No time to do it right but time to do it halfway 2-3 times??

An earlier post talked about not taking the time to fix things before they become a major issue. I got this education watching my Father run his business. He always said he "saved" money by just "fixing" what was broke. Said you did not need to go looking for deeper problems.

Well it sure made it a PIA when you where broke down when everyone else was working/planting etc. Had to help him work all night to fix things half way then work all day only to have it fail again.

It made me maybe go over board the other way but in the field break downs just drive me crazy!!! So I go the other way on maintenance. I replace things that may still have worked for a long time.

An example of this is if I have the pump coupling off, of any JD front driven hydraulic pump, I replace the fan belt. Belts are cheap compared to the time lost to fix them in the field.

Another why in the world put old tubes in new tires??? You have them off, replace the tubes. on rear tires it costs more in labor than the tubes cost.

On my combines all the belts get replaced every 1000 hours. Straw choppers get new knives and rebalanced every 1000 hours too. Funny thing is that on the JD 6620 parts I can usually sell the take off parts for decent money. I have two brothers that will buy all the belts for half price of new. LOL They think they are saving money that way. So they will replace a worn/broken belt with a used one. I only will do that to finish before a rain or something.

On tractors that do heavy field work I replace the tires at 50% tread. They lose a lot of traction under that. Plus the used tires still bring good money. I just sold a set of 18.4 X 42 tires at a sale Saturday. They brought 75% of what the new tires cost me. Talked to the back bidder about that. He looked at it that he was saving 25-30% over the cost to by "new" tires. He told me he ran them until they where slick. LOL I wonder what his slippage is in some ground conditions. His fuel must be cheaper than mine.

So are any of you guy like me in that you hate to half way fix something???

Count me in, for several decades. Why save old "pretty good" bearings,belts/tires/pumps, etc. for later replacement? fix/replace once.....move on! Tax deduc for repairs, why fix half-axx just to do it over again and have the downtime and crop/etc. loss? Never understood those folks. Course, those slackers didn"t survive these decades of farming.

I belive in, and practice prevenative maintence. This has proved to be of value during my 30 yrs as a crane mechanic, and cuts down on machine down time, which cripples the bottom line! I naturally carry this mindset, at home, with tractors, mowers, and vehicles. Although I have delegated more of these duties to automotive garages, than I used to, Oil changes ,Lube jobs, and timing belt replacements, and brake jobs still happen as scheduled. The Mowers, hay rake,bush hog, and tractors, I can take my time with. Neighbor does the baling, so I don't have to fool with that.

I'm like you guys,I like to fix it right the first time.But sometimes economics dictate a cheaper way.I dont like it,but sometimes it has to be...I cant afford a $100 implement tire for my farm implements,etc.Used car/light truck tire works.I keep a lot of belts/hoses,etc...If I have a problem on a weekend or after hrs,I can be back in business in minutes,and save that time killing trip to town.Just today,I blew a hydro hose.I walked over to the disk and swiped the hose...(Got my field finished!)Next week when I am in town,I will replace it.But everything here is 40+ years old.

JD Seller, you just described me! I can"t stand working on machinery in the field and try to get everything in tip top shape in the off seasons. I"d rather spend those HOT afternoons in the A/C cab then back there working on a hay baler.

Being a machinist, I find myself wanting to fix everything perfect. On somethings, used parts are all we can get, but I try to recondition them if possible. Right now we have the radiator out of our 1855 and I gotta call the dealer today to get new radiator hoses. There is a hose for the power steering that I'll replace also.

Donovan from Wisconsin

I'm with you, if you're going to do something do it right or don't do it at all. I think it goes back to the old saying about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.
Just replaced the SWMBO's timing belt on her car also replaced the idler pulley & the water pump & the belt. Working on these new cars is such a PITA might as well do everything I could while I was in there.

I'd love to be able to do things that way, but I can't. I'm a one man show with limited funds. My newest piece of equipment is a 30 year old round baler. I suppose it's penny wise and pound foolish, but if you only have the penny to spend.....well, ya do what you have to. I've even gone so far as to run filtered, used oil in old leaky tractors. I doubt some folks would even consider trying to use some of the stuff I use. But then, this whole area is like that. The only guys with new equipment or newer, highly maintained equipment are the BTO's that are all in hock for millions. They are also the guys with the $65K pickups and seats on the boards of the banks and such. I'll stick with what I've got and try to get a little further along each year.

