Komatsu's Answer to Cat's System1 Undercarriage

[CEwriter]

The Parallel Link Undercarriage System (PLUS) has been in the US less than two years. It's Komatsu's first roller-bushing undercarriage, which they say is suitable for high-impact and high-abrasion applications and can as much as double conventional undercarriage life. They made it standard equipment on the D51EX/PX-22, D61EX/PX-15 and D65EX/PX/WX-15 crawler dozers.

More here

 

[KMB83]

Since this is a topic about system 1 or comparable undercarriages, what kind of price increase does a system 1 carry over a conventional?

If the advertised life is +50% more, does the cost of the undercarriage go up 50%?

Have most folks that have moved to a system 1, notice the advertised differences? Are they Happy?

thanks...

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Are they not pushing this heavily? I haven't seen too much mention of it.

 

[grunk36]

Since this is a topic about system 1 or comparable undercarriages, what kind of price increase does a system 1 carry over a conventional?

If the advertised life is +50% more, does the cost of the undercarriage go up 50%?

Have most folks that have moved to a system 1, notice the advertised differences? Are they Happy?

thanks...

her with us in denmark i think the price has rised from 150000 kr to 250000 but the lifetime of system one is incredible upto 7500 hours as the highest i have heard here so i think it pays for itself

 

[CEwriter]

KMB83 - Not sure how much they've raised the prices of the dozers mentioned above, but since Komatsu is making it standard equipment, it would be hard to tell how much of the price increase is due to undercarriage and how much is due to engine emissions or other engineering on the tractors.

Here's a story about SystemOne written back in 2005, soon after Caterpillar made the first big marketing push. At the time, Cat was saying it was a 25 to 30 percent premium over conventional track. But now Cat is putting SystemOne on some dozers as standard equipment as well -- the D7E I know for sure, and the D6 and smaller tractors, I'm pretty sure.

Tiger - I was surprised, too. Just stumbled across PLUS cruising the Komatsu web site. 'Course, Komatsu America has, how you say, an unconventional approach to marketing communications . . .

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Haha, yeah, they do have an interesting approach to marketing.

 

[catmtl]

The premium for sys 1 is about 15% over std HD u/c. I have several D6RLGP with sys 1 and currently have 4500hrs. we did a shoe replacement and based on CTS reports expect to get 7500-8000hrs untill replacement of the other componants. We were lucky to get 4000 hours on STD HD u/c. In the right application sys 1 will pay for itself in downtime alone.

 

[grunk36]

i am sure all new d6t dozers sold in denmark today are sold standard with system one and it allmost is gaining 50% more hours compared to the old u/c who normally lasted 3000 hours

remember all dozers in denmark is lgps!!!!!

 

[KMB83]

thats a pretty impressive buy 15-20% cost increase with increase to life span of 50+%. i like that math.

Does any of the after market track manufacturers offer competition to this? or is that asking for a geo metro with mahogny trim?

or does cat have this tied down with enough patents to keep the rest at bay?

 

[QuickTrax]

thats a pretty impressive buy 15-20% cost increase with increase to life span of 50+%. i like that math.

Does any of the after market track manufacturers offer competition to this? or is that asking for a geo metro with mahogny trim?

or does cat have this tied down with enough patents to keep the rest at bay?

From what I have been told. They are working on getting some aftermarket parts out but it will be a while. We have switched some system one machines back to the std undercarriage at the request of our customers. They have told me the cost is too high for replacing system one. System one had some kinks when it first came out but I am starting to hear better things about it. I have read about the Komatsu Plus undercarriage but have never seen it on any machines.

Thanks, QuickTrax

 

[idler]

the biggest advantage, of system one, is there is not turn of pins an bushings, and you only replaces de shoes, and it was not only the tracks that were changed, the rollers, idlers with one tread, sprockets, they were designed to fit that particular track, the only thing to keep an eye is on the hardware of the shoes, the torque is twice as the regular, and they hold the links together.