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The Role of CV joints in a Mining Landcruiser
When operating light vehicles in the harsh conditions of a mine site, or any off-road terrain for that matter, it’s important to consider the quality of your parts.
It’s important to select the right part which suits the driving conditions of your vehicles. While a cheap component looks good on paper, if you’re getting half the lifespan out of it, you might be running up costs rather than saving them.
CV joints are one of the parts with huge variations in durability and longevity based on the quality you opt for. We’ve found that mine sites and mining operations are extremely harsh on the CV joint, so it can be important to ensure high quality CVs are used in your fleet.
Ultimately, we help mine owners and operators reduce downtime of their mobile assets, which often comes in different forms. While we typically opt for parts that last longer, there is some unique circumstances where a higher quality component simply won’t make an impact on your site. We aim to be transparent with these alternatives and help you select the right parts for the right situation. As we specialise in the mining industry – this blog will focus on the 70 series Landcruiser and compatible CV joints.
What You Need To Know About CV Joints
CV joints are critical components in the drivetrain, so failure commonly results in breakdown. Because of this, the CV joint is a very high usage part when it comes to mining. Getting the right CV joint and implementing the right maintenance schedule around it, can unlock huge time and cost savings.
What is a CV Joint?
CV stands for constant velocity joint. Located in the front axle, the primary function of the CV is to transfer torque from the transmission and differential to the front wheels. This ensures the front wheels remain powered and responsive, even under heavy load and at extreme angles.
This is important in mining environments, where the vehicles are operating in rough terrain and often unstable ground. The off-road conditions and constant load baring requirement of operational mining vehicles, make the CV joint crucial in light vehicle maintenance.
What Causes CV Joint Failure?
CV joints are exposed to a lot. Heavy loads, harsh terrain, and extreme temperatures can all require a CV joint replacement over time. Mine sites present nearly the harshest conditions possible for a CV joint, meaning several contributing factors can result in failure.
Wear and Tear
On a mine site, the light vehicles are constantly operating in 4wd to maintain traction on the rough terrain, this constant engagement of the front wheels puts the CV under more stress, accelerating the wear and tear. Pair this with the uneven and rocky terrain resulting in constant flexing of the suspension, and you’ve got a CV joint’s worst nightmare.
Water/Mud Ingress
Driving through muddy terrain and puddles of water is common on mine sites and off-road adventures in general. Consistent mud and saltwater exposure can lead to ingress within the front axle. Once penetrated, the CV and surrounding components become seriously compromised by corrosion and rust. This rapidly increases the damage to the CV joint and leads to failure.
Impact Damage
As with most light vehicle parts, if they smash into something – it’s typically not a good thing. Debris, rocks and other objects will often encounter components of your vehicle. While this is near impossible to prevent, in conditions where impact damage is likely, it is wise to invest in a high-quality CV joint with strong material composition and robust design features. A cheap CV may show the same functionality but have structural weaknesses and failure points that pose greater risk of failure.
Upgrading your CV Joints for Strength and Efficiency
Is it worth investing the money in upgrading your 4×4’s CV joints with heavy-duty ones?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is that it depends on the driving conditions of your vehicles. But in the harsh terrain of mine sites and underground mines in particular, a high-quality CV joint is the right choice for reducing vehicle downtime and lowering maintenance costs long-term.
1. Reduce Downtime, Increase Uptime
If your CV joints are constantly failing, then it’s likely your light vehicles are spending longer in the workshop than you’d like. It doesn’t have to be this way. Investing in a stronger, more durable CV joint that fits your application will save you time and money.
Yes, the unit price might be more expensive, but by reducing downtime and keeping your vehicle operational for longer, you’re reducing the total cost of ownership of your asset, and ultimately saving money.
2. Cost Savings
A high-quality CV joint may be more expensive than a low-quality alternative, but when you do the maths over the total lifespan of the asset – the cheaper alternative is sure to cost you more in the long run.
To display this, we’ll use one of our clients, a prominent underground gold miner as an example. One of their sites was replacing low-cost CV joints every two weeks. They decided to trial the TAKEO OE CV joints, and found they’d extended the life to six weeks.
For the sake of argument let’s say the newly improved CVs were twice as expensive as the low-cost alternative previously used.
For simplicity we’ll use $100, and $200. (Not actual price)
Low-cost alternative:
$100 x 26 (replacements per year, every 2 weeks) = $2600
TAKEO high-quality CV joint:
$200 x 9 (replacements per year, every 6 weeks) = $1800
Saving of $800 per year, per vehicle.
Now obviously this is all dependent on your specific application and use case, which is exactly why we encourage people to trial new CV joints before fully committing. If you can measure a distinct increase in lifespan of the part, then the math becomes obvious. Compound the saving per vehicle across your whole fleet, and you’re looking at a huge cost saving over time.