I've never seen the benefit of not doing preventative maintenance that is routine, or further repairs when you have something apart, unless you know its 100%. I think its wise and money ahead to do the best you can on keeping any piece of equipment well maintained with timely repairs or convenient repairs, still not a guarantee, but the odds are a lot better, than say going the other route, which I've always thought is more costly, pay now or pay a lot more later.

The farmer I used to help had a 6620 combine and though I've never run one of these, I did grease it, and he watched over me to help locate all the fittings, except that one that is accessed under the seat, it got hot, could have burned up the combine, the repair in the field was expensive. I was surprised to hear of this during corn harvest that November and knowing how long he had this combine, it was overlooked. I had been helping during the oats harvest, we had some trouble with the grain head, we did a repair to the auger, it came apart on the end, had to replace those pans inside, replaced all the knives as well, + had the dealer service and repair the A/C, was kept in decent shape but 2 time consuming repairs causing downtime when it needed to be working, it certainly makes sense to make a serious effort on maintenance, though he was smart with a buck, some call that tight, his equipment was more maintained than not, you could do a little more, he seemed to subscribe to the philosophy that grease is a lot less expensive than parts or down time in the field. For most of their years in farming they had a shop that all the equipment would fit in, after the fire, not sure why, but the new 3 bay shop was did not have high enough doors or ceiling, so we worked outside or in the pole barn, I think part of this is having a decent set up for repairs, some guys just leave everything outside and roll the dice on break downs.

I have an old worn out 850 Ford at home here, should have been scrapped or parted when I got it, however, over time I repaired many things on it, and at times gone over it, maintenance, looking for things that would stop me or be a problem when in the field and for the most part in 11 years, one fan belt left me in the field. Late last summer, I spent numerous afternoons working on it again, just so I could have the satisfaction of knowing it would be highly likely I won't break down in the field, mostly mowing, and now have another 7 acres to cut, as the field is no longer in use by the farmer. Lights work, so if it gets dark, no problem, oils are changed and its kept greased properly, needed wiring repairs, about the 3rd time since I've owned it, this time solder and shrink wrap, try to keep it in the garage, at minimum all winter, weather just hammers some things. Its an old ugly beast, power steering not working, (another project) but I have kept ahead of it otherwise, and looking back it owes me nothing, it paid for itself and I've made money with it doing jobs, that would not be the case if I tried to do the bare minimum. It will be the first thing I replace, as I need something a bit newer, but for now it has to do and for that to happen reliably, it does require looking after on a regular basis.

If you can recover some of the cost then thats great, otherwise it doesn't alway make sense.

If you regularly maintain your machines its usually easy to catch fan belts etc. Re tires, 50% worn ag radials still have lots of life in them, they can go to 20% and still give good service but of course they are near worthless at 20% to sell. A new radial tube for a 18.4x34 is over 100$ here, if its only a few years old with no chaffing why throw it out? It should give another 30 years service, or it will get an antler through it or a valve stem knocked off tomorrow just like a new tube would.

I think there is a happy medium in there somewhere I always keep a backup tractor and pieces of equipment that can be used in a pinch as no matter how good you maintain something there is always going to be something that will break sooner or later.For tillage good tread is necessary but for many things like making hay or bush hogging worn tires work as well or better.Plus I keep a extra tire as a backup because a brand new on can get a puncture.I agree with on belts on a JD as they are a pain to replace but with many tractors its only a 5 minute job.

A few years ago I finally threw away all of the old used belts and used but still usable bearings I had clogging up my storage spaces. For years I just couldn't get rid of them even though I never did use them. Preventive maintenance has always been high on the priority list for me even if the machine isn't green. LOL. Prime example is the 16000 hour 1086 I bought new. It only let me down once during all that time but I've replaced a lot of half-worn parts with new ones just because I didn't want it to let me down during a busy time. Quite a few years ago I had some worn out cultivator sweeps laying by the shop. A small hobby farmer neighbor saw them and told me he'd take them because they were still good. The wings were half worn off of them and they would leave weed streaks if I continued to use them. He always had grass and weeds in his crops. I almost never had weeds. Jim

Guess it depends on how frantic I am to get the fix fixed. Whether I can get or have parts on hand. Seems like I always have the most catastrophic repairs on a Sunday or whenever the parts suppliers are closed or new parts are several days away.

