Post for those that cuss JD parts.

We run JD 716 and 716A chopper boxes. They vary in age from the early 1970s to the very last ones built in the later 1990s. Now for some additional back story on these boxes. JD contracted with Badger to actually build these boxes. They are all Canadian built to my knowledge. They were sourced through the JD Welland plant. So the manufacturing company has been out of business for close to 20 years. The supporting JD factory has been closed and torn down for 10 years or so. Then you add it the fact that there were not that many chopper boxes sold nation wide either. All of this should make the parts support spotty.

Monday afternoon at around 4;15 PM one of our JD 716 wagons eat the cross conveyor chain. One side link broke and by the time we got it stopped it had waded up the entire chain bending all of the cross bars an attaching links. I did a quick look and found it would take right at $400 just to buy new chain and then have to remove, straighten and re-weld all the cross bars to the new chain. I figured a half a days work. Plus getting the chain shipped and the work done right in the middle of chopping make it even more costly. So I looked the number up for an OEM JD chain, complete. $755 was full list price. I called the local store at 4:45 PM. They did not have it at any of the company stores. He ordered it delivered the next morning. The local parts man called me at 7:30 AM that the chain was in. The additional shipping charge was $37.75. We had the new chain installed before 9:00 AM.

We will finish chopping Friday or Saturday. That wagon will have hauled another 50-60 loads by then. I do mean loads too. We fill them until the silage just about runs out over the front of the wagons. So not having to wait for parts really helped out.

I have bought parts from just about every equipment brand out there. NONE of them come close to the parts support I can get from JD and I do mean NONE!!!! This means I can run a little bit older JD equipment with confidence in it not costing me BIG time in down time and or lost productivity.

I tend to agree. Last summer I needed wear guides for the plunger on my 346 square baler. The dealer did not have them in stock, he ordered them, next afternoon I had them. I couldent believe how fast I got them.

I agree, I have owned or worked on most every color ag or construction equipment over the years and none of them have cheap parts, but Deere definitely has them all beat for availability of parts.

Brother has a Badger field chopper and a 260MF chopper that are identical. Wasn't Badger sold to Miller, and then to Artsway? Dad has two forage boxes that sure look alike, an old Badger and MF box. Both have seen better days but still work..

The JD boxes where built in a Badger plant but were JD designed. So they had zero in common with the Badge line. This was true with the rear JD blades too. When Badger went bankrupt it took JD months/years for them to get their tooling back so they could resume building the rear blades. It hurt their sales and they never really recovered. So that made it easier for the JD bean counters to drop the actual JD built rear blades. I think the manure spreaders where effected too.

Those boxes were made in the Welland plant, but the plant was owned by John Deere, and not Badger, as far as I know. The plant also manufactured the Hydra push spreader and late model wagon gears. Deere discontinued the forage boxes in the early 90's, and the spreaders and wagon gears shortly thereafter. I was told by our local dealer it was due to a labor dispute with the union in Canada, and rather than cave to the union, Deere found it easier to to shutter the plant and ditch the product lines.

I have 5 of those wagons. We did about 70 loads today. I've found an alternative source for conveyor parts is Albus conveyors in WI. They have cross conveyor and main apron chains in stock. The last time I needed one, my dealer actually got it from them, and not Deere.

parts availability and quickness of relay (for lack of a better word)has always been deeres biggest asset. Probably the only reason I buy deere equipment. It isn't as good as it was used to always be next day if it was in Atlanta now it is two but still beats 4 and 5 by everyone else.

There's a lot of J/D green on our farm, a lot of it is very OLD green.
Coming for a person who's also in the auto industry I marvel over what
we can still purchase through deere. One example about 2 years ago I needed
the hydraulic line in frt of the lower seat of a 1957 620 tractor. We were
using it & needed it that day if possible. I took it off & was going to braze
it. I called Deere & asked how long would it take to get a new line. There parts
man said about 3 minutes, they had two on the shelf. I said 2??? I think asked if
he had the other line, yep got it too, I was there within the hour & it was the 3rd
line that he'd sold in the last 12 months. Sure they cost me about 117.00 each, they
are on the tractor, I repaired the leaking one, wrapped them both in new paper & oiled
them down & marked the box. & We used the tractor that day with almost NO down time.
When you put over 1300 square bales of hay threw a 337 baler with an old 620 on the
frt in one day your neck might get sore but it's still a joy..

Deere parts are also lower priced the last few years too compared to Fiat/CaseIH. Deere also has a much better online parts lookup than the others. I can check parts stock of all the dealers in a 50+ mile radius.

Wasn't it just the other day you were BORED ?

The haters will hate but I am the third generation to farm with old red and true blue on this farm. But these last ten years have seen alot of green machines pop up around here. I'm a decent trouble shooter and a decent mechanic but I don't have the skills or tools to repair obsolete specialty parts that my dealer laughs at me when I ask about them. Seems more and more times than not everything I ask for is no longer available.that's very frustrating to the point I had to buy an extra 120 horse tractor last fall while I hunted and or had parts rebuilt for my main use tractor. At ih the other day they told me that all existing ih parts tooling were sold off to after marketers to be produced over seas. Anyways went to a brand new jd store no old parts inventory to get parts for my b jd and jd grain drill and what they didn't have was there the next day. It's sad and frustrating but at least around here it's true jd has the parts and I'm finding them cheaper then my red parts.

If I had to guess most forage wagons were sold from NY in the East to Minnesota in the West and Wisconsin in the North to the Mid South. To add to that most were sold in NY, PA, OH, IL, WI, and IA from the previously mentioned group. Anyways, I would say there were as many 716/ 716A boxes sold here as there were anything else with Gehl and Badger nipping at JD's heels. I would agree that one of Deere's strengths is providing parts support for older equipment though I think the quality has tapered off somewhat.

It has gotten to the point around here that I look up the parts on JD Parts, then call the local dealer t see if he has tham. That way, I don't waste an hour going up there to find out they don't have it. But, in Mother Deere's defense, they usually have a part the next day or, if not in one of their stores, within a couple of days. And, as with most of you, I am running a lot of geriatric green......