I started out as a mechanic / welder before getting in to contracting & equipment operating . Still do service calls & shop work for customers as once they find out that you can do this work they wont let it go . Oh well .... It helps break up the day & keep things interesting . One thing I have noticed is equipment aint built like it used to be . Seems like the steel is to light or poor factory welds . Anyhow it keeps us busy at times repairing stuff that in my opinion is still pretty new to be broke up . Service call to repair landing gear on a 15' woods batwing mower ... Ended up notching out the crack & straitened the bracket back then built it up heavy with 7018 glue .
Then moved on to a Curtis snow plow that the bucket quick attach had twisted itself into a pretzel . Normally I try to straiten an item in reverse procedure as it got bent . Couldn't do that this time . Had to cut it apart , Hammer & beat then weld back together with reinforcement on top & bottom .
Buddy had trouble with his Rhino disc mower . On the outer disc it had a cone shaped piece on top to help keep it from spreading out the end row of the cut hay . Well it didn't fail . It worked fine , only problem was it rusted out & fell off . I scratched my head for awhile as I was trying to think of something we had on hand that would work . Only thing I had close was the end of an air tank . Cut it down to shape & had to use the dial indicator to center it as the discs spin pretty fast . Buddy said it works fine .
Your very correct on farm machinery not being built as well or as heavy as in the past. I work on what is too old for the dealer shop but the newer stuff is beginning to trickle in and I have seen that tractors and equipment both are being built more like consumer stuff. Use it until it breaks then go get another one. Also, their "engineering" leaves a lot to be desired. Build it to sell, not last. Planned obsolescence. No idea about your area, but here, auto repair shops are on every street corner but no one is willing to work on farm stuff, especially in the field. I stay covered up and have even been getting dealer referrals on older tractors as, if they can't plug a computer in and be told what to replace, they don't want to work on them.
The cone on the end hat can be discarded as all it does is help throw what the end disc cuts into the 'windrow'. We run ours without them when they inevitably rust off with no problems.
Well said wrwtexan and pretty much same story in my neck of the woods . On the Curtis snow plow the dealer said that they could not order the new quick mount as it was discontinued due to failure . LOL! I look at it as an opportunity for anyone that can run a good weld bead & has a little common sense engineering . Bring us your broken up stuff and we will putter back together back on the job .
To be honest I never have cut hay with a disc mower . We use an old New Holland sickle bar hay bine conditioner . That's pretty much how my buddy was describing it . The cone helps throw the hay back in to the wind row . His complaint was without the cone the mower would catch & drag the cut hay at the end of the mower ?:beatsme
Having working in the implement engineering dept of CaseIH back in the 90's I have some insight into this. I will say that the major cause is that the average customer is not willing to pay what it costs to make an "overbuilt" machine. Sure, some customers are always willing to pay for quality, but if it costs significantly more than other options only a few people will buy your machine and you won't make your money back. So you end up designing "just good enough" to remain price competitive. The days of heavy overbuilt machinery ended in the 80's and they aren't coming back. ISZ
It's even at the point around here that the "Big Farmers" are leasing their equipment (1 year) and getting new stuff every season. As a result, they won't look after it. If buying used equipment, you really need to check closely to see if it has even been greased! You just cringe when you see a 500 hour combine with factory paint still on the oil filters over the grease nipples! Andrew
Yair . . . It seems to be going that way here as well . . . I think a symptom of a flawed financial system that cannot continue indefinitely. Cheers.
Yeah, and the funny/sad thing is....it's the dealers that are running into trouble first, not the farmers. They suddenly have all these 1 or 2 year old lease-returns that they can't get rid of. Check out ag sales on Ritchie Bros out of Saskatoon, Regina, Edmonton, Lethbridge, etc. Lots of ag equipment going cheap. Our last 2 major pieces we bought we didn't buy through the local dealer.... Andrew
Talking about combines ..... I got a call this afternoon from a customer . "Sorry to bother ya on Sunday .... You got time to repair a hydraulic cylinder ?" He says he hit a tree with the unloading auger and the tree stood while the auger folded back in to the machine snapping the threaded end off the extension cylinder rod . I said hell yes bring the cylinder up to the shop . Now I have to give credit to Case / IH as someone had the idea to make the cylinder rod thread the weak point as it didn't damage the auger , just snapped the end off the cylinder rod . We spent about 2 hours with it & got it back together .
Lol that must just be on the newer ones. We have a 1688 1666 and 1460 and all of them have a welded on clevis. The 1460 has had the auger folded back and it did a lot more damage than just a cylinder
Gotta agree. You can still get some quality stuff but a lot of people are buying on price point alone. I just small and starting up. All of my equipment is older but repairable and worth repairing to a point. Here the cheap skates buy King Kutter like they are going out of style but we have a few places that sell better quality stuff. The guys who lease stuff out west of me beat that stuff pretty hard and keep it 2 years at the most. Lot of the stuff is pretty beat up when it hits the dealers lot to sell. Wonder how long that's going to continue with current grain prices. Rick
Huh, y'all still get cash for yours? All we're getting is Monopoly Money.
This was on a 2010 model 7088 . Looked at the machine this morning . Customer said it works fine and had ran 25,000 bushel though it sense Sunday when we glued the cylinder back together . If you notice the rod is quite a bit bigger in diameter then the threaded end where the clevis screws on . Oh yeah .... The threads in the clevis were also half striped so went ahead & spotted the jamb nut as well . We figure it will hold fine until the next obstacle gets in the way I also was amazed that there was no other damage to the auger .
We started moving equipment to a dirt job this morning ......... Cell phone rings & buddy Bill's hay mower had some pretty good cracks developing in the tongue . Took a little detour to the dirt job but got Bill back in the field again . Knifed out old weld with torch & jacked hitch back in to position . Made a few stringer pass downhill with 6011's then climbed back up with 7018 glue . Also welded up inside the gusset that was never welded at the factory .