New equipment woes

[HRS]

So, I now have seven skinned knuckles from working on new equipment! Boy, my dealer is going to hear from me tomorrow.

I picked up three implements this weekend to go with the TC30. After backing the rotary cutter into the garage, I sat it down and walked around it to clear something out of the way. On doing so, I noticed a grease fitting on the floor. Picking it up, I saw that it went to the rear tire assemble. Great! I thought. It hasn't even been used once and things are already falling off of it. So, I sat it aside and went after the tiller.

At first, I attached the lift arms with intentions of moving it inside also. But when I went to connect the top link, I couldn't. There, with the linch pins bolt running through it, was a spacer. I pulled the pin and bolt, but the spacer would not budge. After examining the problem for a moment, I saw a bolt about five inches back, behind the top link. The left and right sides of this top hitch assemply were divided, so it would require a spacer near the top to maintain a rigid spacing. Obviously, the spacer was ment to be positioned around that top bolt, which held the two side secure. However, someone had decided to put the spacer on the hitch holes and tighten heck out of all the bolts. This wedged it in place. So I had to loosen all bolts on the top assembly and relocate the spacer to get it the heck out of the way so that the hitch could be used.

All of that went on yesterday. Today I revisited the grease nipple. Apparently, some musclehead had cranked down on it when installing and damaged the threads. It was screwed in too far and when it contacted the shaft, it lost. So for this I wrapped the threads with a good portion of thread tape and reinserted. Then I removed and applied a couple of drops of lock tight to the cut thread and reinserted. This went in nice and snug. Tomorrow, I will see if it can handle a grease gun. If not, I'll take off the rear tire assemble and return to the dealer for a replacement. He will hear about this anyway.

Finally, I decided to grease up the Covington planter, the third and final implement I purchased. If you have never seen one of these, you will have a hard time understanding what I'm talking about, but there are two disc in the front of the planter that are toed in towards each other. Their purpose is to open the soil so that seed may fall in the opening before the rear wheel closes the soil back up. Now these discs are supposed to turn. Well, I started at the back of the machine greasing and oiling it. When I got to the discs, I discovered that they would not budge. They were totally locked down. After two hours, I THINK that I might have this one figured out. A few nuts needed to be backed off a few rounds and a particular spacer needs to be extended with the use of washers by about 2 or 3.

SOoooo..... I will certainly be going over everything else on these machines with a fine tooth comb this week, checking all nuts and bolts, grease and oil traps, etc. etc.

Whatever happened to quality control. I wouldn't exactly say that I got this equipment at a bargain. Someone made some good money for throwing this stuff together. Or maybe a "Some Assembly Required" notice should be added to the paper work and owners manuals. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Fortunately, I do enjoy tinkering with stuff like this. However, I just had it built up in my mind that everything would be perfect seeing as how it is new. Having to work on all three pieces was a little surprising. These were not major problems, but still.

 

[JerryG]

If I bought one implement and it had a small problem that wouldn't be to bad. I am usually pretty easy to get a long with, but if I bought three and they all had problems, I would be really up set.

 

[dqdave1]

You did not mention the brands of the attachments but an email to them explaining might help and the dealer should know; he can not fix what he does not know. I also know he can not oversee every assembly job that is done by employees but he will want to find out WHO assembled yours.

 

[RoyJackson]

"Whatever happened to quality control"

Well, in modern day "Quality", it's supposed to be engineered in.
I've been in the Quality field since I got out of the Navy in 1977. It was a good field and made some sense until ISO 9000 reared it's ughly head. Now the "systems" ensure good quality.

Also, when it comes to cutting costs...guess where the axe falls first?

 

[jinman]

I understand the problems with your tailwheel zerk and your planter, but I'm not sure I understand the tiller toplink hitch spacer. From your description, it sounds like something not needed at all, but some kind of temporary piece that got installed improperly and wedged in. Can you take a picture?

I bought a new 6' KK tiller this weekend from TSC and it was a pleasure to set up and use. Everything went together perfectly and my 1/2 acre garden is very pretty. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I first broke the ground with a two-bottom plow and then came back with the tiller. I made three passes over everything and now I'm ready to plant. I suspect the tilling and prep are the easy part. Now the real work is about to begin. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue">Whatever happened to quality control. I wouldn't exactly say that I got this equipment at a bargain. Someone made some good money for throwing this stuff together. Or maybe a "Some Assembly Required" notice should be added to the paper work and owners manuals.
</font>

If it says made in the USA on it check it for lose or overly tightened nuts and bolts. Seems here in the USA we like to out-do the competition at times.

It never hurts to throughly check over any tractor or implement before using it in the field.

 

[BadDog]

Lesson learned the hard way:

Front wheels fell off my TC55 3rd day after delivery at the far end of a very muddy field. The bolts were not tightened down, and they heared right off. My dealer replaced the wheel and bolts in the field.

We're all human, mistakes happen...

 

[DUMBDOG]

In the last two years I have purchased quite a few new implements, a lot of them were specialty implements that were shipped in, some I picked up on the way home. The biggest complaint that I have is when putting together this equipment, there is a lack of good instructions. There are instructions, but a lot of time they are quite worthless.

 

[DUMBDOG]

If you have the right equipment planting is not to bad either. It is all of the weeding that gets to be a killer. You must plan on feeding a lot people or the wildlife with a garden that large.

Plastic mulch is very worthwhile on a garden that large, it cuts down the weeding quite a bit. I will be picking up about eight three by four thousand foot rolls of it next week.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If you have the right equipment planting is not to bad either. It is all of the weeding that gets to be a killer. You must plan on feeding a lot people or the wildlife with a garden that large.

