Depot guide

Keeping a truck rolling

Batteries, grit in the wheels, a boom that has stopped moving — the five faults we see most and how to fix them at the kitchen table.

Batteries first, always

Nine faults in ten are cells. Lights dim before they die, sound distorts before it stops, and a motorized model will slow down noticeably a day or two before it gives up. Use fresh alkaline AA or AAA cells of the type printed inside the bay, replace all of them at once rather than mixing old with new, and take them out if the truck is going into storage for a season.

Grit in the wheels and axles

A truck that has been driven on gravel or sand will pick up grit around the hubs, and the first sign is a wheel that no longer free-rolls. Turn the model over, pick the obvious debris out with a cocktail stick, then roll each wheel by hand. Do not oil anything — oil holds dust and makes the next build-up worse. A dry brush does the job.

A boom or bed that has stopped moving

On joystick models the linkage can drop out of its seat after a hard landing. Work the control through its full travel slowly and listen: a clean click means the gear has re-seated, a grinding sound means something is still out of line and the model needs to go back. On crank models the cause is almost always a load that is too heavy — our dump beds are rated for toy spoil, not a fistful of real gravel.

Cleaning without killing the electronics

The light and sound units are not sealed. Wipe the bodywork with a barely damp cloth, keep water away from the battery bay and the button pad, and never put a model through a dishwasher, however tempting the mud makes it. Accessories, cones and worker figures are plain molded plastic and can be washed properly in warm water.

When it is a fault rather than wear

If a model arrives dead, arrives with a part missing from the box, or fails inside the first weeks of normal use, that is a fault and it should not be nursed along. Raise it through the order page of the partner store that handled the purchase — they hold the record of the sale and can move faster on a replacement than we can.