Long-term costs, lowering costs

Production machines such as an 8-cubic-yard wheel loader are often replaced every five years or 15,000 hours. Replacement could mean moving it from a main production to a back-up unit or moving it out of their fleet. Operators today are trying to minimize their operating costs, and a large part of the operating costs is the replacement of major components for the machine to have a second life. If you can effectively maximize the hours a machine runs until major component replacement, then the operating costs will be lower. The decision whether to replace major components or not depends on your requirements.

If operators choose to replace the major components on their wheel loader,  Komatsu and several other major OEMs offer remanufactured components that can replace major components — engines, hydraulic pumps, and transmissions — with a component price that’s approximately 60 percent of the cost of new. This can lower your O&O costs on a second-life machine, especially if you gain some fuel efficiency by using factory quality remanufactured components. You have to be willing to work around the downtime from replacing major components, but using these components will provide confidence in the machines quality during the second life.