Plastic mulch is very worthwhile on a garden that large, it cuts down the weeding quite a bit. I will be picking up about eight three by four thousand foot rolls of it next week. )</font>

Actually, I plan to do initial cultivating/row plowing with an old Dearborn cultivator. It has been in our family since before I was ever born. I've used it extensively to plant and plow peas, okra, corn, and even melons. I like to start with lots of wide rows with plenty of space between them, and you need at least four rows of corn and peas to pollenate well.

I hope to use a lot of chips from my chipper shredder to cut down on the weeds and just till it into the soil at the end of the season. I've even heard of using newspaper to block weeds and till it in at the end of the season. I don't plan on that because I have this picture in my mind of newsprint gone wild and looking like litter from Heck. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I'm just wondering if you plan on leaving your fabric or do you take it up and reuse it at the end of the year?

I've done my share of hoeing and weeding in my life and one of the reasons I chose this spot for a garden was it has very few weeds. My wife's little garden near this spot had very few weeds. We'll see if I'm that lucky. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[DUMBDOG]

It depends upon the year and condition of the mulch. We have left it on for two years, but it starts to get pretty ratty by the end of the year and does not hold down the weeds as well. It also depends upon crop rotation. We do not use pesticides or fertilizer, so crop rotation is a must and you do not always have enough rows in the right place, even if it is a 40 acre garden. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[HRS]

Yes, Jerry, I have been a little mad about this. However, I nearly have all the problems fixed and I do get some satisfaction from fixing things myself. So, I will not complain too much. As long as the guys are willing to answer my questions when I call, I'll be nice.

 

[HRS]

Dave, the brand is NH. Both the rotary cutter and the tiller are a nice blue match for the tractor, just something I wanted to do. These guys won my business because they didn't argue with me when I said I wanted NH equipment. Another guy I really liked strongly suggested Bushhog, another very good brand, but it was not what I was looking for at this time.

I don't blame the dealer for the zerk on the cutter. I think them come installed from the factor. This was a very minor fix, just irritating.

The tiller problem was the dealer's goof. I saw several NH tillers on his lot in the crates. The arms that allow for the top hitch point had to be installed at the dealership. One of his boys just put a spacer in the wrong place. He had two very young guys out helping us, so I suppose they were the ones who put it together. They will learn.

 

[HRS]

Roy, I think it fell on my wallet. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[HRS]

jinman, one of these days I'm actually going to get a digital camera. I still hold to the 35mm, but I am tempted to go modern. The "spacer" was truely a spacer. By this I mean that without it, the top hitch point would not work at all. It was just placed in the wrong spot. I figure the guys placed it on the top hitch point, because in that position, the hitch bolt and linch pin could quickly be slid through and connected, thus holding the top pretty secure while they alligned and fastened the bolts on the bottom of the arms. However, they forgot to reposition before securing the top bolts. Kind of sounds like something I would have done. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I should have caught this at the dealer. I picked up the equipent and the dealer hooked the tiller in this very spot and used his fork lift to carry it to the trailer. I was actually the one who placed the hook. But did I catch it then. No, I waited until I got it home to discover it. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Good luck with your tiller. I will try mine out this coming week.

 

[HRS]

Concerning that barrier fabric, make sure you have some good way to secure it to the ground.

jinman, I think your fear of the newspaper thing is well founded.

For the first time this year, I covered every inch of the garden I have in my backyard with this black fabric. I found some by Preene sold at Sams. Each roll was 4 feet wide and 250 feet long. It took three of them to cover everything, so that will give you an idea of its size. I already have my garden bedded, weeper hose layed in each 20 ft bed, and covered. I've been working on this in spare moments for several weeks. With this fabric, came these little wires that you drive into the ground to secure it. What a joke! The wind undressed my garden a couple of times before I could properly secure it. I ripped up a few 2x4's into strips. these I dropped into the row centers, pounded in small wooden stakes and secured these wooden runners to stakes with a screw. We have had at least two hard windstorms since, and everything has held this time. It was a lot of work, but I am determined to walk through my garden without tripping over weeds this summer. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[DUMBDOG]

The mulch layer was one of the items that I purchased that we had to put together where the manual was lacking in instructions. It has taken two years, but finally figured it out at the end of last season where you can drive the tractor and when you are done, now you do not have to go back and check the sides to make sure that they are covered with dirt to hold down the sides. It also lays drip line under the mulch at the same time.

 

[HRS]

Well, I think that I've got all the bugs worked out of everything. I've checked it out each night this week, and I will put it all to work this weekend and first of next. Can't wait! Also, I should have been more deligent about checking over the trailer before I used it. I took a tire iron to the wheels last night and what happened sent cold chills down my spine. They were far from being tight. I mean some were down right loose. I made one easy revolution on just about every one, more on others. And this was just to take the slack out before I really got down on them. But they should not fall off now.

 

[daTeacha]

Depending on the ink used in your local paper, you may be introducing some heavy metals into your diet if you use newspaper as a mulch. Some worry about that, some don't.

With the wood chips, plan to let them compost into mulch and humus for a year or two or they will alter your soil pH. Of course, depending on your soil, you might want that.

 

[JonL]

This brings up a good point. I always go through my new equipment when it comes home - tractors, trucks and motorcycles. That includes all fluids, nuts and bolts, and cosmetics. Perfect example - my wife and I purchased a TC-23 with FEL and 60 mmm. I went through it before we did anything. After I mowed, I noticed a large bolt on the mower deck. One of the bolts that hold the gear box to the frame had come loose. Out they all came and then they were lock-tited back on. I can't expect the dealer to catch all assembly problems. With reasonable attention and maintenance, many problems and surprises can be avoided. I guess I am lucky. I enjoy wrenching my equipment.