Why American Independent?

American Independent is an independent repair shop specializing in powertrain components for heavy equipment Caterpillar® tractors. Since opening our doors in 1988, we’ve rebuilt several thousands of components for scrapers, dozers, loaders, compactors, haul trucks, and more. With a specific focus on the powertrain, and an incentive to save customer’s money without sacrificing quality, we’ve developed and refined intricate systems to rebuild components that not only match the quality you’d expect from that of a dealer, but often times surpass it.

Our standard rebuilding process begins with detailed photos of your component, to ensure that you receive it back with all the same parts it left with. Then as the unit is torn down, more pictures are taken, documenting each problem section as it’s discovered. After the component is completely apart, our experts analyze the findings, determining the cause of failure and how to prevent it from happening again. A quote is built with a thorough description of the failure, as well as high-resolution photos of the problem parts. Once the quote is approved, we go through our large inventory of used gears, discs, housings, and more, pulling what we can to keep costs low. What we don’t have in stock, is often available through our vast used parts network. The remaining parts are replaced with genuine new parts, including all new bearings and seals. Components are then assembled, using rebuilders that specialize in your style of tractor. If applicable, they are then tested using one of our four total dyno benches to ensure that they arrive ready to go to work at your job site. A standard 1 year warranty, with extended warranty options of up to five years is proof that we’re proud and confident in our product.

Having survived through many recessions, we also understand that value at times can outweigh quality in importance, which is why we communicate with customers through every step of the rebuilding process, giving them our recommendations, but ultimately letting them make the final decision when it comes to reusability. We aid customers in the decision making process with high resolution photos of the problem parts and life expectancy based off the historical data we’ve been acquiring for decades. Item’s that customers decide to rerun against our advice, are subject to reduced warranty periods, but are documented so if a failure does occur elsewhere in the unit, we will still warranty it as if it were a standard rebuild.

In this demanding industry, we know that time can often be the biggest determining factor for many customers, which is why we maintain one of the largest inventories of exchange components on the planet, boasting over 300 ready-to-ship components at any given time. For many of these applications we offer two very competitively priced options:

Having rebuilt so many components also gives an accurate idea of the cost of a rebuild, which is why there are no supplemental core charges for any non-disassembled core, regardless of failure. In fact, we actually issue credit for cores received in above average condition. (Disassembled cores are an exclusion to this rule as they throw of our diagnoses process and often times leave us with missing hardware items.)

Give us a chance to earn your business.