JohnMacca
Bronze Member
The first service has just been done by my local dealer's field service guy. I thought I would pass on a couple of things that stood out - good and bad.
The service was done at 68 hours. I was in their yard (borrowing a pipe layer at no charge) at around 48 hours and asked when did I need to book the service. The sales guy said 100 hours was their standard, so don't worry yet. When I said that the book says 50 hours, he said that was overkill.
I took the chance to sneak around to the head mechanic and ask him. (An old school type of guy and has worked on tractors and farm machinery for ever). He agreed that 50 hours was what the book said but his experience was that 70 to 80 was not going to cause a problem. He said just call him direct whenever I wanted it done. In the end I got a bit nervous about leaving the first service for too long and called him. He came out the next day, which I thought was pretty good service.
The engine oil was not vey dark at all. I read an earlier thread about it being normal for diesel oil to be black, but this lot was no more than a mid brown. Certainly nothing like my cars oil after a 10,000 Km change.
The mechanic checked only the wheel nuts and not any other nuts. When I queried him about the FEL mounting bolts, he said that they had been Loctited by them and he knew they would be fine. I had already checked them at about 20 hours and got nothing so I checked again after he left and still no movement, so I hope they are right.
The one thing he did make a big point about was keeping the dust out of the radiator. The last few hours I had done were very dusty and he noted this while cleaning the air filter. He said he was a big fan of using air - not water - to clean the engine etc. but that the radiator must be washed out very thoroughly. He said to use a mild detergent and wash and re-wash and flush again and again to make sure that no mud remained on the radiator as this would cause overheating when it dries.
So after all this, I am a little unsure about the level of care from the dealer. They seem to be very experienced in tractors (not just Kioti) and the attitude seems to be - trust us, we know what we're doing. Hope they're right!
The service was done at 68 hours. I was in their yard (borrowing a pipe layer at no charge) at around 48 hours and asked when did I need to book the service. The sales guy said 100 hours was their standard, so don't worry yet. When I said that the book says 50 hours, he said that was overkill.
I took the chance to sneak around to the head mechanic and ask him. (An old school type of guy and has worked on tractors and farm machinery for ever). He agreed that 50 hours was what the book said but his experience was that 70 to 80 was not going to cause a problem. He said just call him direct whenever I wanted it done. In the end I got a bit nervous about leaving the first service for too long and called him. He came out the next day, which I thought was pretty good service.
The engine oil was not vey dark at all. I read an earlier thread about it being normal for diesel oil to be black, but this lot was no more than a mid brown. Certainly nothing like my cars oil after a 10,000 Km change.
The mechanic checked only the wheel nuts and not any other nuts. When I queried him about the FEL mounting bolts, he said that they had been Loctited by them and he knew they would be fine. I had already checked them at about 20 hours and got nothing so I checked again after he left and still no movement, so I hope they are right.
The one thing he did make a big point about was keeping the dust out of the radiator. The last few hours I had done were very dusty and he noted this while cleaning the air filter. He said he was a big fan of using air - not water - to clean the engine etc. but that the radiator must be washed out very thoroughly. He said to use a mild detergent and wash and re-wash and flush again and again to make sure that no mud remained on the radiator as this would cause overheating when it dries.
So after all this, I am a little unsure about the level of care from the dealer. They seem to be very experienced in tractors (not just Kioti) and the attitude seems to be - trust us, we know what we're doing. Hope they're right!
