Wreckers and Dismantled Machines

Wreckers and Dismantled Machines

For many years, RD Williams Excavator Parts have been the largest dismantler of used excavators in Australia. Wrecking of machines is an important section of our business as it helps us be able to offer good used parts and component rebuilds to our customer base.

Whilst many people associated a wrecking yard with rows and piles of rusty old relics, the days of wrecking end of life earth moving machines belong to the past. Our buyers now focus on buying much newer and current model excavators. The machines we buy must meet strict criteria not only based on price so we can offer value for money, but also based on condition of the key parts and components that owners of working machines are likely to use and need.

The dismantling process has changed with the times, extending beyond not only good environmental practices as a consideration. Our professional diesel fitters and purchasing experts assess what items are likely to be in demand (due to common failure issues for instance) and check the condition of the excavator parts and components as they are removed. Only the parts deemed to have a reasonable remaining useful life are kept. This thorough inspection also gives us a good understanding of what the weak points are on different models and brands, so we can develop suitable new replacement or aftermarket parts to help keep the total cost of ownership down for our customers. This helps us understand what fits what and how to fix machines better than in many cases the manufacturers themselves do.

Wreckers are also a source of component cores that gives us the foundations for rebuilding components to as new condition. If they meet our high quality expectations, all the main components are kept to sell as either good used or reconditioned. This includes engines, final drives, boom and arm cylinders, hydraulic pumps and valves, radiators and oil coolers, and slew and reduction parts.

Our wrecker machines don’t stay as a carcass in the yard. The machine gets broken into the usable bits and mostly stored in our warehouses, with the remaining items becoming scrap metal or recycled. The philosophy of reduce, re-use, recycle is well and truly alive.

We also keep body parts such as engine doors, cabins, booms and arms, and of course various panels. Even the excavator frames (also known as car bodies) are kept for popular models, for use in for instance drill rig conversions. Good attachments are also listed for sale. Even counterweights are sold, repurposed into other uses or recycled. We also offer good condition wear items for purchase, including undercarriage (tracks, top and bottom rollers, track plates, etc) if they meet acceptable standards to give a reasonable operating life.

Why buy used or wrecker parts? Not all parts are available as new replacement or aftermarket parts at affordable prices. In some cases, buying genuine new parts can cost more than the whole machine is worth, so buying a good used part can be a very economical solution that fits within the budget and expected remaining life of the owners machine. Why pay for the full life of a new part if the rest of the machine only has limited life left?

As technology has changed, so too have the types of machines we buy for wrecking. Whereas it was common for machines to be wrecked at 20,000 hours or more, most of our wreckers nowadays have less than 10,000 hours. Driving this is the need for excavator owners to have good used parts and rebuilt components available as an economic option compared to having to buy new parts from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Many of our wreckers may have had some kind of damage that makes it uneconomical to rebuild to operational standards, whilst the increases in technology mean that we are also seeing more burnt machines, or where the technology has simply made replacement items throw away. Machines with electrical issues can be expensive to fault find and fix, but that doesn’t mean that the mechanical parts can’t be re-used. In some cases, wreckers are the result of trade ins that we aren’t confident of putting our name to as a complete running machine. We have wrecked all the common brands available in the Australian market, including Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hitachi, Volvo, Kobelco, Case, Doosan, Yanmar etc from small machines 8 tonne up to PC1250 / EX1200 / EX1800/1900 and everything in between. We have dismantled most common models in the 12-70 tonne range.

Finding the right used part can be difficult, so we recommend contacting our sales team on 07-3715 0800 to make the process easy for you. Even if your model machine or part is not currently listed, we’ve been doing this since 1992, so let us help you find what you are looking for.