End-of-season maintenance protects your investment through the Canadian winter. What to clean, what to inspect, and how to store hydraulic attachments so they're ready in spring.
Skid steer attachments represent a significant capital investment, and the end of the working season is when that investment is most vulnerable. Equipment that gets parked dirty, with exposed hydraulic ports and unpainted bare metal, can deteriorate significantly over a Canadian winter. Seals crack. Corrosion takes hold in places you won't notice until something fails mid-season.
The good news is that proper end-of-season attachment care isn't complicated. It takes a few hours per attachment and pays back in extended service life and lower repair bills. This guide covers the full process from initial cleaning through to proper storage, with notes on the specific challenges the Canadian climate creates.
Canada's climate creates storage challenges that operators in milder climates don't face to the same degree:
Store an attachment clean, not dirty. Packed soil, plant material, and road debris hold moisture against the metal and accelerate corrosion. They also hide cracks, wear, and damage that should be found before storage — not discovered mid-season next year.
A pressure washer is the fastest way to clean most attachments. Focus on areas where material packs in: inside bucket lips, around auger flighting, between grapple tines, in the body of a stump grinder.
Avoid directing high-pressure water directly at hydraulic fittings, cylinder rod seals, or bearing grease points. The pressure can strip grease and drive water into areas where it will cause seal damage or corrosion.
Buckets: Clean the inside of the bowl completely, including the hinge and lip area. Inspect the cutting edge and any tooth adapters for wear or cracking while you're cleaning.
Augers: Remove packed soil from between flighting and from the bit area. Check bit condition while cleaning — worn bits leave the auger body doing more work and accelerate wear on the drive components.
Grapples: Clean between tines. Inspect the cylinder rods for scoring while they're clean and visible. Check the pivot pin areas for wear or loose hardware.
Mulchers and brush cutters: Clean the rotor and housing thoroughly. Packed vegetation holds moisture and causes accelerated corrosion in the housing interior. Inspect the rotor blades or flails for wear or damage.
Snow pushers and blades: This is critical — if used with de-icer or on salted surfaces, the salt residue must be completely washed off before storage. Salt left on a steel snow pusher will rust through the skin over a single summer.
End-of-season is your best inspection opportunity. Everything is accessible and visible. Problems found now can be addressed over the off-season rather than shutting down a job in spring.
This is the single most important storage step for hydraulic attachments and the most commonly skipped.
Hydraulic couplers and open ports are the entry points for contamination. Dust, insects, and water entering an open hydraulic port during storage can contaminate the entire circuit when the attachment is next connected. Hydraulic contamination is a leading cause of valve and motor failures.
Use proper port caps — plastic dust caps designed for the coupler face style on your attachments. The flat-face couplers on most modern skid steers use a specific cap size. Keep a supply of these on hand; they're inexpensive and the alternative is much more expensive.
Retract hydraulic cylinders before storing. Store attachments with hydraulic cylinders fully retracted so the chrome cylinder rod is protected inside the cylinder barrel rather than exposed to the elements. A cylinder rod left extended through the winter is exposed to UV, moisture, and frost damage, which scores the surface and destroys the rod seal. Retracted rods are protected.
Grease all grease points before storage, not just after. Grease at storage serves two purposes: it protects the grease points from moisture intrusion over the off-season, and it ensures that any mechanical stress at startup next spring is happening on properly lubricated bearings, not dry ones.
Standard multi-purpose NLGI #2 grease works for most skid steer attachment grease points. For attachments used in wet environments or in coastal areas where salt exposure is higher, a marine-grade or water-resistant grease is worth using at exposed pivot points.
Use your machine's recommended grease interval schedule as a guide — but at minimum, grease at the start of storage and again at spring startup.
Areas where paint has been worn away — cutting edges, tooth adapters, wear points on buckets, the bucket floor interior — are exposed bare steel. Left unprotected through the winter, these areas will rust.
Options for bare metal protection:
For attachments that live outdoors year-round, an annual application of Fluid Film or equivalent to the entire attachment (not just bare areas) significantly slows general corrosion. Many Canadian operators do this at both fall and spring. A 1L aerosol or a small pump sprayer applied to the whole machine takes about 20 minutes and extends paint and metal life noticeably.
Indoor storage in a dry building is best. If you have the space, store attachments inside — particularly those with hydraulic components, rubber hoses, and precision wear parts.
If outdoor storage is necessary:
Buckets: Turn face down or face upward with the cutting edge off the ground. Storing a bucket flat on its cutting edge wears the edge and holds water in the bowl.
Grapples: Store with tines closed and cylinders retracted.
Augers: Store upright if possible with the bit clear of the floor — the bit is the most expensive and most damage-prone component when an auger tips over.
Mulchers: Store with the rotor accessible for final cleaning and with the housing clean and dry. Some operators remove the rotor blades for storage and sharpen or replace them during the off-season.
When you bring attachments out of storage:
For a full spring startup checklist, see our guide on getting your skid steer and attachments ready after winter.