New Komatsu Dealer in Alaska

[Coaldust]

Its been interesting watching Komatsu Dealers come and go in Alaska. Howard Cooper, Pacific North Equipment and whatever PNE was before that, Wajax, Craig Taylor and now a different Canadian Co just set up shop in Anchorage. Have been seeing some shiny branded new pickups and service trucks running around.

Have not seen or heard of any new machines being sold or moved. It's interesting to me because of the timing. Alaska has been in a recession for some time. The economy started improving and now the economy is at a dead stop. Not to mention $20 North Slope Crude.

I think they may have set up shop to try and get into the new developing mines, specifically the Donlin Dome project. That would keep a small branch in business, no problem.

Your thoughts?

 

[skata]

Is gold mining big up there ?

 

[Coaldust]

There is Kensington Project, which is outside of Juneau Coeur Mining.

Greens Creek Mine on Admiralty Island ran by Hecla

Fort Knox outside Fairbanks ran by Kinross.

And the Pogo Mine near Delta Junction, ran by Northern Star Resources.

Those are the major players that come to mind.

 

[skata]

which mine is Parkers? lol

 

[John C.]

Here is the press release.

https://www.equipmentworld.com/sms-equipment-opens-anchorage-branch/

Craig Taylor was the last dealer for the brand in Alaska that I know of. My customers up there wouldn't deal with them at all. When I started for the Komatsu Dealer in Washington it was McDonald Industries and then went to Pacific North Equipment. Pacific North was owned by Mathew G Norton Companies first and then Wajax out of Canada next. Washington Group which owns Modern Machinery bought and joined the companies in their current iteration. Howard Cooper Corp. was never a dealer for Komatsu that I know of. When they were forced into bankruptcy their International and Dresser lines were in joint partnership with Komatsu so they were transferred over to the McDonald Industries dealer ship.

Alaska is a hard place to make money for a dealership. It seems most of the parts all have to come out of Seattle and since Komatsu's big parts depot is in Tennessee it might take days if not longer to get a part. Trained and competent service people that are willing to fly and stay at all the remote locations is another problem. It will be interesting to see another player up there with the brand.

 

[Coaldust]

John C,

Thanks for the history lesson and well thought out response. Maybe we have crossed paths before.? That makes sense about Howard Cooper. I forgot about the early Dresser/Komatsu relationship and McDonald Industries.

I shut off the lights at the Pacific North Equipment, Ketchikan branch when they pulled out. I was fairly young and new to the dealership world at the time. PNE offered me the opportunity to transfer to Anchorage, but I had a feeling they weren’t long for the world, either.

 

[Welder Dave]

SMS equipment can likely get parts out of Canada if required. They have a big presence in Alberta.

 

[Coaldust]

Some of those McDonald machines from the 90’s.

 

[Coaldust]

This was a brake job I did in Kake for Kake Tribal Timber.

 

[Coaldust]

I think this was a Gildersleeve machine.
Cholmondeley Sound, West Arm, maybe. I thought the PC300HD with a Pierce front was a helluva machine. 300 size hoe on a 400 UC.

 

[Coaldust]

My service truck! The least expensive, short box, two-wheel drive F-150 they could find. Always getting stuck and all my gear wet and muddy bouncing around in the bed. I kept it parked in Craig at Taquan Air. I think the photo was taken in Thorne Bay.

 

[Coaldust]

This PC220-5 with a Pierce front, was bolted to a pedestal on a deck where the pulp wood would leave the saltwater in Ward Cove and enter the KTN Pulp Mill. It ran 24/7 and I responded when it broke.

 

[John C.]

Coaldust, that's pretty cool and love the photos. I worked for them from 1990 to the beginning of 1996. All the field guys were supposed to rotate through going to Alaska from Kent when I worked there. It worked that way for awhile and then as new people came on board, they refused to go north and those of us left got stuck with it a bunch. By the time I left their employment, no one would go. In the Evans Engine days the company used to service a lot of generators and some construction stuff. Logging became the big thing when the service manager from Howard Cooper went to work for McDonald Industries in the late eighties. We all chased those PC400-3 and the later PC300 and 360-5 machines all over south east. The hand writing was on the wall when the government shut down the Tongas. I remember having to fly into Klawock one time where a pickup was parked and drive up to Whale Pass to repack a swivel. The truck had three spare tires in the back. I wondered about that to start with. I had two flats on that round trip and was sweating a third by the time I got back to the airport in Klawock.

I think I had only seen that office up there once. We always went directly to the camps or the job sites. You must have been there when Kent Funk was the sales guy. I had a friend tell me they ran into him a few years back in Spokane.

 

[Coaldust]

John C,

Yes, Kent Funk was who I worked for. The KTN “branch” was divided into two parts, the Detroit engine side and the equipment side. The engine guys did their thing and I reported to Kent. Until, the Wajax buyout, and then I reported to Anchorage or Seattle. But, by then I had enough of a customer base that I was pretty much self-directed at that point.

I sounds like you left around the same time I started, which was the end of February 96. The day after M/V Columbia arrived and I drove my U-Haul filled with all my hopes and dreams down the ramp. Lol.

I’ll dig more pictures out tonight of that beautiful Komatsu iron. I delivered the last machine Mr. Funk sold in the SE. It was WA600-3 with the PNE logging package and Young Forks. It was sent to Long Island for Evergreen Logging.

 

[John C.]

I look forward to the photos!

 

[mowingman]

FYI: About 2 years ago, one of the gold miners on the TV show rented a BIG, Komatsu dozer from his lease owner. That was somewhere near Dawson City, in the Yukon. That was about the only Komatsu I have seen on that Alaska gold mining show. Everything else has been Volvo and Cat.

 

[Welder Dave]

Volvo is a sponsor of the show and leases them machines for next to nothing. Volvo doesn't have dozers and Cat are the most popular. If you watch you'll notice a lot of brand names like Hitachi are blacked out. I'm sure there's a fair amount of Komatsu equipment gold mining. Talked to someone who worked for a Volvo dealer in Alberta. He said someone watches every show and counts how many times the Volvo name is shown. He also said a 20' sea can full of parts (oil, filters, etc.) was sent to Parkers site and when Volvo reps. went to visit the site later in the year, the shipping locks had never even been removed from the sea can. I'm curious how much they would make if they had to buy all the Volvo equipment they used.

 

[Nige]

John C mentioned Washington Group. I had some up close and personal contact with them about 15 years ago when they were operating the San Cristóbal open-pit slver mine in Bolivia. It was not a very edifying experience but despite that we managed to field test the High Altitude version of the D11R successfully.

 

[mowingman]

Volvo is a sponsor of the show and leases them machines for next to nothing. Volvo doesn't have dozers and Cat are the most popular. If you watch you'll notice a lot of brand names like Hitachi are blacked out. I'm sure there's a fair amount of Komatsu equipment gold mining. Talked to someone who worked for a Volvo dealer in Alberta. He said someone watches every show and counts how many times the Volvo name is shown. He also said a 20' sea can full of parts (oil, filters, etc.) was sent to Parkers site and when Volvo reps. went to visit the site later in the year, the shipping locks had never even been removed from the sea can. I'm curious how much they would make if they had to buy all the Volvo equipment they used.

Boy, now there is the million dollar question.

 

[Coaldust]

Usibelli Coal bear Denali purchased a new D375A from Craig-Taylor around the 2010 time frame. That’s the only large Komatsu Track-Type I’ve seen up here.