Have you ever sold a tractor due to no dealer support?

[rScotty]

Just because it is a John Deere does not mean it must use John Deere parts. The parts you have talked about so far are universally replaceable. U-joints that will fit can be found many places, hydraulic hoses made up while you wait in many places also. I get many wear items from NAPA since they are closer, 15 miles vs 50 miles for the dealer, and have never had an issue. I would stay with the machine you say you are happy with and don't worry about what may never happen.

I agree. Well said.
A lot of parts are common and universal. You can get better, closer, and less expensive parts other places than the dealer. Couple that with the internet and I'd stay with a machine you like rather than an unknown.
rScotty

 

[ddbackhoe]

Have you ever sold or traded a tractor due to no dealer support? Meaning out of practicality. Not out of frustration or anything else.

Six years ago, we bought a brand new John Deere locally. Specifically went that route so that I could drive to get parts same day if something broke. And there are some repairs I'd be afraid to tackle, so wanted a local dealer for that.

Here's the timeline starting after the purchase (which we are very pleased with the purchase and we love the tractor).

What do you all think?

Just in time logistics (overnight shipping) combined with an “I dont care” attitude have severly crippled the service industries.
Seeing and hearing the same story everywhere I go. No help and no one can get stuff. We built a system to fail and it appears we did good.

 

[Cougsfan]

I have never counted on a dealer for servicing or repair. I know of several small shops that can and will fix most any tractor from a rare Lamborghini to a Belarus. If you sell your tractor because of no dealer support, you probably aren't trying very hard to deal with your issues, or are needlessly insistent on the dealer who sold you the tractor be the only one who can service or repair it. I could see selling a tractor because it is to expensive to fix it, or breaks down too often, which are different issues.

 

[CliffordK]

More hobby use than commercial use. It makes a difference for a person's demands.

Nothing I own is new. My Ford tractor is only about 30 years old, and pretty new for me.

I'm not expecting much dealer support to get my Oliver running.

Not sure about the Massey Harris once I start working on that one.

Talking about Deeres, I just picked up a John Deere 440ic. So far I've been avoiding John Deere when hunting for parts. There is a tractor boneyard about 30 miles to the north, and I'm hoping the engine I just picked up will actually run.

Fortunately there are a huge number of aftermarket parts, or cross-referenced parts. Pretty extraordinary that the aftermarket bits and pieces seem to be better than the name brand parts.

Long Live E-Bay!!!!

I did try to buy a replacement axle for a self propelled Freeman baler a couple of years ago. Unfortunately mine was "too old", and while the company still exists, they didn't have my part. So I had to muddle through making my own.

As far as hydraulic lines. There is a local truck company that will make them. Or, at the Caterpillar dealer. Brand new hose made while one waits. The truck company was worried about matching sizes of hoses, but I'm not sure it matters that much. Generally incompressible fluids.

Even if John Deere stocked hoses for the 440ic, I'd fear they'd have been sitting on the shelf for 50 years. And Deere didn't make many of the accessories (at least in that era), so a lot of things like hydraulic lines would still need to be custom made.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

The dealership started out as a mom and pop dealership. And I mean to the point where you would see the owner's family at the local school events.

Sounds like you could be in my area. We have a similar situation. What had been a family operation is now a mega-corp. Not a lot of personal service anymore from what I've been told (I use a different brand, so it's not an issue for me).

 

[ddbackhoe]

Working on a JD5205, the instrument cluster (fuel, temp, hourmeter and tach) do not work. A replacement cluster is listed at $790.20 (RE232256). The customer wont pay that much (cant blame them) but it will end up costing him almost that much for me to plug in analog guages.

 

[Hard Knocks IV]

(LOL) most of my tractors the companies that built them don't exist anymore much less dealers.The internet and my spare parts machines are my 'dealer'.

 

[sixdogs]

I used to have both JD and Kubota. Then JD started with dealers swallowing up other dealers to become mega-dealership chains and the personal contact and competitive pricing seemed to suffer. The big dealers seemed to have more personnel turnover and newbie parts guys didn't know this or that and service was hit or miss but at top dollar and on their terms.

So, I evolved to Kubota. They rarely broke anyway and when they did, the dealers were local people that would jump through hoops to be helpful. I've got night and weekend numbers for emergencies and if I was desperate, they would bring it to me. Kubotas break so rarely that it's mostly preventative issues. Need emergency call to ask a question is no problem. At the other place I'm stuck in voice messaging.

So yes, I've swapped dealers but mostly because dealers swapped me.

 

[inchman]

I purchased a Montana Sub compact tractor that I loved! Never had an issue with it. But the dealer network completely dried up. So I had to sell it before I had problems with it and couldn't fix or sell it.

 

[Doing things!]

I don't want to throw any dealerships under the bus, since there's a bunch of 'em pretty close to where I keep my tractor. But as someone who knows their way around a machine, I usually just search for parts online and bought a service manual that way too. Plus, if you're handy with tools, it's a great way to really get to know your equipment.