masalser
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2008
- Messages
- 55
- Location
- Snohomish County, Washington
- Tractor
- John Deere 5510, Kubota HST 3010, ASV RC100 tracked skidsteer, Bobcat 435 excavator, Howard Price 15' finish mower, Kubota ZD331 mower, Woodmizer LT40 super hydraulic sawmill
I've been reading all the posts about ASV equipment on this board and thought I should post about my experience. I've had an RC100 for a couple of years on our horse farm, and the machine is just about to hit 700 hours. I love what the machine can do, but that said, I wanted to relate my experience with a service bulletin problem that cause a huge amount of damage to my machine and to find out whether any other users have had similar problems.
The service bulletin was issued in April of 2005 and has to do with a rear torsion axle problem on some RC100s and RC85s. Because my dealer supplied ASV with my delivery address rather than my mailing address I never got any information from ASV, and because my dealer was incompetent they never notified me of the problem in the numerous times that I had my machine into them for repairs or fluid changes.
The end result was that the torsion axle cracked completely free in the back of the machine. My first indication was a large streak of oil on the ground because the axle had finally smashed through the oil pan of the engine. I took the machine in and, after fighting with the dealer got an agreement where we split the cost three ways among ASV, my dealer, and myself. However, the story doesn't end there because right before I got my machine back they noticed cracks in the track assembly (the metal part that holds all of the idler wheels). They ground and welded them but, after about 15 hours of mild work the welds had cracked through and the face plate of the track assembly had cracked as well. So, my machine is in at the same dealer, and I am waiting to hear what kind of deal they can offer me. The last time they had my machine for about 6 weeks. At this point I don't particularly trust their fixes of anything and am contemplating trading the machine in for a new one so that I can reliably get some work done.
I have to say that, aside from this major problem, I love my machine and haven't figured out another machine that would suit my needs better. Over the years I've had a few problems like a cracked quick attach plate and a loose drive roller bolt that ended up chewing up the drive roller support rings, but overall it's been an incredibly useful machine.
That said, what are other people's experiences? Anyone else experience the torsion axle problem? Anyone else ever cracked their track assembly? And finally, anyone know how significant the changes are in the PT100 as compared to the RC100 (I don't particularly care about gauges and such, but want to know about the significance of the track system changes)?
By the way when I asked people at ASV if their was any way that I could have found out about the service bulletin they said, "It's on our website." But, when I pushed them on it further they admitted that it was on the dealer side of their website where us mere mortals, I mean customers, can't see it.
The service bulletin was issued in April of 2005 and has to do with a rear torsion axle problem on some RC100s and RC85s. Because my dealer supplied ASV with my delivery address rather than my mailing address I never got any information from ASV, and because my dealer was incompetent they never notified me of the problem in the numerous times that I had my machine into them for repairs or fluid changes.
The end result was that the torsion axle cracked completely free in the back of the machine. My first indication was a large streak of oil on the ground because the axle had finally smashed through the oil pan of the engine. I took the machine in and, after fighting with the dealer got an agreement where we split the cost three ways among ASV, my dealer, and myself. However, the story doesn't end there because right before I got my machine back they noticed cracks in the track assembly (the metal part that holds all of the idler wheels). They ground and welded them but, after about 15 hours of mild work the welds had cracked through and the face plate of the track assembly had cracked as well. So, my machine is in at the same dealer, and I am waiting to hear what kind of deal they can offer me. The last time they had my machine for about 6 weeks. At this point I don't particularly trust their fixes of anything and am contemplating trading the machine in for a new one so that I can reliably get some work done.
I have to say that, aside from this major problem, I love my machine and haven't figured out another machine that would suit my needs better. Over the years I've had a few problems like a cracked quick attach plate and a loose drive roller bolt that ended up chewing up the drive roller support rings, but overall it's been an incredibly useful machine.
That said, what are other people's experiences? Anyone else experience the torsion axle problem? Anyone else ever cracked their track assembly? And finally, anyone know how significant the changes are in the PT100 as compared to the RC100 (I don't particularly care about gauges and such, but want to know about the significance of the track system changes)?
By the way when I asked people at ASV if their was any way that I could have found out about the service bulletin they said, "It's on our website." But, when I pushed them on it further they admitted that it was on the dealer side of their website where us mere mortals, I mean customers, can't see it.