7 Things to Check When Judging Excavator Durability

If you’re purchasing an excavator, your chief concern is probably uptime. We can talk about lift capacity, reach and smooth controls, but if it’s not running then you’re not working. Design factors that affect excavator durability are often small and can be easy to overlook — until something breaks.

A big part of my job as a product manager for Volvo is to make sure that the next generation of Volvo equipment is even better than the last. After years of working with excavators, speaking with service techs and customers, and examining excavators from our competitors, I’ve formulated a list of seven often overlooked design elements on excavators that can make big differences when it comes to durability. When purchasing a new excavator, consider these seven areas to judge a machine’s durability:

1. Boom and Arm — Excavator booms and arms are exposed and vulnerable by nature — they’re literally sticking out. That’s why all booms and arms are covered by steel plates. However, the thickness of these plates varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, as does their warranty protection. I’ve seen costly repairs to booms and arms that aren’t covered under warranty and that could have been prevented by thicker steel. We’ve made a point to make our steel plates ¼-inch thicker than most competitors, and we also cover our boom and arm under a Lifetime Frame and Structure Warranty.
2. Undercarriage — The undercarriage of an excavator is another spot to keep an eye on and another place where manufacturers may skimp on your warranty protection. Look for thick, protective plates with strong welds. Any splits in the plates at stress points, or insufficient welds, could be costly — especially if the manufacturer won’t cover the undercarriage under a lifetime warranty.
3. Track Motor Cover — You want track motor covers with fully recessed areas to protect bolt heads. Exposed bolt heads increase the likelihood of damage — and that’s a design flaw you’ll see in a lot of excavators on the market.
4. Lateral Wear Plate Between Arm and Bucket — Look for a plate that is well made so that it wears less. But if you’re planning to put a lot of hours on the excavator, then there’s a good chance you will have to replace it at some point. Unfortunately, some manufacturers don’t make that easy. Easy is removing a few counter sunk screws and replacing the part. Hard is having to cut off the plate and rebuilding it because of poor design.
5. Idler Frame — A lot of our customers operate their excavators on rough terrain, like in mining or demolition applications. Operating in those types of environments puts stress on the idler frame, which is why we reinforce them. It’s not a standard industry design, but it’s one that I know protects our customers’ uptime.
6. Slew Ring Grease Bath — This is what I mean when I said earlier that small design flaws can be easy to overlook. The seal cover on the slew ring grease bath should not only be raised, thick and tight enough to keep water out, but also easy enough to access on a regular basis to check if water got in.
7. Electrical Harnesses — Seems obvious that an electrical area should be waterproof, right? Well you’d think so, but I’ve seen electrical harnesses on excavators that are not waterproof. I don’t think I need to explain why that can cause some issues.

Those are seven often overlooked components that I highly recommend you check when judging one excavator’s durability versus another. It may not be a bad idea to print this out, stick it in your pocket and check through them when you’re at the dealership. If you want to know more excavator design elements that can affect uptime, check out this article on nine serviceability factors to consider when buying an excavator.