JCB Digger Parts Articles

Read through our associated JCB digger parts articles for helpful advise and insight into how you can extend the life of your JCB equipment by ordering replacement parts and spares from us.

Extending the Life of your JCB Equipment
Excavator Buckets – What Are the Different Types?
How to Save Money on JCB Equipment Parts
Types of JCB Equipment on the Market Today

1. Extending the Life of your JCB Equipment

JCB equipment is exposed to the elements and heavy use on a regular basis. Parts which are especially vulnerable such as buckets often have strips of detachable metal fixed to them specifically to be worn away and replaced. Other components are designed to a particular specification but may still break or exceed their service life.

A good maintenance schedule will help keep them in working order for as long as possible but replacing machinery can be expensive so it is worth knowing what parts could be replaced.

Moving External Parts & Buckets
Parts for Hydraulics
Engines & Transmission Parts
Replacement Digger Brakes
Electronics and Controls
Bodywork Parts

Moving External Parts & Buckets

The moving parts in your JCB equipment are amongst the most prone to corrosion and stress. Even with the appropriate maintenance schedules these components can become worn and need to be replaced. Commonly loader arms and backhoes are subject to the most stress as they carry out the cutting, lifting and grading.

Aside from the arms themselves they rely on pins brushes, retaining clips and seal kits to work effectively. All of these components need to be in good working order for the JCB equipment to operate safely and effectively. All of these components are replaceable which would represent a considerable saving compared to replacing the entire machine.

Parts for Hydraulics

These assemblies are another essential part of any JCB equipment. They provide the force required to move the arms of the equipment. As they will operate under high pressure, the heat generated while under operation contributes to wear. The rams themselves rely on pins and seals to operate effectively.

Pumps provide the pressure to move the rams and filters must be used to keep the hydraulic fluid free of contaminants. During operation it is essential that these assemblies are well oiled as this serves as a lubricant and coolant. Hydra clamp controls allow hydraulics to be pressurised and depressurised. All of these components can be replaced should your JCB equipment require it.

Engines & Transmission Parts

As with any machines using combustion engines for drive, JCB equipment requires all components which make up the engine and transmission to be in top working order. Luckily spares for engines such as fan belts, air filters, silencers and cooling assemblies can be easily sourced and replaced. Other larger components such as the fuel system or engine gasket kits can also be easily sourced but may require a higher degree of mechanical skill to fit.

Replacement Digger Brakes

It is possible to source any part for the braking systems in JCB equipment from the master cylinders to brake pads. Handbrake pads are normally supplied with all of the associated nuts, bolts and washers to be replaced at the same time.

Electronics and Controls

While making sure the functional parts of your JCB equipment is in good working order is important, being able to control them reliably is equally important. Electronic faults can occur when the equipment appears to be in working order. Testing the only effective way to prove these components are functioning correctly. Luckily all lights, switches and wiring can be replaced so your JCB equipment can be restored to working order relatively cheaply should it have an electrical problem.

Bodywork Parts

While this is not a moving part it is external and for safety reasons, essential. During operation it may become damaged or malformed. In these cases it should be replaced to ensure the safety of the operator and the machine it’s self. Even mud guards help keep your JCB equipment in good working order so it is important to replace these parts once they stop performing their jobs to acceptable levels.

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2. Excavator Buckets – What Are the Different Types?

Mechanical digger design is evolving all the time and has improved dramatically since their invention during the late 19th century. Construction, mining and even residential landscaping has always required heavy plant machinery to move earth and dig foundations, so their is an ongoing need for JCB and other manufacturers to continually drive the development of their diggers forward. Diggers are required to be able to be used for a multitude of tasks around building sites, so they need the facility for their attachments, such as buckets, backhoe parts, etc to swapped and changed.

Excavator buckets fit on the end of either the front-loader or the backhoe and they have been specially designed to work in harmony with the diggers hydraulics. The popularity of excavtor buckets within the construction, road maintenance sector and also agriculture worldwide has meant an array of different types being developed for an ever increasing number of tasks.

The Main Types of Excavator Bucket

The main types of excavator bucket in use today are as follows:

General Purpose
Ribbed Bucket
Ditch Maintenance
Dedicated Bucket
Rehandling Bucket
Quick Hitch
Grading Bucket
Grain / Potato Shovel

General Purpose Excavator Buckets

Excavator buckets designed for general purpose are designed to be ideal for the majority of conventional excavator tasks. These excavator buckets usually are fitted with teeth to help grip the material which is going to be lifted which enables the bucket to slice through the material more easily, whether it be earth, fouliage, sand or gravel.

Ribbed Excavator Buckets

Excavator buckets which have been designed to be ribbed are intended to be used on the backhoe arm of excavator diggers and are either used to scoop up material behind the machine or dig down into the ground. The bucket edges are fitted with hard-waring strips which give the ribbed edge.

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3. How to Save Money on JCB Equipment Parts

It is important for any business in a recession to keep running costs down and maximise profits. So if you work in the building trade or you run a JCB equipment hire company you’ll be looking for ways to cut costs as the economy is struggling and in particular the construction industry is going through tough times. You may feel its time to down-size your business and sell off some of your equipment or you may hold off investing in new JCB diggers and plant machinery until the economy recovers.

JCB Equipment Replacement Parts

If you find that the repair costs of your JCB equipment is un-sustainable with the low level of work available on the house building market, then you should seek alternative equipment parts suppliers. When repairing JCB plant equipment you do not have to use JCB branding parts as there are a number of other manufacturers who produce high quality precision parts which do the same job but cost a lot less. If the quality of the parts is as good as the parts supplied by JCB then there’s no argument not to take advantage of a more cost affective solutions. Some of the parts are even made by the components manufacturers that produce parts for JCB so you know you’re getting quality reliable parts.

JCB Parts Distributers

By shopping around particularly on the internet, you’ll be reducing your outgoings whilst keeping your equipment in use. A number of JCB equipment parts distributers even sell via auction websites and ship to satisfied customers across the globe so to compete in today’s global market you need to be taking advantage of cheaper parts alternatives.

JCB Parts Available

The majority of JCB equipment parts are available from other more cost affective manufacturers such as loader arms, bodywork, cab and electrics, hydraulics, front & rear axles, transmissions, brakes and even replacement engines and excavator parts. So if you need to save money on your JCB repair and maintenance costs, there are cheaper alternatives readily available.

Other Ways To Save

Of course there are other ways to save money in a recession though they are less desirable options as they involve laying off staff, down-sizing your business or even selling up altogether. As other economies around the world are not struggling as badly as the UK, some have begun to recover whilst others have continued to do well whilst we stand still. By saying this I mean you may find that these booming economies may be calling out for opportunities for investment or may be interested in purchasing your JCB equipment.

You may even consider introducing a pay freeze or even requesting your staff take a reduction in pay for a year whilst the UK economy starts to grow again. Depending on your workload there may even be scope for introducing a 4 day week in order to cut costs. So you see there are many ways that you can save money on your JCB equipment during a recession.

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