Host of The Dirt and professional equipment operator Bryan Furnace recently got some seat time in Komatsu’s WA475-10 wheel loader and gives his review in this episode of The Dirt.
The 290-horsepower WA475 is a large loader with an operating weight of 56,240 to 60,400 pounds and a bucket capacity of 5.5 to 6 cubic yards.
It features the company’s hydraulic-mechanical transmission that Bryan found delivers low rpm torque as well as smooth transitions, and it has dynamic braking. There was no lag in hydraulic flow to the bucket when changing directions and speeds.
The loader packs in a lot of standard features that aren’t typically standard, like heated, electric mirrors.
Komatsu gave the WA475 a more modern look as well as an updated cab with a very comfy air-suspension seat and an ability for a great deal of customization for operator controls. It’s easy to drive with a loaded bucket, Bryan discovered.
All in all, Bryan says, “I absolutely love the WA475.”
To find out more about Bryan’s test run and his observations of Komatsu’s WA475-10, check out the latest episode of The Dirt.
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In This Episode:
00:00 - Intro: Komatsu WA475-10 Review
01:25 - Exterior Design
02:25 - Heated Mirrors
02:47 - The Hood
03:52 - Windshield Access
05:01 - Armrest Adjustments
05:35 - The Air Ride Seat
06:08 - Layout of the Cab
06:39 - Is There Enough Space in the Cab?
08:46 - Steering Options
09:08 - Twin Stick Controls
10:13 - Optional Auxiliary Hydraulic Circuit
10:23 – Visibility
11:03 - Menu Navigation
11:42 - Favorites Buttons
12:33 - Load Metering System
12:59 - Menu Design
13:43 - Hydraulic Mechanical Transmission
15:15 - Automatic RPM Control
16:20 - Overall Balance
16:33 - Anti-Rollback
16:54 - Virtual Gears
17:45 - Final Thoughts

Transcript:
Bryan Furnace:
Hi everybody. Welcome back to Equipment World. You're watching The Dirt. I'm your host Bryan, and today we're here to talk about Komatsu. More specifically, we're here to talk about the WA475-10. The dash 10 is the newest series of wheel loaders from Komatsu and I recently had the pleasure of going to Atlanta to their customer center to go put one of the 475s through its paces to do a bit of a review. I will say this, just a disclaimer, it is at a customer center. At the end of the day, we are not on a job site and so there's only so much I can do to put these machines through their paces and along those lines, I'm generally there reviewing more than one piece of equipment, which means I get pretty limited time in the machine.
So there's only so much we can do here. The other caveat I want to put into this is I traditionally have always been an on-the-job site loader operator. I have either been on a road crew or a pipe crew. The WA475, while a lot of contractors use it in that application, it's really geared more to be a yard machine at a pit or a quarry. And so you start to get in some features like the load metering system. I don't have any experience in that realm and so this was all new to me. I may be razzle, dazzled and pizzazz by a feature that you yard guys just go, Bryan, that's just a regular feature on machines, so bear with me in that space. But that being said, let's get into the review.
I'd like to start the review with just a basic walk around of the machine. One of the things you're going to notice just standing at a distance is Komatsu is starting to follow the other manufacturers in taking a little bit more time on the aesthetics of the machine. We are starting to see the exhaust pipe being covered by cowling to make it look a little nicer. The curves and contours on the machine are starting to become more curves and contours as opposed to just hard jagged lines. And so the machines are starting to look more futuristic, newer, they aren't looking like just an old brick of iron like the old school machines used to. Now as operators, we all say that's silliness, that material, it doesn't add to the machine, but I can honestly say I do like that manufacturers are starting to think above and beyond just the practicality of the machine and they are starting to pay attention to aesthetics.
One of the other things you're going to notice on this machine are some of the standard features that aren't necessarily standard features for other manufacturers. The backup camera, the LED light package, the full fender package all the way around the machine, and my favorite part, heated and electric mirrors. So your mirrors are all electric. You can move them from inside the cab and they are heated. So guys like myself in the north don't have to worry about getting out there in the cold to wipe off our mirrors...

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