![]() Your goal in good maintenance should be to increase uptime rather than trim costs. So even if you cut maintenance costs 20 percent, which would be very hard to do, you’re still only gaining 20 percent of a small slice of the O&O cost pie. It can increase productivity by as much as 50 while reducing operator inputs by up to 80 helping operators get more done with less effort for better performance and reduced fatigue. These on average turn out to be about 2 percent of your O&O costs on a D11 and 4 percent on a D6. Cat Grade with 3D for dozing is a factory-integrated technology that uses satellite guidance to help operators grade to plan faster and more accurately. Other than the undercarriage considerations, it’s not worth a lot of effort to try and substantially lower your maintenance costs beyond just following good preventive maintenance practices. Watch how the hydraulically actuated ladder on the Cat D11T Large Dozer deploys and stores in seconds for quick and easy access. Maintenance Soil moisture conditions can affect the life of your undercarriage. These machine control systems insure that you only move dirt once and maximize the return on your owning and operating costs because they eliminate errors and rework. A history of accidents or safety incidents will drive up insurance costs, and drive away good employees.Īnd don’t forget about GPS. Even a minor accident can put a machine or a site out of operation for as much as a day. Safety, as it relates to operators, technicians and any employee, is also a critical part of productivity and availability, Hansen says. These could be replaced or refurbished in separate maintenance procedures, but most contractors don’t want to pull the machine out of the dirt so often. Pins and bushings go first (or need turning), typically followed by the shoes and then the rollers and links. ![]() In an ideal world all the undercarriage parts would wear out about the same time, but they don’t. “Picking the right undercarriage and good undercarriage maintenance are critical to achieving the lowest operating cost per hour,” Neeley says. Undercarriages The chief value in good dozer maintenance is to avoid expensive downtime. Where there is value to be gained-money to be saved and productivity to be enhanced-is in working to spec the right machine for the job, making sure the operator is trained and in coordinating service and maintenance with your dealer, Dietz says. Dozers of equal weight and horsepower can more or less push the same load, but to get the most material moved per dollar you have to maximize productivity and minimize cost. If there is an overall philosophy that this group holds to it’s that managing your owning and operating costs is best done through a strong relationship between the manufacturer, the contractor and the dealer.
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