Cat^® Reman Brings New Life To BDZ’s 336 Excavators

A Surprising Suggestion: Rebuild, Don’t Replace

Based in Bothell, Washington, BDZ Construction specializes in site development and underground utility work — relying on Cat^® construction equipment to keep projects running smoothly and efficiently. When BDZ’s 336 excavators began nearing end of life after years of hard work, the company faced a tough decision: buy new or explore other options.

“Everybody in the company really liked these 336s,” says Colin Graham, BDZ’s equipment manager. “But they were at the life point where they were starting to become unreliable.”

That’s when the team at Cat dealer N C Machinery raised the idea of rebuilding the machines for a second life. This was something BDZ, like most excavator owners, hadn’t considered before. After all, many companies typically don’t find it economical to rebuild an excavator.

Greg McClelland, product support sales manager at N C Machinery, explains, “It’s an alternative that a lot of businesses don’t even think about.” But with the available Cat parts, services and repair options, “rebuilding excavators is a great, cost-effective option.”

To prove the value, McClelland and his team ran various scenarios to compare the total cost of ownership for rebuilding versus other alternatives. The results spoke for themselves.

“The savings that they would get off of doing these three machines would allow them to purchase and grow their fleet by one more machine,” says Joe Hainer, product support sales representative at N C Machinery.

Cutting Costs Without Cutting Corners

As part of their rebuild plan, N C Machinery emphasized that the use of Cat Reman products would help control costs and limit downtime. As with other machine rebuilds, these remanufactured parts support the financial savings needed to make these 336 rebuilds worthwhile.

Available for a fraction-of-new price with core return, Cat Reman parts are drop-in ready solutions that can be installed quickly — saving time and labor when compared to rebuilding major components. And they didn’t require BDZ to sacrifice quality or performance.

“It’s like-new quality,” says Brydon McMillan, a service technician at N C Machinery who worked on the 336 powertrain and hydraulics rebuilds. “Cat Reman follows reusability guidelines and makes sure that their parts meet like-new specifications.”

To rebuild BDZ’s 336 excavators, N C Machinery replaced the original engines, hydraulic pumps and motors with Cat Reman components. Like all Cat Reman products, they were remanufactured to original Caterpillar performance specifications and tested to meet the same standards as new Cat parts. They also incorporated the critical engineering updates and came with a same-as-new, 12-month Caterpillar Limited Warranty.¹

When the first rebuilt 336 returned to work, the BDZ team immediately noticed improvements in both hydraulic response and power. Confident that the process helped restore performance while keeping operating costs and downtime low, they soon embarked on rebuilds for their two other end-of-life excavators.

“Everybody was really happy with how it turned out,” Graham says. “I don't think that there’s a lot of people out there that realize how cost-effectively you can rebuild an excavator.”