Curious about what you guys used for replacement hard parts. Hard parts meaning pins, bushings, seal kits and so on. Soft parts i've always considered to be filters, belts, hose, fittings and so on. Do you only used OEM parts when you can still get them or do you used aftermarket parts because of the price? I'm looking at replacing quick attach pins and bushings on a Bobcat and wondering if you guys have run into issues with aftermarket fitment, rockwell hardness issues? Thanks John
Well, guess i answered my own question...tappered pins for 3/4" bolts aren't available from Bobcat and overall costs are double. I have to replace one weld on bushing because the previous owner appearently doesn't know what a grease gun is, Oh boy!!
I've always grouped parts in different named categories. Consumables and repair parts. Consumables can be hard or soft parts. Cutting edges, teeth, undercarriages and tires are consumables and accounted for like drive belts, filters/fluids and such. Repair parts would carry the things that get damaged or normally wear out over a longer period of time. Engines, drive train components and their parts, repacking cylinders, hydraulic pumps, lights, glass and so on. This seems to satisfy most of the accountants on the staff. Using the dealer network for due diligence was always my first call when sourcing supplies and parts. Lots of times I would find I could buy things like filters in case lots for substantially less than the jobbers and after market people. Ground engaging tools have always been a crap shoot where price depends on the size and buying power of your company and the established quality of the products. Repair parts that are used in implement joints are usually a situational choice depending on the use for the machine and the owner's current bank account. In my experience, the greatest longevity is the OEM parts and I would use them on high production machines no matter the cost. Anything that only runs part time was worth the risk of trying something different as long as it was monitored. There were plenty of times were aftermarket sources were a far better value than the OEM.
I also have always been an advocate for OEM parts when possible. I worked in industiral maint for 35 years before retirement and it was to often common for the purchasing dept to order another part other than what was requested to save on cost only to have it fail in half the cycles or overall run time. The S185 i'm working on is not going to have high usage and I'm just going through it to try and make it a dependable machine. At least to the point I don't have to worry about it braking down when I'm running it out in the middle of nowhere clearing trees. So far all the componets i've used have been OEM. Thanks John