MT52 undercarriage

[brain55]

I'm sure I made a long term customer today. He took his machine to one of the local Bobcat dealers to have the roller and idler bushings replaced along with the rear idler wheels. They quoted him 26 hours of labor to do the job as well as telling him it was too much work to knock the old bushings out and that it made more sense to replace all of the rollers. New rollers/idlers don't have the bushings in them so they still have to be pressed in. The estimate was close to $5000. I usually will defend dealerships because I spent 12 years of my career working in them and don't consider them all crooked, but this was ridiculous. I did it in the field in 8 hours (it does help that my mobile shop has a solvent tank and 12 ton press) and the whole job including parts for just over $2000. When he originally came to me with it, I was thinking an hour a roller/idler, so I told him 12 hours, maximum 16 if I ran into problems. The only explanation I can come up with is their service writer has no mechanical experience and time stacked the job at 2 hrs a roller but didn't know that included removing and reinstalling the track. I did find out that 6 months ago he had never even been around equipment, but that doesn't excuse a mistake like this. I wonder if they had done the job and their mechanic did do it in 8 hrs if they would have corrected it or left it at 26 hours.

Brian

 

[ggtech]

Hi Brain, thanks for sharing this story. One can save a lot of money doing this yourself. Its not very difficult with a little know how, and the press helps. I was sticker shocked when i went to price the parts needed. I decided since i have the equipment and know how to make them my self. worked out great. I ended up making more sets for others locally, and eventually selling them on ebay. Im not sure if i can link my product here, but do a search for bobcat mt52 pins and bushings kit on ebay and youtube to have a look.