Quick Tips & Tricks: EarthCruiser Maintenance

An EarthCruiser is your best friend on the road, which is why it is critically important to understand how to best take care of your vehicle. We work hard to make them as easy-to-use as possible but it’s worth noting these are complex machines that do require time and effort to learn how to maintain them to keep them in top shape and running for years on end. Some of the biggest mishaps we’ve seen are from folks who don’t take these requirements seriously – or heed valuable advice.

A crucial part of EarthCruiser vehicle ownership is the importance of regular and routine maintenance. This goes beyond simple and obvious actions like oil changes, it means carefully following the manufacturers maintenance schedule which is what keeps an EarthCruiser ready to hit the (off)road at a moment’s notice. Here’s a few basic tips from Clive Watson, our Head of Production and Customer Training to get you started.

1. Fire up the Webasto: EarthCruiser’s feature a Webasto Air top heater for hot water and air for heating during cold weather outings. As we highlight in this post about how EarthCruisers are designed to run in below-zero temps, taking care of your Webasto Dual Top is an important part of maintenance for your comfort. When not in use, we recommend running your Webasto for 30 minutes on hot once a month to let it go through a cycle to ensure everything stays in working order before you head out the door.
2. Seagull Filter: EarthCruiser’s feature a comprehensive water purification system, that includes a pump and filtration system allowing EarthCruiser owners to safely pull from any freshwater source and fill water tanks with the capacity for 75 gallons of storage. Lance walks through some of the unique innovations we’ve made in this video. As with all the operating systems found within our vehicles, the water purification system requires maintenance to ensure it stays in top working order. One important aspect is keeping an eye on the Seagull filter and keeping a log of when it’s changed out; Units are rated for about 4000 gallons of pure water before a filter change. 
3. Electrical Cab: Our electrical systems were designed to sip power, and have numerous backup systems if and when necessary. We only select proven systems for our trucks, then test them to all the extremes to see how they perform. Only once we are happy with the result are these products chosen. The most successful EarthCruiser owners are ones who take the time to become familiar with what’s going on “under the hood”. This helps to quickly visually identify if something might be amiss, or about to be. Conduct regular visual inspections of your electrical cab to ensure nothing is loose and regularly check functionality of all your breakers.
4. Grease up:  EarthCruiser vehicles are equipped with electrically-operated entry steps. To ensure smooth use, we recommend quarterly greasing of the pivot points on the steps which helps to not over-strain the motor when in use. 
5. Spare Rotations: Catching a flat and struggling with a new and untested spare can sometimes happen at the worst possible time. Our wheel and tire combination weigh roughly 100 lbs./45 kgs, making it easy to change. Our spare wheel carrier is also engineered to make dropping and stowing hassle-less. We recommend getting into the practice of rotating your spare tire into use and checking spare carrier functionality.