Since 1999, we've owned our Caterpillar excavator, a necessary piece of equipment that has served us well over the past 18 years. Like all equipment, it has a useful life and we are nearing, or past, what should be the end. It's been out of commission for the last 2 weeks and setting us back on a few projects. In addition, our chipper is also out of commission. We've been doing our best to work on those projects that don't require this heavy equipment. However, we can't pick logs, get rid of brush or work on drainage projects without them. Carolina Caterpillar, our "local" dealer in Charlotte, sent a mobile technician that we are paying hourly to work on the excavator. I asked him what the life of a piece of equipment like ours is and his reply: "You've exceeded it." Once it reaches 4,000 hours, there isn't much left to fix. If this trip isn't successful, we will need to look at a long term rental on an excavator because we simply can't live without one. Between the excavator, chipper and 2 tractors, the Club has some major purchases coming in the near future that won't allow us to meet the expectations our members, without them. Paul Dalton does a phenomenal job with our equipment fleet and keeping it running. However, he has fallen several weeks behind in his work because of these problems where he continually gets pulled off those tasks that need done daily. You can't drive a car that has 400,000 miles on it and expect it to run flawlessly. Any kind of mechanical device with high miles or hours will deteriorate to the point it's not worth repair. With several pieces of equipment, that's where we are. We've submitted requests to purchase new pieces over the last few years but they continually get knocked down the priority list as all departments have their own needs. This is understandable, but the down side of this, all of these purchases will hit at once.
