Wow. Gone for a day and this thread exploded.
From what I know, LS has been pretty good with me. Even the NH dealer, who understands where their smaller tractors are made. I needed some small parts that I could not find on short notice. My LS dealer being closed on the weekends. I went into the NH dealership, nervous about asking them for "off brand" parts, and they were extremely helpful. Cross-referencing numbers and getting me exactly what I needed off their shelf. Yes, the NH name is bigger with a stronger network than LS, but my experience has shown that NH dealers will work with me to solve my LS tractor issues if my dealer is unable. I guess my local NH dealership doesn't have their heads in the mud believing that NH makes all their tractors.
As far as breakdowns, brs, it happens. It does sound like you have some gremlins. I hope that the LS network can help you. But remember, even though you are extremely (and understandably) upset and frustrated with your situation, having a negative attitude will result in people not wanting to help you. "more flies with honey than vinegar" type of thing.
I recently commented in a thread about some tractors we had on the farm growing up. Older 1970's era Internationals. When I started operating them, they were already 20 years old. They seemed to break down on a weekly basis. We drove them hard, on a large row crop farm. They weren't lemons, but things still broke on them. Fortunately, we had the knowledge on how to repair them. The Ford/New Holland dealership carried some parts, as they were also something of a IH dealer, but we were mostly on our own, making it work, or driving several hours to a dealer in another city for something we cant fix. We never took our tractors to a dealership, anywhere. All work was done ourselves.
Just because you purchased a new tractor doesn't mean that things wont go south on your from day one. Many people have had lemons before hitting 50hrs with different name brands. You're in the 400hr range? That's great! It's still new! I suspect that if you continue repairing this tractor and get the gremlins worked out, you can add a few zeros to that tractors hour meter, 40,000. I had some issues with mine before it hit 100, and I repaired the issues and will repair the next issues when they come along. Its apart of owning a tractor, any tractor.
I use my tractor not just for getting the mail, but for mowing, digging, tilling, logging, snow plowing, grading, lifting, and moving my garbage dumpster down to the road. I have had my tractor for 2 years, ~250 hours with two major break downs and several minors ones.
Anyway, just my .02
