From the Dealership Floor to the Digital Platform
Todd Resser's path into heavy equipment was unconventional. After serving in the Air Force, he took a position at a Kobelco dealership in Tacoma, Washington. Starting as a parts driver, he earned rapid promotions — warehouse manager, parts manager, general parts manager, and eventually general manager. Under his leadership, the dealership climbed from 26th to 6th nationally in Kobelco parts sales.
"I've done everything in the industry. I pushed the broom in the warehouse, worked in the service department," Todd says. That ground-level experience gave him something no software engineer could replicate: an intimate understanding of how dealers actually source, verify, and sell heavy equipment components — particularly Japanese and Korean excavators.
When Kobelco closed the dealership in 2002, Todd pivoted to dismantling machines purchased at auction and creating quick-reference guides for clients. He was later recruited by H&R Parts to lead Contractors Service Company in Southern California. By 2007, after H&R sold to Sumitomo Corporation, he developed an aftermarket parts division involving international operations and database management — traveling extensively through Asia and Europe to build direct factory relationships.
"We only buy quality products. We will never sacrifice your reputation by cutting corners. It's not just about what will bolt to a machine — it's about the sprockets fitting correctly with proper specifications."
— Todd Resser, President & Founder
Southwest Equipment Parts
In 2016, Todd founded Southwest Equipment Parts (SEP) in Rancho Cucamonga, California. With over two decades of hands-on experience buying and selling high-quality Japanese and Korean excavator components, SEP quickly became a trusted name among independent resellers, heavy equipment parts distributors, and OEM equipment dealers.
SEP's core inventory includes final drives, swing motors and gearboxes, main hydraulic pumps, recoil springs, and Volvo hydraulic cylinders. The company is the largest stocking supplier of swing bearings in North America. In 2024, Todd expanded operations by opening a hydraulic repair shop offering repair-and-return services for final drives, swing motors, and gearboxes.
SEP doesn't just copy designs — the team reverse-engineers and improves them. When Volvo released the EC300 with new bolt patterns, Todd's mechanical engineering team obtained samples and redesigned the final drive. "We feel we improved on the design and didn't just copy it," he says. That engineering-first mindset carries through everything SEP builds.
As the business grew, so did the complexity of interchange requests. Todd had cataloged data for more than 2,700 different final drives and travel motors. That institutional knowledge evolved into Dyco Drives — a platform that encodes decades of parts expertise into software any dealer can access instantly. The public launch is planned for 2026.
