As winter comes to an end, millions of Americans are engaging in spring cleaning. For business owners, this can mean caring for critical electrical systems. One important task that you will want to remember is your spring generator maintenance. A power outage canhappen at any time in California, and regular maintenance can ensure that your unit is in top working order to support your business until the power is restored. Follow these tips from Valley Power Systems to keep your commercial generator running smoothly throughout the year.
1. Change the Oil
Your generator’s oil should be changed after so many service hours (depending on the manufacturer), but if it has been a while, spring is a great time to get back on track with your unit’s oil changes. Keeping your system lubricated will reduce the wear and tear...
Should Employees Give Input on Equipment Purchases?
We always advise any business owners or operations managers to get an opinion from a trusted dealer before deciding to buy a diesel truck, a generator, or some other piece of heavy equipment for their business. The power and transportation are important to your bottom line, and you want a team with experience and perspective on your side. But what about getting input from the other direction? Should you ask for opinions from managers, mechanics, or even drivers and frontline employees when making equipment purchases? This is a question we get asked from time to time, particularly as our customers start thinking about the issues and challenges of buying things like big engines and expensive boats for their companies.You can probably make an argument either way. In our experience, having some input from employees can be valuable. But at the same...
5 Ways Buying Diesel Equipment Affects Your Bottom Line
The business owners and managers we work with know that buying diesel trucks or other pieces of heavy equipment is a big decision. But sometimes they might not realize just how big that decision will be, and all the ways that it will eventually affect their bottom line. If anything, they tend to focus on the sticker price of the particular model and look for ways to decrease the immediate financial hit. That’s certainly a good thing to do, but it sometimes misses the point. That’s because, in the long run, what you pay for a particular truck or engine might not be the factor that determines whether you get good value or not. The ongoing running costs add up over time, to the point that they might go far beyond your original...
You don’t need us to tell you that investing in a heavy-duty diesel engine – or a piece of equipment that has one – is a big deal. Not only are there financial considerations for your company, but you’ll obviously be looking for a certain standard of performance and reliability that will hold up for years to come. Knowing this, you might assume that business owners and executives would have a set process for making decisions about what to buy, or how to maintain such an expensive piece of capital equipment. In our experience, however, many of them are flying blind. They work off gut instincts rather than plans and numbers, which leads them to make decisions that can hurt them in the long run.We want to help you avoid this tendency. In today’s post we are going to...
How Important Are Power Equipment Brands When Choosing Engines and Power Solutions?
When you’re about to make a big capital investment – like the purchase of a diesel engine or generator, for example – every detail matters. But then again, so does every penny.Maybe that’s why we hear questions about the importance of choosing the right brand so often. Sometimes, customers come to us with specific brands and models in mind. On other occasions they simply want the lowest cost, or the power equipment that can deliver them the highest price-to-performance ratio on paper. In other words, some business owners and executives are brand loyal while others are cost concerned. In fact, they might even think that bigger brands are less attractive because they entail higher costs.Which side is correct? How much attention should you pay to branding, if any at all? Are...