Steiner 440 update

[presnewt]

I am a member here and also on several facebook forums for Ventrac and Steiner. One of the most asked questions is whether a new owner should get a Ventrac or Steiner. I just wanted to voice my experience with my Steiner 440 Diesel. I have owned it for 5 summers and have yet to make it thru one summer with a working machine. I do not use mine commercially so I do not put a lot of hours on the machine. The reputation of the 440 is questionable and my experience backs that up. I cannot speak to the reliability of the Ventrac or to other Steiner models, they may all be fine. Do your research, your results may vary. My dealer has been a great help thru each problem I have encountered but the Steiner corporate people have not been much help.

 

[stevem5215]

I have a 1994 Steiner 420. I've owned it for almost 20 years or so and it's never broken down on me. I've had it miss fire some (the molex ignition wires were "loose") and I did PM replace the sparking plugs at the time along with the coil and the wires as part of that PM (was about 7 years ago). I've also had the dealer flush the transmission oil twice in 15 years as part of PM'ing the machine and a couple hoses were cut enough to be a concern so they replaced them at the time as well. I've put a new seat on it but that's about it. It still runs good for my limited use around the 4 acre homestead. I was just hauling trees in the bucket to the dump pile from the storm we had blow through. It's been a good machine.

 

[430Steiner]

I have noticed that there are not a lot of 440 for sale.. Not sure if that is because they did not sell well or people are just holding on to them. My personal opinion on most newer things (cars,motorcycles,tractors etc) is due to the fact that everything is more complex with electronics and the engineering that designs components to work and not last like the older equipment. The older stuff was built to work and was designed better. Just an assumption. Everything is so complicated now. Look at trucks and cars, nobody needs all that **** they put on vehicles(wifi,a/c seats etc) Just more **** to break.. And break your wallet