The part that fails is only the beginning. The real damage is everything that happens afterwards. Let's say your excavator is worth R3 million. It's a big machine. A productive machine. The sort of machine that earns its keep every day it's working. Then, one Tuesday morning, the operator phones. “Boss... we've got a problem.” Those are never words you want to hear. You arrive on site. There it is. Your excavator. Dead. The operator explains what happened. There was a strange

The ugly, expensive, filthy bits that nobody thinks about until the excavator stops making money. Everyone talks about excavator engines. Hydraulic pumps. Tracks. Booms. Even final drives get their moment in the spotlight. But there is another category of excavator parts. The parts nobody wants to talk about. They aren't sexy. They don't make for impressive photographs. Nobody stands around the workshop admiring them. And yet, when one of them fails, your excavator can go fro

The Chinese aftermarket isn't what it was 10 years ago. And South African excavator owners should probably pay attention. Let's start with something that might upset a few people. China is coming for the excavator-parts market. Actually, that's not quite right. China has already arrived. Walk into almost any excavator-parts market and you'll find Chinese-manufactured components competing with OEM parts on price, availability and increasingly, quality. And now South Korean man

Walk into an excavator graveyard and the first thing you notice is the silence. No engines growling. No tracks grinding through the dirt. No hydraulic pumps whining under load. No operator shouting over the noise of a 20-ton machine digging its way through half of Gauteng. Just rows of machines that once worked for a living. Some are complete. Some are missing cabs. Some are sitting on bare undercarriages. Some have engines removed. Some are little more than orange, yellow, g

Why the cheapest excavator part can sometimes cost you the most money Let's play a little game. You're sitting in your office. Your excavator is dead. Your site manager is phoning every 15 minutes. Your operator is standing around drinking coffee. Your customer wants to know why nothing is happening. And your mechanic has just told you that you need a replacement final drive. You start making calls. Supplier number one: R68,000. Supplier number two: R61,500. Supplier number t

Why the price of the excavator part is often the least important number in the equation There is a sentence we hear all the time: “How much is the part?” Fair question. But sometimes it is the wrong question. Because when a R2 million excavator is sitting dead on a construction site, the price of the part is only one tiny piece of the financial disaster unfolding around it. A contractor can spend three days arguing over whether a replacement hydraulic pump costs R80,000 or R9

That old excavator sitting behind the workshop might be worth far more than the scrap dealer is offering you. There comes a point in the life of every excavator when somebody says: “She's finished.” The machine is old. The hours are high. The engine is tired. The hydraulics aren't what they used to be. The undercarriage is worn. The cab looks like it has survived a small war. Maybe the machine hasn't moved for six months. So the owner makes a perfectly understandable decision

Because when your machine is down, you're not really buying a part. You're buying a solution. There is a moment every excavator owner knows. The machine stops. The operator phones. The workshop gets involved. Someone starts investigating. And eventually the dreaded sentence arrives: “We need a new part.” Now the procurement process begins. Phone calls. WhatsApps. Google searches. Emails. Photos. Part numbers. Prices. And inevitably, somebody says: “I've found one cheaper.” Co

The mechanic who has to fix it twice has a very different definition of “cheap.” Ask an experienced excavator mechanic what he thinks about cheap aftermarket parts and you might get a very predictable answer. Probably something along the lines of: “You get what you pay for.” But that doesn't quite capture it. Because experienced mechanics aren't necessarily against aftermarket parts. They understand that there are good aftermarket manufacturers, bad aftermarket manufacturers,

Why buying newer isn't always the same thing as buying better. There's something strange about the earthmoving industry. Put two excavators next to each other. One is brand new. It gleams. The paint is perfect. The cab smells like a new car. The display hasn't got a scratch on it. The other machine is 12 years old. The paint is faded. There are a few dents in the panels. The seat has seen better days. It looks like it's been around the block. And yet... the older machine migh

The uncomfortable question every owner eventually has to ask. There comes a moment in the life of every excavator when someone has to ask a very uncomfortable question: “Is this machine still worth fixing?” It's not an easy question. You've owned the machine for years. You know its quirks. Your operators know it. Your mechanics know it. You've already spent a small fortune keeping it alive. And every time something breaks, the temptation is to say: “Let's just fix this one.”

It's costing you money every minute it isn't working. An excavator breaks. The operator climbs out. The mechanic arrives. Someone starts making phone calls. A part needs to be found. A quotation needs to be approved. The supplier needs to locate it. The part needs to be paid for. It needs to be transported. The mechanic needs to fit it. The machine needs to be tested. And finally, hopefully, the excavator goes back to work. The natural question during all of this is: “How muc

Sometimes the part that fits isn't the part with the same name on the box. Walk into any excavator parts business and ask for a component and you'll probably be asked: “What make is the machine?” Fair enough. Komatsu? Caterpillar? Hitachi? Volvo? Doosan? JCB? Sumitomo? The brand matters. But here's something that might surprise you: The brand isn't always the most important thing. Because when it comes to excavator components, the real question isn't always: “What brand is it

It isn't buying an expensive part. It's buying the wrong one. There is a particular kind of phone call that nobody in the earthmoving industry enjoys receiving. It usually starts with: “We've fitted the part, but the machine isn't working properly.” Then comes the investigation. The part looks right. It bolts up. The machine starts. But something isn't quite right. Maybe the hydraulic function is wrong. Maybe the machine is pulling to one side. Maybe the travel speed isn't wh

An excavator rarely wakes up one morning and decides to completely destroy itself. More often, it gives you warnings. A strange noise. A little smoke. A hydraulic function that suddenly feels slower. A track that doesn't seem to have the power it used to have. A boom that creeps down when it shouldn't. A machine that starts running hotter than normal. The problem is that we often ignore these warnings. We tell ourselves: “It's an old machine.” Or: “It was just doing something

There is a point in every excavator's life when someone asks the question: “Is this machine still worth repairing?” It's a fair question. The machine is old. The paint is tired. The cab has seen better days. The hour meter has a number on it that makes the accountant nervous. And then something expensive fails. A final drive. A hydraulic pump. A slew motor. An engine. A valve bank. Suddenly someone says: “Maybe we should just replace the machine.” And sometimes, they're right

One old excavator can become dozens — sometimes hundreds — of opportunities to keep other machines working. What happens when an excavator reaches the end of its working life? Most people see scrap. We see inventory. More specifically, we see engines, hydraulic pumps, final drives, slew motors, valve banks, cylinders, radiators, tracks, electrical components, cabs, counterweights, attachments and hundreds of smaller components that can potentially give another machine a secon

The cheapest excavator part isn't necessarily the one with the lowest price. It's the one that gets your machine working again. If you operate excavators for a living, you already know that downtime is expensive. What you may not always appreciate is just how expensive it can be. A machine standing in your yard isn't earning money. A machine standing on a construction site isn't moving material. A machine sitting on a mine isn't producing. A machine parked in a quarry isn't c

There is a dangerous sentence in the earthmoving industry: “We got it cheap.” Cheap is seductive. A bargain feels like a bargain. You find a 20-tonne excavator for R600,000 when similar machines are selling for R900,000. You feel pretty good about yourself. You have just saved R300,000. Or have you? Because there is a fundamental difference between: The price you pay for an excavator and The cost of owning that excavator. And if you don't understand the difference, that “chea

Your excavator has stopped working. The operator is standing around. The project is waiting. The client is getting impatient. And you're on the phone trying to find a part. The first question you're probably asking is: “How much is the replacement part going to cost?” It's an important question. But it might not be the most important one. The bigger question is: “How much is this excavator costing me while it is standing still?” Because a broken excavator doesn't simply cost