I don't think slackers is an accurate word and some of them HAVE been farming for 40+ years, successfully too. And I think it would be interesting to compare their bank acct with some of the spenders accts. My dad was one of those "slackers" and farmed til retirement and everything was paid for when he did retire.

sure i'd love to replace everything while i'm in there,but sometimes azz national says i can't...instead of chiding folks,you mite think about folks that do their best on what they have.

Well I guess I run mostly older equipment. The average age of my serious field tractors is thirty years old. I do have newer corn planters they are under ten years old. My combine is a 1989 model.

As for why I run JD equipment??? I have three dealers within 15 miles on me. There would be two CIH ones and one MF or Ford dealer. JD maybe having issues with customer service form some dealers but you can get just about any part when you need it and in a timely manner. Try that with Agco. I have waited weeks for parts from them on common equipment.

You can throw rocks at me for running JD equipment but with that equipment I have paid for everything I own and helped all my sons get started farming. So maybe I am doing something correct.

Agreed.

I learned that lesson decades ago from my Father and follow similar practice except in rare exceptions.

Routine and preventative maintenance can be done in non peak and/or off seasons.

Dean

some of the farmers that survived the 80's were the ones that were in too deep for th banks to sell out, they gave them write-offs instead, some of those people are the land hogs of today, we have always tried to be pro-active on maintenance and each situation has to be addressed separately, I do hate fixing things that someone else repaired halfway and often incorrectly on the other hand I can remember Dad getting used belts for the combine in the 80's because times were tough and money was short, must have doing something right as he stayed in business, I will take the old belt off my pickups , bundle them up and put them under the seat for an emergency,

(quoted from post at 05:20:12 04/22/13)

Another why in the world put old tubes in new tires??? You have them off, replace the tubes. on rear tires it costs more in labor than the tubes cost.

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I put new tubes in new front tractor tires a couple of years back. After patching the junk new tubes a few times I put the old tubes back in. Probably 30 year old tubes and I've had no problems since. It was only $40 or so for those 2 new so-called tubes, and it warms my heart knowing some of my donation ended up in Firestone's portfolio, some went to "Korea" (stamped "Made in Korea for Firestone" or something similar) and I ended up with nothing but several dismounts, wasted time, and wasted patches for the privlidge. My old junk that I attempted to replace and should have been replaced was better than what was available to me new.

Yes, I mount/fix alot of my own tires. Local tire stores are too stupid/lazy to remove bar code tags from beads on tubeless tires (they shouldn't be there in the first place) and tags/stickers from inside of tires that take tubes. They must have found out in a tough economy they can get alot of repeat business fixing leakers.

Call me a tightwad if you like, but this isn't my first run-in with new "name brand" tubes being junk. Thankfully none have been in rear tractor tires yet. So long as my old tubes for smaller tires are servicable they are going to be reused.


Regular maintenance and service is essential.
Preventive maintenance is always good practice. Always look things over. Ignorance is not bliss. If something's going bad/getting worn, or looks out of the ordinary, do something about it. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away.
Replacing properly functioning quality that is paid for with crap that empties your wallet isn't wise.
Saving money on el-cheapo parts isn't savings at all. Sometimes aftermarket is equal to or better than OE parts in performance and/or longevity, though. Sometimes el-cheapo is all that's available any more.
Choose wisely. Do/use what works for you.

AG

I know what you mean. After my Dad passed away I was cleaning the shop, boxes of bearings all over. Open up the box and the balls and races fell out in multiple pieces. If it was bad enough to replace why save it. Funny thing is that I have to fight the urge to do the same thing, sometimes the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.

My 40 year old swather has bearings with original paint still running. A bearing I put on 3 years ago had to be replaced last year.

