Heavy Equipment Blog

Sitting inside our Kansas City headquarters, the ACTParts machine shop is where all of our cylinder heads are loaded, components are rebuilt and transmissions are tested on the Dyno bench.  Its reputation in the heavy equipment industry is kept strong by 30+-year ACTParts veteran Jerry Duxbury.  He is vital to the processes described below that allow ACTParts to stock the industry’s finest remanufactured components, ready to ship to customers around the world.

Late last year we set up an Instagram account (@actparts) as part of an effort to engage with our social media followers more frequently and to help tell the day-to-day story of American Crane & Tractor Parts. As we move forward into the future as the industry's highest quality distributor of aftermarket heavy equipment parts for Caterpillar® and now Volvo® construction equipment, these pictures will provide followers with a lot of insight into our company values, the quality of our products and people, and, most importantly, if and when Dave Sellinger ever shaves his beard. 

The seven pictures below are great examples of what we set out to accomplish with our new Instagram account. We hope you enjoy scrolling through them and hope to see some of your comments!

1. Transmission Testing

Every rebuilt transmission undergoes vigorous testing on our Dyno bench overseen by our seasoned, factory trained mechanics and is backed by our 6-month warranty.  

Dealing with fraud is an unfortunately prevalent part of doing business in the aftermarket parts industry. How much it affects your business comes down to how well you are educated on the types of scams in the market and how well prepared you are to identify and stop potential losses from fraud. 

Here is a quick overview of some common scams and how we at ACTParts have been able to reduce our losses.

Stolen Credit Cards

Using information hacked from financial institutions, perpetrators are able to fool sales reps into thinking a sale is legitimate by providing a valid credit card number which authorizes for payment when entered. Once the real card holder disputes the transaction, the seller will be held liable for the total amount in addition to the cost of lost inventory. 

Ways to protect yourself:

• Sales reps should demand a faxed copy of both the front/back of the card as well as a government issued ID
• Credit managers should verify the legitimacy of the card’s use with the card issuer before any transaction is finalized

(Click here to view pt. 1 of this transmission rebuild)

How long it takes for an engine or transmission to require an overhaul depends on a lot of factors. Operators who perform regular maintenance and work in non-harsh environments are going to get a much longer life out of their heavy equipment components than operators who skip basic maintenance and work in a jungle or arctic tundra.  Still, no matter how well you take care of your machine and its components, you will eventually need to address critical maintenance issues and updates to keep it running efficiently.

At ACTParts, our rebuild department specializes in analyzing and identifying the parts inside of a component that are preventing it from working at full efficiency. Addressing these not only enables the component to work properly, it helps prevent other critical component parts from becoming worn or failing prematurely and, eventually, causing more problems and downtime.

The transmission being rebuilt in the video below was updated to include all major engineering updates. As long as its end user makes regular maintenance a high priority, such as replacing filters, they can expect thousands of hours of use out of their component before having to worry about another overhaul. 

In our next video, we will be finishing the rebuild of this transmission and moving it to the dynamometer (dyno bench) so that we can be sure our customer is receiving a quality-tested product which we stand behind. 

Winter can be a long and grueling time for contractors and fleet managers. Contractors have to dig in while business slows and working conditions become harsh. Fleet managers must deal with the arduous tasks of winterizing equipment and performing extensive inspections.

Managers who perform scheduled oil samplings, or S.O.S., at regular intervals throughout the year are in a great position to make the most efficient use of their winter downtime and avoid running into costly mechanical issues on job sites in the spring.The samples enable them to identify which machines have abnormal metal or contaminant levels in them and are more likely to require unscheduled maintenance when put back to work.

One of the most significant characteristics of American Crane and Tractor that distinguishes us from our competition is the quality and availability of our rebuilt components for heavy equipment. Customers without the time, money, or manpower to do a complete rebuild on their own come to us with a strong confidence that we can get them the component they need at a fraction of the OEM price without sacrificing quality. And since all of our rebuilds come with a 6-month warranty they can be certain that we stand by the products coming out of our shop.

However, what many outside of ACTParts do not know is that the quality of our rebuilds also fulfills a critical role for us internally: quality control. We replace every bearing, seal, and electrical element on all of our rebuilt components using parts from our own stock as well as incorporate all critical engineering updates. Any hard parts that do not meet OEM specs are also replaced with a brand new, OEM quality part that comes directly off the shelf at our warehouse. And through vigorous testing to ensure quality, we make sure every one of those parts works as it should. If any parts do not perform up to our standards they are immediately pulled from inventory so that they never see the inside of our customers’ machines.

In the video below, you can see the first of three internal sections of a 9W1285 transmission being assembled for a 621E scraper by one of our 30-year veteran mechanics, Bill. We hope you enjoy it and look forward to hearing your comments.