Sawubona, truth-seekers and wallet-watchers. Ralph and Justin here, standing in the middle of the Benoni strip yard with two identical Komatsu PC400-6 final drives on the bench: Left bench: genuine Komatsu OEM final drive, 9 800 hours, pulled from a low-abuse coal loader. Price from Vikfin: R48 000. Right bench: brand-new Chinese aftermarket copy bought by a customer who “saved” R28 000 up-front. Ran 2 410 hours. Now looks like it lost a fight with a blender. We’ve stripped,

Howzit, undercarriage warriors. Ralph in Benoni and Justin in Cato Ridge here. Between us we’ve measured more than 1 200 sets of 20–45 tonne undercarriages in the last eight years, and we’ve got bad news and good news. Bad news: the average South African 40-tonner is throwing away R800 000–R1.4 million on undercarriage every 6 000–8 000 hours because of lazy habits and dealer scare tactics. Good news: the top 10 % of operators in this country are getting 11 000–15 000+ hours

Howzit, grease monkeys, site foremen and anyone who’s ever stared at a R280 000 quote for a new valve bank and felt physically sick. Ralph and Justin here from Vikfin – one of us is in Benoni stripping in the Gauteng dust, the other is in Cato Ridge doing the same under KZN humidity. Between us we’ve pulled more than 600 valve banks out of 20–45 tonne machines in the last ten years and sold every single one without owning a single test bench. We’re going to give you the full,

Let’s cut through the marketing bullshit: when you see a giant excavator, wheel loader or other earth-moving beast in South Africa (or anywhere), there’s a very good chance the engine heart under the hood comes from Perkins — a company owned by Caterpillar. Their relationship shapes how big machines move dirt.We’ll trace: the history of Perkins, how Caterpillar acquired it, why it matters for earth-moving gear, the technical/repair implications (our bread & butter at Vikfin),

If you’ve ever stood on a construction site and watched two excavators side by side — one with steel tracks grinding through the mud and another with rubber tyres rolling smoothly over asphalt — you’ve probably wondered: Why the difference? It’s not just about looks. The choice between a steel-tracked excavator  and a wheeled excavator  completely changes how the machine behaves, what kind of terrain it can handle, how it’s maintained, and even how the operator should think b