If you could, would you replace one shoe – without buying the pair? In most cases, you’ve worn out both your left and right shoe and need to replace them both – lucky for you, because they’re only sold in pairs. With final drives, it can often be the case that both sides are exhibiting signs of wear and tear and therefore, both sides should be replaced.

That said, we often have customers who are only shopping for one final drive, and the other final drive appears to be working in fine order. In this case, you need to balance the risk of the second final drive failing at an unknown point in the future, with the overall cost of replacing both now. A lot of our customers choose to replace one final drive (which has usually failed at the most inconvenient time – while out on the job somewhere!).  However, there is always the risk that the working final drive which you’ve decided not to replace, has actually slowed a little over time and many hours of work – if not noticibly, and when paired with a brand new final drive on the other side, it operates slower, causing the machine to pull to one side.

The benefits of replacing two final drives at the same time are obvious, including the machine downtime you’ll save by replacing the second final drive now instead of waiting for it to fail – which could be next week, next month, next year, or anytime between. But, on the other hand, it’s expensive and we understand that sometimes business owners need to make decisions based on their assessment of risk versus cash-flow.

So, whatever you decide – one final drive or two, the Atlas Hydraulics team is here to support you in any way we can.