3. Labour Savings
So, we’ve established that a CV joint which lasts longer can provide huge cost savings, even if it comes with a higher unit price. What often gets overlooked, is the cost of labour associated with the replacement and constant maintenance of the inferior product.
If the CV joint fails regularly, not only do you incur the cost of the replacement part, but also the time cost of the LV Fitter who must replace that part. The labour itself is a monetary expense, but you also sacrifice the fitter’s time and attention on other maintenance jobs they could be doing instead.
For our clients who really focus on reducing labour time as much as possible, we have seen great success with our assembled CV joint and axle shafts. This comes pre-assembled and ready to fit, massively reducing the time it takes the fitter’s to complete the job.
Looking Beyond CV Joint Replacement
Along with CV Joints, if you’re wanting the most optimally performing and durable 4×4 fleet possible, it is worth considering a more holistic upgrade that will maintain the rest of the driveline.
Extending your driveline maintenance approach to incorporate other components like axles, driveshafts and swivel hub kits will help improve efficiency and reduce the risk of breakdown significantly. But to ensure that your parts make sense for the task at hand, you need a reliable partner that really understands light vehicles. We’ve been specializing in LV parts for 50 years and supplying parts in the mining industry for over ten, so we know a thing or two about keeping vehicles out of the workshop.
Takeo – reducing downtime on site with quality, innovation and expertise.
At Takeo, we offer a comprehensive and wide selection of high-performance driveline components, including the pre-assembled and specially designed CV joints. While our extensive range of parts and products include upgrade options for many vehicles, our driveline kits are especially designed for Landcruiser’s and Hilux vehicles, as they’re most prominent in the mining industry.
Built for the Mines. Made to Last.
With Takeo, you can enjoy peace of mind that every part is built for mine site conditions and made to last longer or provide a time saving for the maintenance team.
Just some of the driveline parts we stock, in addition to CV joint replacements, include:
Wheel bearing kits
These kits contain components designed to replace worn wheel bearings and ensure ongoing smooth wheel rotation. Including only the highest-grade seals, and even featuring a double lipped hub seal for harsher environments.
Swivel hub kits
The swivel hub kits include parts for replacing the swivel hub assembly and connecting the steering and suspension systems. We’ve worked hard to make sure our swivel hub kit is the best on the market, with high quality seals and the best bearings available. When it comes to mining applications, the TAKEO swivel hub trumps all comparable alternatives.
Assembled axle shafts
With complete axle shafts ready for installation, you can upgrade everything from your shafts to your joints and even your bearings. This was specially requested by a mining operator who identified huge time savings were possible by ordering in the pre-assembled axle shaft and CV joint.
Wheel hub kits
Our wheel hub kits Include all the necessary components for replacing the entire wheel hub assembly. We also offer a full hub replacement for the HZJ 70 series Landcruiser, which comes pre-assembled ready to plug and play.
Clutch kits
The clutch kits come with the right parts for replacing your vehicle’s clutch system to ensure heavy duty power transfer. Regular clutches designed for average driving conditions are often not up to scratch in mining or similar industries, so a heavy-duty clutch upgrade is essential.
Complete diffs and components
Replacing the diff in a Landcruiser is a huge job, and it can be tough to find parts you can rely on. We’re strong in supplying parts of the diff, as well as complete end to end diffs to get your vehicles back in operational shape. Whether it’s the front diff, rear diff, diff centre, or complete end to end diff – we can help you get what you’re looking for.
Transfer case and gearbox
The transfer case and gearbox can be a tricky job due to the complexity involved, especially in a mining environment where speed of maintenance is a high priority. For this reason, we supply a fully assembled transfer case and gearbox under a single part code. This allows for rapid replacement, getting the vehicle back in the field.
Other categories of parts
The driveline is a major focus of what we do, but it sure isn’t the only thing we do. Our range of light vehicle parts is extensive, covering areas such as: brakes, suspension, filters, oils and grease, doors, seats, engine components – the list goes on. Check out our wider range of kits and parts that last longer here.
Ready for an upgrade? Contact Autoline today!
As is clear by now, your standard, off-the-shelf 4×4 is not going to cut it when it comes to reliable and efficient operation in the mining industry. It is important you choose the right components for your mining vehicles so that you can avoid the pitfalls of breakdown related disruption and costly replacements down the track.
The Autoline team doesn’t just provide reliable light vehicles and 4×4 parts and products. We also offer our mining expertise and experience, which we’ve used to tailor the TAKEO range to the demands of the industry. We’ve helped countless mine owners and operators reduce the downtime of their mobile assets – we’d love to do the same for you. Ready to find out more or obtain a custom quote? Contact us today!