I just want to see what everyones thougths are on applying aftermarket undercarriage on a machine. For example, purchasing ITR, VPI or heavyquip and removing CAT system one. I know it saves the customer a TON of money up front, but CAT is telling us that the value of the machine at resale will drastically take a drop. I just dont see it, the aftermarket is warrantied for 3 years or 4000 hours. what are your thoughts on replacing OEM with Aftermarket?
I'm interested too!
I would only see it as a downside if the owner was part-exing the machine through a Cat dealer. The dealer would have a problem putting the machine "as-is" on his used lot if it has non-OEM undercarriage alongside possibly similar machines equipped with OEM u/c. Everyone knows the non-OEM is cheaper to buy, therefore the "worth" of the machine with non-OEM u/c versus OEM must be less. QED. My 2 cents.
The majority of customers we have are waiting for their pads to wear out so they can replace the system one with the standard again. I am not an equipment buyer but I doubt it is a major factor.
Generally people don't trade in equipment that has much undercarriage left at all. You can go to ten different lots and the only thing you will find is machines with new undercarriage or machines with pretty much worn out undercarriage. Any machine with undercarriage worn less than 75% is usually sold before it hits the lot.
We should pay more attention to the undercarriage,their weight and cost account for 1/4 of the excavator’s total cost
If aftermarket suits your wallet better then that's the route to go, I have done both ways and never felt it really made much difference on resale. I would rather buy a machine with good aftermarket than poor Cat. Our local undercarriage guy says the same about system 1, most owners do not put it back.
We have run most of the aftermarket brands (KUT, ITM, Berco, VTrack, Trek, DCF, etc.) and most of the difference is in customer support, a lot of which is up to your local dealer. I've seen a/m's run longer than Cat stuff, I've seen Cat fail with less than 100 hours; stuff happens and often the only thing that makes a huge difference is how good your salesman is in the long run. Overall we have had the best luck with Cat, often because we have quick recourse when a problem arises. With that said, I don't think you will see a drastic drop in resale value because of not having Cat branded undercarriage. Equipment sells online every day that doesn't have any details of u/c wear, much less the name brand. If it made a big difference Ritchie would be posting it with pics. You may be able to ask for a little more premium, but it should not detract.
We inspect about 80 used CAT dozers a year including undercarriage measurement. Most "used" buyers will even not recognize they are buying a non OEM undercarriage except someone tells'em. But when we valuate undercarriage remaining life we always go 10-20% beneath CAT values for non-OEM undercarriage parts. It is just for the fact that it is "not original". We can't find serious signs for longer remaining life on System ONE undercarriages. But often we see unequally worn parts just because track sag is not properly adjusted or leaking rollers haven't been replaced in time. Also frequently driving reverse in high speed caused extraordinary wear on bushings and sprockets.
In my experiance you will have better value going after market and a new under carriage is worth more than a cracked one. Can Chris at Vancouver Track Parts and tell him Gregg sent you. He will give you a good price and since its so heavy I believe that you get free freight.
I fix the driving in reverse bit on all our tractors by going into them with ET and removing access to top gear in reverse. That fixes them every time ...!!
The old way to do that was by welding a stop bar accross the "U" channel in the shift selector. With the programming method, how many times do the lever pullers call to say it won't shift right?
We communicate it to them with a printed label stuck to the dashboard of each machine that we limit the speeds. "This tractor only has 1st & 2nd speed in reverse" - never had any complaints from the lever pullers ...........