-
Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!
So why are parts so expensive these days?
- Thread starter James Sorochan
- Start date
cuttin edge
Senior Member
No one keeps anything in stock anymore. One time there were 5 parts stores here. Their buildings were huge. It was rare that they had to order anything, and if they did, it could be that afternoon, or the next morning. Now everything is 800 miles away.
Out of genuine curiosity, how? I've been thinking this over and over but I don't see a way to get around it. Maybe I'm not being creative enough?
Even if the customer doesn't worry about the price too much, the lack of availability is appalling.
Local cat store tried talking me into shipping a quick-attach actuator from Australia or my other option was to put my name on a list, wait for however long it took to get back in stock, and hope that the limited supply wasn't gone before my name came up. In the end the customer had to wait 2 months for one to make it to us. Luckily the machine wasn't down because I made manual coupler levers for it but I received a call about it almost every other day feom the customer asking about the parts until I told them to start calling the cat parts counter.
Today's 'just in time' delivery chain doesn't help either. This way manufacturers don't get stuck with a lot of unallocated/unsold inventory which hurts their bottom line. So basically the end-user has to bear the cost of critical parts inventory and not the dealership or manufacturer. Therefore, some of the increased cost of parts may be due to shorter production runs of a part, especially castings, because of the continual changing of molds or tooling. Downtime in any production line costs money and lost production. Think of it as custom made, limited production parts. I'm not saying its right, that's just the way it is
nowing75
Senior Member
we run into that with our old T455 trencher. I dont think they want to support them so they just jack up the price
Also, OEM's make more profit on fast-moving parts just because of the sheer volume, not low-demand items. Then you add to the problem because a lot of parts are out-sourced to other companies. No manufacturer makes all of their own parts nowadays. It's another reason we run into supply-chain issues and inconsistent pricing.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
High usage items I stock 3 months ahead. I have no choice.
As a buissness I have learned that my own parts inventory prevents downtime witch is what keeps us making money and if I am buying inventory and not replacing I can shop
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Agreed, emergency repairs cause emergency buying. There still are a few deals out there but you have
to stay ahead of the curve.
mekanik
Senior Member
I used to work for an electrical utility. I used keep a pretty good inventory of
Navistar parts for Maxxfarce 9 and 10 engines. The local Navistar dealer
was always calling and borrowing parts off me.
Navistar parts for Maxxfarce 9 and 10 engines. The local Navistar dealer
was always calling and borrowing parts off me.
Boy, that seems a little hard to believe.
John C.
Senior Member
Parts and service sales at the dealerships nearly in all cases pay all the operating costs of the business. It's called absorption and is a metric by which the management of the business is judged on.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Most semi trucks, say a Pete 359 built in 1984, will have had two in-frames and most likely a complete.
At least three transmissions and three sets of rear drives. 14 plus sets of drive tires. At least one radiator,
Three turbos, Suspension rebuilt at least once. Countless brake components, king pins, 5 starters, who
knows how many batteries, exhaust rebuilt three times. the list goes on.
Add that up on a truck that cost $53,000 new.
At least three transmissions and three sets of rear drives. 14 plus sets of drive tires. At least one radiator,
Three turbos, Suspension rebuilt at least once. Countless brake components, king pins, 5 starters, who
knows how many batteries, exhaust rebuilt three times. the list goes on.
Add that up on a truck that cost $53,000 new.
hosspuller
Senior Member
Posted in jokes, but, Appropriate for this thread ...
I don’t know about that much but maybe. I have heard that the parts and service revenue is more important than the initial sale profit and that we start seeing serious parts sales for an average machine once it hits the 3 year old mark.
one of our customers trades their machines in when they get to 10000 hours. For them they figure that’s the sweet spot between getting good use out of a machine and paying reasonable parts cost before major repairs start getting too frequent.
That's got to be at least 1.5 million miles to need that kind of repairs though, and something the vast majority of trucks never see except for a small amount of OTR trucks. Take away the bunch of trucks that die early from accidents, or end up parked due to a breakdown, or end up in a farmers field, or in severe duty applications that will not last that long.
