$600 for 50 hour service ?

[nhtzer]

OK the local dealer wants $500 - $600 dollars to come out to my house to do the 50 hour service ?!?!? What am I missing here?

Said I could save $90 and $3/hour if I brought it in to them. I called the service department the fluids and filters needed are maybe $165. Does this seem in line with what others were quoted / charged?

 

[jimg]

Guess if youre not handy then youll have to pay the piper. Its really not difficult or complex and no special tools are required. I think there are directions here already for your machine...if not then Im sure someone could post them. At any rate the owner manual will doc. the procedure also. I did all the work exc. warranty stuff on my TC24. I wouldnt consider myself to be that much of a mechanic and I didnt find it to be a problem.

I think your price for parts/fluids is about right. Youll be changing fuel, inner air, oil and hydraulic filter(s) + engine oil + hydraulic fluid? Not sure if you have to change the inner AF or hydraulic fluid but your manual will tell you all that. Some opt to do a HF change at 50hrs which is premature. I did. So assuming you already have tools thatll be the cost & youll learn something about your tractor. If you need tools then I cant imagine youll need to buy more than a large drain pan, ratcheting driver, some metric sockets, a filter wrench or 2 and perhaps a ratcheting screw driver.

If youre set on not doing it yourself know that getting a tech onsite is more expensive b/c youre paying for the mobile rig and the 'convenience' of them coming to you. Although if they came and collected it I bet the charge would be > $100 one way. Its a for profit business and its their aim to profit esp. in new england.

 

[Chuck_Lind]

OK the local dealer wants $500 - $600 dollars to come out to my house to do the 50 hour service ?!?!? What am I missing here?

Said I could save $90 and $3/hour if I brought it in to them. I called the service department the fluids and filters needed are maybe $165. Does this seem in line with what others were quoted / charged?

Don't feel bad; I once owned a Mercedes-Benz and it cost me $600 for a NORMAL scheduled maintenance (like, 15K miles), and I had to take the car INTO the dealership.

Own a Ferrari and you'll pay $4000+ for a 3000 mile tune-up; the oil costs $72 a quart.

Now...$500-600 doesn't sound so bad after all!!!!

 

[BizDoc]

That seems a bit steep, depending on how far from the shop you are, because I'm sure it is expensive to send someone out for a job. My first scheduled maintenance for my NH TC21D was $350 and I thought that was steep. I even delivered it to the shop. I was quoted $250-$275 for the 50 hr mtse on my Kubota B3030. Again I intend to deliver the unit myself and avoid the $60 pick-up and delivery charge.

 

[mahlers]

Do yourself a favor and do the job yourself. It's really easy - if you can change the oil on your car, you can do a 50 hour service in your sleep. Tractors weren't designed so that only a master mechanic can work on them - by nature they're supposed to be serviced in the field by the average Joe. About the only thing you might want to consider having the dealer do is a periodic adjustment of the valves, fuel injector replacement, or other relatively complex work. Those are all 1000 or 2000 hour maintenance jobs, though - so you've got plenty of time to budget for them.

 

[b33b]

I can see doing engine oil and filters, and AutoZone will take my used oil. What do you do with with all the hydraulic oil and what do you collect it in, line up the five gallon buckets?

 

[horse7]

When I bought my tractor, the dealer offered (at that time) 300 for the 50hr if bought with the tractor. Like, what a deal, sign me up! And, I don't have to dispose of all that waste hydrocarbon fluid. Wish I could have bought the 200hr in advance at that rate!

Of course at 50hr service time I added FOPS and 3rd remote and some other toys ... so they kinda made out overall I think

BTW, there are guys on eBay that sell the filter sets for NH tractors, don't know how competitive the prices are vs. the dealer though.

 

[DieselMonk]

Just did the 300hr service here. Was quoted 350 Can$ and the mechanic came down and did the service in my driveway. He had to go about 100mi.

 

[daTeacha]

Unless there is a serious difference in the manuals and service intervals between your tractor and my Case DX29, I have to wonder about the hydraulic oil question. Both the dealer and manual for mine says to simply change the filter and top off the oil as needed.

Does the NH book require a full hydraulic oil change at only 50 hours?

 

[nhtzer]

Don't have the manual with me right now but when I read through it last evening it didn't seem to say anything at 50 hours except lube and oil.

The $500 - $600 by itself isn't the issue; its that I don't expect the first service to be so extensive. My new 2008 super duty's first maintenance cost me $80.00 and that was about 5 times more expensive than the tractor. Using the same ratio the Super Duty would have cost me $2100 for the first service if I had it done by the NH dealer (4% of purchase cost).

It just seems extremely high in relation to what the purchase price was. Also if it's going to cost me $600 a year to maintain this for merely mowing grass; something is out of whack. I mowed for 5 years with a JD LT and spent maybe $100 in 5 years and 240 hours of problem free service...