Do y'all have any tips for finding people that can do service/maintenance on your stuff? I understand that it's better for me to do my own wrenching but I've got more money than time and the learning curve for me to learn stuff will be long. I'm willing to pay a fair amount of money to not have to get some stuff on my hoe worked out myself. And obviously I've likely messed up and didn't investigate this kind of thing before I bought my hoe... (except there is the local place as mentioned below) There's one local service place that advertises on the radio like crazy and I've now called them at least 3 times. First time they took some notes of what I wanted done but said they were behind because all the farm equipment was coming in. I said that was fine, as I still had some projects to wrap up. I never heard back. I called a couple weeks after that and talked to a girl that said yeah, no problem, got me on the schedule and good to go, but they didn't have any my info from my prior call. The service manager calls me later that day and says it's probably 2-3 weeks out, again, due to having farming equipment jobs in the house. I say OK, that's fine. I never hear back. About a month goes by, maybe a little more, and I call them up to see where I'm at on the schedule. I talk to the same girl, who again, doesn't have any of my info from the previous calls, and now says they don't really work on backhoes too much, but she'll have the service manager call me. He never did. I'm assuming they don't want my business, at this point, but I'm not sure where that leaves me. Yeah, I think I could probably learn to fix some stuff but I have a couple big projects I was hoping to get to before winter hits too hard with a machine that didn't have a few leaky cylinders and a messed up injector... And just give the machine a good once over... Anyone nearby here a good mechanic that wants to make some money? I think it's easy work, and I'm willing to pay a premium! Where should I look?
Were you dealing with an agriculture dealership or a construction equipment dealership ? The farmers will always get priority at a ag dealership.
Your looking for the kind of service me and my dad provid. Drop it by we will call when its ready. Just remember that it is our full time hobby and the price is quite reasonable
If it's just engine work, maybe a truck shop, or the 5 hour trip to Salix
If you want me to do it thats no problem we're a bit backed up currently tho.
Sounds like a vacation from what I've been dealing with lately. Some leaking cylinders and light engine work would seem like Heaven right now.
Tinkerer- it is, primarily, an AG shop. The reason I picked them, other than them being one of the only ones I know of around, is that I was driving by one of our local cemeteries and saw a New Holland backhoe running around. I called them up and asked who they had servicing their backhoe and equipment and they told me this company. I understand that they likely have better work with the farmers but it'd be nice to get some responsiveness... Tyler- I wish! I'm kind of hoping, at this point, to find someone like you but a bit more local to me! Vetech- I just got through reading your other post and yeah, I figured something like this would seem a treat! As I searched for places online I found that United Rental claims to have a service department and they have a shop kind of close by. Anyone know anything about them? I haven't called them yet, I wanted to know if there were any horror stories, though I imagine each branch could be as good or bad as anything else.
I can only speak about the rental places here and this won't apply to all. I have actually gone into a rental outfit and repaired some of their stuff before. The big rental outfits all have their own people, but the equipment usually isn't very old and their MO is keeping on top of the PM and light mechanical. In the past they have been dependent on the manufacturers and dealers as the rest of us for major work. I would think they could handle the repairs you need, providing they are willing to take on outside work. Some corporations frown on that.
Thanks Vetech, their corporate website claims they do that kind of work but I don't know if their branches are interested... Perhaps I'll give them a call. I wish a few of you guys were closer, I'd make it worth your while!
Funny... I have the opposite situation. My dealership is a construction dealer, but they do ag machines. They prioritize the construction machines, AG machines wait.
Aig, you just need to find a local guy that wants to make some money on the side. For example, my neighbor is a CAT technician... how do I know? Well he drives his service truck home every night. If I would ever need a repair that I can’t perform, he would be the guy I would go to. Look around on your daily drives and see if you can spot something. Service centers are getting harder and harder to find.
Leaky cylinders have to be removed to be fixed. Can you get them off yourself? Then you can take them to a hydraulic shop to be fixed. I know here, both major welding and machine shops rebuild hydraulic pistons. Even a farther away one would be easier to take the piston, rather than moving the backhoe. Like I say, a truck repair shop should be able to look at an injector issue.
In my experience cylinder repacks are best done by professionals. I've used several specialized hydraulic shops. In most cases, they have a LONG backlog of work ahead of me. Once I have removed the cylinder from the machine, It kills me to see it disabled for months. The local machine mechanics are similarly backed up with work for big customers. If it's only a repack, I'm likely to do it myself. I'd rather do cylinder repack on the machine. A cylinder table or bench is an involved thing to build. It takes a lot of steel to build one. To do it on the machine, you want A table with a sheet on it, blocking, big ratchet straps, a come along, BIG wrenches, & a spanner for gland. You need a whole box of shop cloths, at least two clean buckets Start with a can of brake clean & pressure washer, at least a garden hose. The rest, improvise. Clean everything very thoroughly. Process usually involves supporting the component of the machine to get the rod end pin out. Block it in a manner to give a straight shot pulling out the rod. Drain oil removing both hoses. Remove the gland nut. The rod with piston will not come easy, You'll need a puller & an anchor. Pull straight. Once it's out, take pictures. The kit will have parts different from the old packings. There likely will be cryptic instructions translated to English by a Hungarian from the original, written in Chinese. You'll have to remove the piston & gland, you may pin the eye back to the machine, otherwise improvise.
True, but I am guessing that he doesn't have the stuff he needs to do it. Here, I can send a cylinder to the shop, and have it by the end of the day, or at least tomorrow. The machine shop here built the pistons for some of the thumbs on our 30 ton excavators. I guess down time depends on your area, and how many companies you hydraulic shops service.
FWIW the UR branches here will work on customers equipment as well as our Cat Rental Store. Which reminds me I need to take our Bomag trench roller in to see if they can find the electrical gremlin the Cat Rental Store couldn't..
Thanks guys! My biggest problem is I don't, currently, have a great place to work on this stuff. I'm out of space in the garage and shop to have some big stuff sitting around. My hope is that I can find a professional to send the whole machine to to get stuff done. I'll feel much comfier about taking things apart when I have a barn to park in and work on stuff in. Then it'll be a question of if I'm smart enough to do it. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for local mechanics, but not enough to actually talk to anyone. There's a guy a few miles away with some big equipment sitting in his driveway I may stop at sometime but I've never seen him out in the yard.