Preventive maintenance prevents alot of headaches. Some people just don't see any point in replacing something before it breaks. I don't really understand that. Replace the damn belts. Their $25. I'll take that over losing 4 hours when I need the tractor most. Imagine losing 10 acres of quality hay over a broken belt. I can't afford to replace tires unless I could actually get 66-75% of new cost for the old ones. Now I really don't understand tubes. $50-100 to prevent what could be 2 days of down time. Add to that, when the tube starts leaking, you're still going to have to replace the tube, fluid, pay for the service call, etc. And then there's china tubes. You save $15 for something that's 1/2 the quality. Reliable equipment pays off real quick.

I try and keep up on things too and have replaced things that didn't need it yet just because I was there.

But some have mentioned a vaild point I have noticed too. Some of the replacement parts anymore are a crap shoot as to if they will hold up. For instance. My 1996 Dodge truck with 190,000 miles.Normally I'd of put all new radiator hose on it last time I did the water pump. But the originals still looked and felt good.Any replacement likely would of been from China so I figured I'd take my chances on the originals. I ran into this years back with fuel hose on an old 1978 pickup. I replaced them because I was there. After a year they looked cracked up so I still had the originals laying around and put them back on.

They have to considering the quality of work John Deere does in their shops.

Given my experiance with them I'd trust the repairs made by a farmer in a field with pliars, Cresent wrench and baling wire than what they manage to do in thier shop.

Neighbor is learning the same thing, dropped off his combine in December to get the engine overhauled. He drove it there and they've pulled the engine twice and they still can't get it to run well enough to drive it out of the building.

He's hoping to have it back in time for wheat harvest.

I certainly don't know you or your father, but could it be that he was trying to put a happy face on a crappy situation?

Maybe in his heart he wanted to do the preventative maintenance, but time and money were a problem?

Sometimes my young-but-grown son (22 yrs old) asks me why I operate a certian way - I tell him "Time or money. Seems like when you have one, you don't have the other. Time or money."

I hate to think of all the money my BIL has spent doing half way repairs. With his luck it's worse. Most often his 1/2 repair results in other damage.

My dad always told me "if you don't have time to do it right when are you going to find time to do it over"

Rick

My father also "pinched pennies" which caused us countless in-season delays and stress. Mother claimed both he and his father managed using the same philosophy: "if you don't spend much money than you don't have to make as much". Works to a certain extent but can result in a miserable existance. Major problem was that neither were mechanics. Grandfather clung to horses and when tractors arrived he had enough resources to hire things repaired. Consequently Dad never had to work on mechanical stuff. Fine for my relatively wealthy grandfather, but doesn't work very well when the money didn't pass down hill. So rather than pay for preventive maintenance, we typically patched stuff together with bailing wire and suffered the consequences. Later my brother went to a mechanics school and became a good mechanic, but when working on home projects continued to follow the don't spend much philosophy. No doubt he improved the farm's profitability but stress level was still too high. In contrast he believes I spend money too wildly. My approach was to continue my education and thereby get a good paying job. This has allowed me to afford some "extravagance" which although might lower farm's profit, certainly contributes to a lot less stress and enhances the farming experience.

JD_Seller If I may add to that I've never figured out why some folk have thousands of dollars in equipment but wont spend a dime to keep it inside out of the weather. Esp. the Tractors, balers, etc.

All my hay equipment except the parts machines stay inside.

Tillage stuff stays outside.

Tractors stay outside, both have cabs and are made to stay out. Lots of folks lost all their equipment and buildings from a simple electrical fire on their tractor.

Buildings aren't cheap and they cost you every year at tax time.

(quoted from post at 13:45:40 04/22/13) JD_Seller If I may add to that I've never figured out why some folk have thousands of dollars in equipment but wont spend a dime to keep it inside out of the weather. Esp. the Tractors, balers, etc.

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Because even a pole barn would cost another $20K by the time I got done with the thing. If you can only swing the equipment, then that's what you do. I might have $20K in equipment here if I scrounged up everything and sold the scrap metal too. If I could afford a $60K tractor, it'd be different.

(quoted from post at 21:05:09 04/22/13) All my hay equipment except the parts machines stay inside.

Tillage stuff stays outside.

Tractors stay outside, both have cabs and are made to stay out. Lots of folks lost all their equipment and buildings from a simple electrical fire on their tractor.

Buildings aren't cheap and they cost you every year at tax time.

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Do you park your car in the garage next to the house? Whats the difference?