Komatsu PC160-6, PC160LC-7 Tier 3 and PC180LC-6: controls and front configurations

PC160-6 controls differ from the later Tier3 machine

The June2001 European PC160-6 brochure provides separate heavy, general, finishing, lifting and breaker modes. Its Active setting supplements those choices. Selecting a mode changes the relationship between engine speed, pump delivery and hydraulic pressure; a slow finishing response is not the same operating condition as heavy digging.

Two joystick functions also need separating. PowerMax supplies a temporary force increase, while Swift Slow Down reduces equipment speed for delicate work. A demonstration with the slower setting active does not establish that the pumps are worn.

Check the selected control function before comparing cycle times.

The US April2008 PC160LC-7 Tier3 brochure instead uses power, economy, lifting and breaker selections. Its SAA4D107E-1 has electronic common-rail injection. That is a different engine arrangement from the SA4D102E described for the earlier European PC160-6.

The Tier3 designation therefore belongs with the engine and its controls; it should not be attached automatically to every dash-seven or dash-six specification.

Front arrangement changes the transport envelope

The PC160-6 drawing distinguishes a one-piece boom from a hydraulically adjustable two-piece boom. It then supplies separate rows for the available arms. The basic-machine length is another measurement.

Selecting a long arm's digging reach and a different front's folded height would create a transport configuration that the brochure never describes.

The later US Tier3 drawing has its own arm-specific dimensions. Komatsu also grades bucket combinations by material density and by arm length. Some heavy bucket-and-long-arm combinations are expressly unusable in that table.

Bucket volume alone is not an attachment approval; bucket construction and mass matter alongside the material being handled.

Use the dash-six monitor's stored information

The earlier European machine's monitor separates user-code display, stored trouble information and live operating data. Its trouble-memory description concerns recorded abnormalities, while operation-data mode shows parameters such as engine speed and hydraulic pressure. Recording a code and its operating condition is more useful than clearing the display before a technician sees it.

A normal-looking current screen does not erase the value of the stored record.

The January2006 European PC160LC-7 publication is another identifiable edition. It specifies SAA4D102E-2 and StageII, unlike the later US Tier3 document. Its maintenance description also ties extended lubrication intervals to the specified bushing arrangement and bucket design.

A later badge or an advertised service interval does not establish that an older machine has received those components.