A cost question I get asked every quarter
I'm the procurement manager for a 40-person aggregate and contract mining operation in central Alberta. Our parts and maintenance budget runs around $720,000 CDN a year, and I've tracked every invoice for the past six years. That habit has made me skeptical of single-line pricing.
This article is about a comparison I keep revisiting: OEM Terex parts vs aftermarket parts for our two Terex TR70 rock trucks. It's also about why "cheaper" is the least useful word in procurement.
I can only speak to our situation — a mid-size Canadian operation with predictable haul cycles. If you're running a fleet in the oil sands or a quarry in Quebec, the math will shift. And the prices I mention come from our own invoices, accurate as of Q4 2024. Verify current rates before you budget around them.
Our comparison framework
When you search "terex parts canada," you get two worlds. The authorized Terex dealer network, and a long tail of aftermarket suppliers, salvage yards, and US-based parts brokers. I've spent real money with both.
I compare them on four dimensions that drive my purchase orders:
- Sticker price vs total cost of ownership
- Truck bed wear — where money hides
- Availability in Canada, because a part that arrives late is a different part
- The operator factor, which no parts catalog covers
The goal isn't to crown a single winner. It's to show what the comparison looks like when you track outcomes, not just quotes.
Dimension 1: Sticker price lies
In 2023, we priced brake discs for the TR70. The aftermarket quote was $1,850 per corner. The OEM part through the dealer was $2,950. Looked identical. Same dimensions, same bolt pattern, same packing grease.
The numbers said aftermarket. My gut didn't love it, but I couldn't justify a $1,100 markup.
Four months later, we pulled one off during a brake service. It was visibly worn into the limit grooves. We run 14% grade haul roads with loaded trucks — continuous brake modulation on the way down. The friction compound wasn't up to it. Not even close.
Replacement cost: $2,950 for the OEM disc, plus $680 in labor, plus two days of downtime. That original "save" cost us close to $4,000 once I added the full trail.
Here's the counterintuitive part: the more expensive part was cheaper. Not always — I'm not going to tell you every OEM part is worth the premium. But in safety-critical systems on a 200,000-lb loaded machine, the cheap path tends to collect interest.
When I audited our 2023 spending, those false savings accounted for roughly 11% of our parts budget overrun that year. A lesson learned the hard way.
Dimension 2: The truck bed is a silent budget leak
Truck beds don't fail dramatically. They wear thin, inch by inch, until a rock hits a cross-member... or punches right through.
In 2022, we needed to reline the bed on TR70 #2. The OEM wear package: $18,500 installed. A local fabrication shop quoted $11,200 for an AR400 steel liner. Thirty-nine percent cheaper. The numbers pointed one way. My gut hesitated.
I went with the local shop. In our case, it was the right call. We're hauling sand and gravel with short cycle times, and the AR400 liner at 3/8" is wearing at about the same rate as the OEM package would have. The OEM liner includes hardened inserts that make sense for shot rock — not for our round gravel.
But this worked for us because our application is predictable. If we were hauling blasted granite or blocky feed from a primary crusher, I'd have stayed OEM. The liner that saves money on gravel could be a false economy somewhere harder. Your mileage may vary.
I'll add a prevention note that paid for itself: we check bed thickness at every 500-hour service. Five minutes with a calliper on known wear points. It flagged accelerated wear on the other truck's bed floor two years ago, before it became a $30,000 structural repair. Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction.
Dimension 3: "Terex parts Canada" — availability is a hidden cost
I keep that exact search bookmarked. Here's what six years of invoices show about the difference between buying inside Canada and importing from the US.
Stock parts from the authorized Terex distributor in Western Canada reach our yard in 3.4 days on average. Aftermarket suppliers based in the US take 8 to 12 days, plus border paperwork, plus the CAD/USD exchange rate doing whatever it wants.
That delay isn't on the invoice, but it's in my spreadsheet. I built a cost calculator after getting burned twice on "fast shipping" promises.
Example: January 2024, a hydraulic gear pump failed on TR70 #1. Aftermarket pump: $2,400 plus $850 expedited freight — best-case arrival in 10 days. OEM pump: $3,900, in stock at the distributor, three days to site.
We lost four days of production in late January, close to the end of our seasonal schedule. The waiting cost was well over the $650 price gap. I won't quote an exact production number because I don't trust my memory on that one — but it stung.
One more issue: claims. Per FTC advertising guidelines (ftc.gov/business-guidance/advertising-marketing), a seller claiming "OEM quality" has to substantiate it. "OEM compatible" means the bolts fit. It doesn't mean the metallurgy matches, or the friction rating, or the seal compound. Ask for test data and a reference. Don't hold me to this, but I'd estimate that roughly 30% of the aftermarket parts we've tried had a spec gap that mattered in our application. The other 70% were fine. The problem is you don't know which bin you're buying from until the part is installed.
Dimension 4: How you drive matters more than the part
There's a reason "how to drive a forklift" is one of the most-searched equipment terms every year. People assume heavy equipment is a category and skills transfer. They don't.
A forklift weighs 5,000 or maybe 10,000 pounds. A loaded TR70 is pushing 200,000-plus pounds. Forklift instincts — aggressive hydraulics, quick brake taps, fast direction changes — are exactly wrong in a rock truck.
We found out in 2021. A driver with strong forklift experience rolled back over a berm on the dump pad. Nothing catastrophic, but the transmission controller took a hit that cost $4,300 to sort out. The "experienced operator" saved us nothing that day.
That's when we built a 12-point pre-start checklist. It's not rocket science: brake pressure, steering accumulator, a visual walk-around, truck bed pins in place. Ten minutes, mostly walking. Two years later, unscheduled drivetrain repairs are noticeably down. I estimate that checklist has saved us on the order of $8,000 in potential repairs — probably more, because the worst case includes a wrecked truck, not just a repair bill.
The question isn't "can this person drive it?" It's "can this person drive it without burning through my maintenance budget?"
So which one should you pick?
Here's my answer, and it's scenario-based, not a universal verdict.
OEM wins when:
- The part is safety-critical: brakes, steering, hydraulic pumps, driveline components.
- The truck is under warranty — non-OEM parts can void a claim.
- You operate in extreme conditions: sustained grades, northern winter, abrasive material.
- Machine downtime costs more than the price gap. In our fleet, that's most of the time.
Aftermarket is defensible when:
- It's a wear item with a proven track record — our AR400 truck bed liner is the example.
- The supplier shows data or references, not just a lower number.
- You have time tolerance, so a longer lead time isn't a risk.
If you run the numbers yourself, include downtime in the calculation.
The part that's $600 cheaper can be $6,000 more expensive when it arrives late or fails early.
And don't forget the cheapest insurance on the lot: ten minutes of pre-start inspection, a five-minute bed thickness check, and an operator who respects the weight.
Prevention isn't a cost center. It's the best labor rate you'll ever pay.