How Not Replacing Final Drive Motors Cost a Business Money

Deferred maintenance is a popular way to save money these days. Small business owners who are looking to cut down on expenses might look at their ledgers and realize they're spending an incredible amount of money servicing their equipment. Slashing the equipment service budget can save literally thousands of dollars in the short term, which is why so many companies are doing it.

Not investing in new final drive motors for your construction and excavation equipment probably seems like a decent way to save money. When you don't perform necessary service, however, you actually just push today's costs onto tomorrow. In one cautionary tale, a major government agency found that it needed more than $3 billion to tackle repairs it'd put off for a number of years. One state agency needed another $2 billion because of the same problem. Companies that don't make sure to replace bad final drive motors today are going to have to pay more to replace their excavators and other equipment once they fail.

Compounding Maintenance Problems Over Time

Say you had a fleet of five pieces of construction equipment, and all of them cost you several thousand dollars a year in maintenance. Whenever the drive motors started to wear out, you'd replace them with a fresh set. Imagine your business brought in less cash for a year, so you decided to push the old motors for as long as possible to avoid having to shell out money for new ones.

There's a good chance that you'd ruin at least one or two pieces of equipment, which means you'd have to buy entirely new ones to replace them. That's far more expensive than a set of drive motors. Considering there's a chance that damaged equipment could get into an accident, you might even be looking at steeper repair costs. The good news is that buying a new set of excavator final drive motors from a trusted supplier now can actually save money in the long run. Replacement costs don't look all that bad when you consider the overall picture.

Looking At Safety Issues

Keep in mind that the bottom line isn't the only reason you'd want to swap out the drive motors on your equipment. There are definite safety reasons for wanting to do so. Construction sites are already very hazardous places. Sudden drive motor failure can make construction equipment seize up or even potentially drop a load. Either of these could be disastrous and have far-reaching consequences.

Cash-strapped companies should actually double down on maintenance, since they'll be able to use their high-mileage gear much longer if they keep it in good condition. Buying some new final drive motors is a drop in the bucket compared to what it might cost to take a brand new excavator off the showroom floor. Take a few moments to glance at your latest ledger sheets. The cost of new drive motors is probably much lower than most of the other expenses you'll see in the budget. It’s better to make the investment in new final drive motors now than to wait for equipment to break down and stop business operations until it is fixed.