Getting Your Equipment Through Cyclone Season: A Practical Checklist
Every year, the same pattern plays out in yards across the island. The warning goes out, everyone rushes to secure buildings and livestock, and the equipment is left where it stands. Then the rain comes, the machines sit idle for days or weeks, and by the time the land dries out, half of them will not start.
Cyclone season puts a specific kind of stress on machinery. It is not the wind that ruins equipment — it is the water, the humidity that follows, and the long period of standing still. Fuel goes stale, carburettors gum up, bare metal rusts, and irrigation lines that were left charged under pressure split or blow their fittings. Nearly all of it is preventable in an afternoon.
Here is the routine we recommend to customers before the heavy weather arrives.
Drain or stabilise your fuel
Two-stroke fuel left sitting in a tank is the most common cause of a machine that will not start in December. Modern petrol with ethanol content absorbs moisture from humid air, and that moisture attacks the carburettor. If a machine is going to stand for more than a few weeks, run the tank dry and let the engine stop on its own, or drain the tank and run the engine briefly on a stabilised mix. Either way, do not park a machine with half a tank and hope.
Check the fuel lines and primer bulb at the same time. Perished rubber is easy to miss and cheap to replace.
Service the air and fuel filtration before, not after
Tropical dust and damp air are hard on filters. A clogged air filter makes an engine run rich and lose power long before it fails outright. Replace the air filter and the fuel filter at the start of the season, and check the spark plug gap and condition while you are in there. If the spark plug boot or ignition lead is cracked or brittle, replace it — damp air finds every weak point in the ignition system, and a machine that will not start in humid conditions is almost always an ignition problem.
Deal with the cutting end
Blades, trimmer heads and gear heads take the worst of it. Inspect the cutting attachment for cracks, check the trimmer head for worn or slipping components, and confirm the gear head still turns freely and holds its grease. If you run a harness with a brush cutter, check the straps and buckles now — a harness that has been sitting in a damp shed can have rot you cannot see until it fails under load.
Do not leave the irrigation system charged
This is the one that catches people out. If your drip lines, hoses and fittings are left under pressure while the block is waterlogged, the system is working against itself. Close off the supply, drain the lines where you can, and disconnect the pump. Store hose runs off the ground and out of standing water. Check for splits and worn connectors while you are handling them, because a small split found now is a repair; found later, it is a lost crop and a flooded headland.
Pumps, sprayers and pressure washers
Anything with a seal, a valve or a pressure chamber deserves attention. Clean sprayer nozzles and check the seals and O-rings — a sprayer that has been left with chemical residue will seize its seals. Drain pumps and pressure washers if they will stand for the season, and store them under cover. Never leave a pump housing full of water to sit.
Fix your storage
Where a machine sleeps is as important as how it is serviced. A ventilated, dry shed with the equipment off the floor will outperform any amount of after-the-fact repair. Raise machines onto pallets or blocks. Keep them away from open-sided walls where driving rain enters. Cover them with a breathable sheet rather than a sealed plastic tarp — trapped condensation under a plastic cover does more damage than leaving the machine open.
Write the list before you need it
Finally, keep a short list of what your machines consume: filter part numbers, spark plug type, the diameter and profile of your trimmer line, the size of your flange fittings. When a breakdown happens mid-season, the delay is rarely the repair — it is identifying the part. Having that list ready is the difference between a machine back in service the same week and one sitting idle for a fortnight.
Our team in Sebastopol is happy to go through your equipment list with you and tell you which spares to hold on the shelf before the weather turns.
*Button:* `Browse spare parts` → `/shop/category/spare-parts-consumables`
*Button:* `Talk to our team` → `/contactus`