Rubber Track Life

[brain55]

I can only talk about Bobcat machines because that is where most of my experience is. The first 1200 hours of a track-loader is the most cost efficient, all you will probably need to pay for is routine maintenance like oil and filter changes. Roughly $100/100 hours if you are doing it yourself. At 1200 hours it is going to be time to replace the tracks. So if you have to pay $3000 for a set of tracks this pushes the per 100 hour cost to $350. The aftermarket tracks last approx. 600 hours. So at 1800 hours with another set of tracks and keeping with the regular oil and filter changes the cost has gone up to $433/100 hours. By the time you have gotten to 2400 hours it is likely that you will start to see drive motor problems. So if you even if you have to replace both drive motors and another set of tracks at 2400 hours your per 100 hour cost is $725, still if you are doing the repairs yourself. I bet his estimate of $1000/100 hours is pretty close for a higher hour machine if you have the dealer do the work. A contractor using a track-loader for his business would need to build in $10/machine hour into his costs. Which is the same number I gave our estimator when I was working for the landscape contractor.

Brian

 

[MarkV]

I don't think it is just track replacement, you can buy aftermarket tracks for $2000-$3000 a pair depending on the machine. What really drives up the maintenance cost is the drive motors. A skid-steer drive motor will typically cost less than $1500 and a track-loader drive motor will cost $3000-$4000. that is what pushes the cost up to that $1000/100 hours.

Brian

This is a high school friend, class of 70, it may well be over all maintenance costs on the track loader system he was referring to. Seems really up there compared to my compact tractor maintenance costs. Of course I am not a commercial user either which makes a big difference.

MarkV

PS. We were posting at the same time. Thanks for the details. Great machines but they better be making money to support themselves.