Dealer support

I know some on here don't believe that with older equipment that dealer support isn't important but....

Busted a hose on my JCB 3CIII backhoe the other day on the bucket circuit. New hose 127 bucks because of goofy British ends! Back at work yesterday after driving 90 plus miles to St Cloud MN to a hydraulic shop that can make a hose for me. So late yesterday afternoon I'm on the last rock in a field digging em out for my sisters husband and I bust another hose. Bad part is that I'm heading out to the deer stand in a few minutes. So I guess Monday I'll be heading back to St Cloud (local shops have nothing to help me but can order the ends) to get another hose made. I will never buy another piece of equipment that's made by some company that has no support further than 30 miles. I can get support for Ford, Cat, JD, CaseIH and Kubota but not JCB. No one else has the correct air filter for it. That has to come from JCB. What a pain!

Rick

One of the reasons I gave up on the Massey combine. The dealer was great but he was a distance away and a fair number of parts such as some bearings were captive market through AGCO. I don't expect a dealer to bankrupt himself by stocking things that sit for years so when he did not have it then I had to wait for overnight delivery which I did not like as even a 30 dollar overnight charge hurts the wallet. Had I kept running it the combine was becoming a money pit and at the same time had always lacked important features such as RWA.
Even though the timing was not good I finally baled on the MF in favor of a JD 6620. Putting RWA on the 6620 was a good investment along with a flex table. I did not buy at too high a price and for quite a number of years the JD parts warehouse was just down I-90 a few exits so I seldom had to sweat parts or pay ridiculous next day charges. The only problem now is the dank falls we get anymore demand a rotary combine which were not within my budget when I bought the 6620.

Find out what hose brand your local hydraulic shop uses and order handful of couplings with British ends probably in 3/8" and 1/2" straights and 90s and when a hose bites the dust you have the parts on hand to have local shop make a replacement.

I needed a spring for my MF 33 grain drill the other day. Looked up part number and did a search that didn't show one online anywhere. The next morning I drove 50 miles to one of the only 6 dealers in Georgia and they said part was no longer available from Agco. The parts guy said we have 4 MF tractors on the lot, haven't sold one in 3 months, and wanted out of Agco. I can call any J Deere dealership and order a part. Drive 22 miles and pick it up at the warehouse and have never had them tell me nothing was unavailable or not in stock

Shoot, if I got something that didn't have dealer support with in 100 miles, I still wouldn't own anything. 100 miles each way
is just the cost of living in Paradise!!!!

Oh, I really screwed up and now live where there are towns every 5 miles. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Wouldn't it be possible to fabricate adapters with the JCB threads on one end and standard on the other? I did that once for a JD-Oliver combination.

KEH

That is a really good idea, get NPT to your style adapters and have a spare NPT hose.

We have John Deere 15 miles from me. The nearest CIH is over 300 miles. The CIH still gves better service than the
'local'JD(mega store) guys.If you dont have new iron,they dont even talk to you.We have Ford and Massey within 20 miles. Those
guys do pretty good.

Sparks Cody and Kennedy are pretty far from Valentine! Jim

I'm surprised the dealer or hydraulic shop do not offer online parts sales and overnight delivery or two day delivery. Shipping often looks expensive, until you compare it to the vehicle cost to drive to a dealer plus the labor labor cost of the driver.

The suggestion to use adapter fittings sounds like a great idea to get through a breakdown. The adapters could be re-used after the correct hose is installed.

It isn't a nearby dealer that is important.

It is being able to find parts locally.

There is a difference.....

Locally I hear really bad things about JD any more. They combined and folded 4 times into a mega dealer, they may have your part at one of
their 20 locations, but you might get it in a week, it might have freight added to it, its a real mess. They closed the two closest dealerships to
me, 25 miles to the closest Deere now.

4 years ago when I was swathing with my old Owatonna swather with a Wisconsin cast iron air cooled engine on it the fuel pump went out.

I walked into the local ag/auto/hydraulic/light machine shop place very worried.... The fella saw the old pump in my pail, said oh he was sorry,
he had sold the one they stock that morning, the replacement should be there at 10:00am tomorrow tho?

Agco/ Gleaner has 3 dealerships an hour from me, I'm in the triangle between. ( There is one a half hour away, but they are very limited in
Gleaner support.) one of the dealers has a bone yard to pull parts off of, two of the places have very helpful mechanics that know the old
Gleaners as well or better than the new ones, all three stock parts for my old stuff. Several years ago the fan on my F2 shelled out, one of the
dealers had it sitting on the shelf, for a 27 year old machine.....

Now, which of my machines is supported better? Hint - not the Deere.

So the geneneral point is right - you need local support! But that doesn't just mean you have to have a dealer 5 miles from you.... It means you
need sources for the parts.

Paul

(quoted from post at 06:19:40 11/07/15) Find out what hose brand your local hydraulic shop uses and order handful of couplings with British ends probably in 3/8" and 1/2" straights and 90s and when a hose bites the dust you have the parts on hand to have local shop make a replacement.

Click to expand...

The hose in question is 3/4".

I think I'm going to order some ends to have on hand. Local shops can make the hose if the end is available.

Paul, here dealing with stuff for the JCB there just isn't support. I found that out trying every parts store in the area when I needed a water pump a couple of years ago. Wound up having to order it online. I also found out that JCB doesn't have a parts look up on line so it's a 90 mile trip to the dealer every time I need something that has to come from JCB.

Rick

JCB uses high pressure hydraulics like most of the equipment made there. I only bought a couple pieces of European equipment for ADOT and we had constant trouble with hoes and fittings. I reduced the maximum pressure allowable to 2800 PSI in the specs and shut out any more 3400 PSI European equipment.

With me I have some dealers close and with older equipment "we can get it in a couple days" so much having a dealer close if they don't stock parts.I have much better luck with ebay/net for most things.

Heck, I've had the same issue with a New Holland round baler that does have a few dealers close. still couldn't figure out what the threads were. Probably BSP. I just cut one end of the hard line off and put on a jic fitting. Those can be found any where.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Around here, I hear the same exact thing from people... avoid JCB for the same reason.

My one friend is a manager for JD my other friend for Michigan CAT. When I was looking for my backhoe, I asked them what they had around in my price range and what is the best hoe regardless of brand.
Both of them said, "whatever you do don't by a JCB" And the JD dealer handles JCB!!

I here the frustration from the local guys like me that need a hoe but cant spend $80-100k for a new one. They bought a used JCB because it was a little cheaper than a comparable CAT, JD or Case backhoe. But then they end up jumping through hoops to get parts, or waiting way too long to get them.

I ended up with a Case 580, and it has served me well. When I have needed parts, it hasn't been a problem.
Maybe others have better JCB support in their area, but not around here.

Rick