pain points and has established a service standard of "10 mandatory inspections + on-demand repairs." Mandatory inspections include checking engine oil level and quality, changing transmission fluid, cleaning the air filter, adjusting the brake system, checking tire pressure, checking hydraulic line leaks, testing the battery charge, checking the lighting system, tightening tool connections, and assessing the machine body for corrosion. In Huai'an, Jiangsu, a dealer's technical team departs at 6 a.m. every day to provide services to farmers in surrounding towns and villages. "We maintain 15-20 tractors a day, from engines to tires, and every detail counts," explained technician Zhang Wei. Last week in Lianshui County, Huai'an, they discovered that the brake shoes on a tractor were severely worn. If not replaced promptly, the brakes could fail during the autumn harvest. They replaced the shoes on the spot, free of charge, to prevent safety hazards.
In addition to basic inspections and repairs, dealers also provide personalized services tailored to farmers' needs. For farmers with high-intensity work, a "deep maintenance package" is available. This package includes cleaning carbon deposits inside the engine, filtering the hydraulic system oil, and replacing aging circuits in the electrical system. The package price is 40% off the regular price. For older tractors over five years old, a comprehensive fault diagnosis is provided free of charge, along with a repair recommendation report to help farmers determine whether their equipment needs major repairs or replacement. Chen Guang, a farmer in Suzhou, Anhui Province, has been using his tractor for six years. During this maintenance, a technician discovered a slight leak in his transmission, sealed it on the spot, and recommended checking the oil level before his next operation. "I didn't know there was a hidden danger in my equipment before, but thanks to this maintenance, I wouldn't have suffered a major loss during the autumn harvest," Chen Guang said.
To help farmers improve their independent maintenance skills, technicians also provide hands-on practical skills during the maintenance process: for example, they teach farmers how to determine whether the oil needs to be replaced by its color, how to clean field debris from the air filter, and how to check for foreign objects in the tires after nighttime operations. Some dealers have also produced an "Autumn Tractor Maintenance Manual" with illustrations and text to explain daily maintenance procedures, which is distributed free of charge to farmers. The head of a dealer in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, said: "We not only help farmers solve current equipment problems, but also teach them how to maintain their equipment so that the tractors can be used longer and run more steadily." According to statistics, the failure rate of tractors that have undergone special maintenance is 60% lower than that of unmaintained equipment, and the operating efficiency is improved by 15%. On average, each piece of equipment can reduce downtime by 2-3 days during the autumn harvest, saving farmers more than 10,000 yuan in economic losses.
