MY new LS P 7010

[Gary Fowler]

RocknRod: Closest I got in that side of Canada was Toronto once when we visited wife's girlfriend there back in 1989 when I was working in Buffalo NY on a powerhouse. We lived on Grand Island which is right in the middle of the Niagra River with the northern bridge exiting in Niagra Falls and south in Buffalo. Man the snow was a killer there.

 

[rocknrod]

Seems we both work in the power industry. Im a road ***** myself

 

[Gary Fowler]

I work construction primarily for KBR (40 years) with a couple years with other companies when KBR had nothing. I have worked in Louisiana, Texas, California, New York, North Carolina in the states and internationally in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, UK, Peru and now in Nigeria. The wife I picked up in Venezuela and after the kids were grown up, she went with me to Canada, UK, Peru, Mexico and UK. She couldnt go to Nigeria though so she mothers the grandkids while I am gone and spoils them rotten although that has toned down a bit since we moved to Bismarck and all the kids are still in Houston. They all love coming up to the farm though.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I forgot to mention that I kinda started in the power division with boilers and then moved to Petro-Chem for refineries and chemical plants. I started out welding and fitting, then moved into Quality Control and Management. Right now I am kind of doing both QA and project management of a small ( $52 million budget) small bore pipe fabrication effort for a multi-billion USD gas liquifaction plant for Chevron and the Nigerian Petroleum Company (govt owned) that is in Warri Nigeria. The actual plant is about 40 miles down river from our location, but we receive all the material at Warri Port, stage it and send it to site as needed because the site is so small it has no storage area. We have about 7000 people working on the project now and maybe it will be completed in 2012 if the local communities agree to that as a finish date. They control the workers production and they only work as fast as the chiefs let them although it doesnt take any forceful effort to make them not work fast.

 

[rocknrod]

I was jusy asked to go to Nigeria as the owners rep. I declined it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It is not the most glamous spot in the world for sure, but for me the money is good and I am not looking to work more than 2 more years so i need to make the money while I am still able. There have been lots of kidnappings of foreign and domestic people there as a way to make money. Most of the time the people are released unharmed however now they are killing a lot of the locals. This is strictly political in natur as this is presidential election year and lots of the unrest is with political wannabees. They are willing to kill to get their party in power. We havent had any problem with that on our folks, but we arent allowed out of camp except to travel to work and then only under armed escort.

 

[Scott Sawyer]

Hi Greg I am also from New Brunswick. Where did you buy your LS? The one here in Fredericton is only about 2 grand less than John Deere...thanks.

 

[gregsm33]

Hey Scott,

Im from Miramichi, and I bought my tractor from Patterson's, which I think they are the dealer in Fredericton too. I find that surprising that a 7010 is only 2 grand less than a John Deere? What kind of John Deere?
I never price checked JD when I bought, but I did look at Ford NH and they were more than $10k with less options,less warranty and less loader lift capacity. I think base for 7010 with loader is around $42000 and they have been selling for $39900 a lot. No tax of course.

 

[Scott Sawyer]

Hi Greg,

We may be talking about different tractors, I think yours is bigger. I was looking at similar models in the CUT catergory, 30 - 35 HP range. All companies I went to Kubota, LS, Kioti/Bobcat, and JD, the only local dealers i could find. All tractors were in the same class, all offered the bucket free. LS and Kioti were same price for similar model - $19,500.00. JD and Kubota were $23,00.00 more or less. Research I did was that all seem to be good tractors, matter of opinion which is better. Result - JD and Kubota never called me back and were more expensive. The LS they had would not start and it took the 30 min and a mechanic to start it, I knew more about the tractor than the dealer (I did my research but wanted to know if he knew about the tractor) and when they finally got it going, it seemed to ride nice but did not have the hydrostatic transmission and when the bucket went up and down the whole tractor shook like it was going to tumble....so a little light. I went to kioti and they had a leftover 2010 Bobcat, bigger than the ones I was looking at, more HP, more bucket space, more load capacity, fully loaded for $19, 500.00. So even the ough the tractor was a later model it was still brand new and was bigger, and was loaded. The dealer was the most knowledgeable about his product, let me try out all the tractors, delivered free, free block heater, full tank, and the 50 hour maintenance is free they come and do it for you and show you how to do the maintenance. When they delivered the fellow spent all the time in the world with me to ensure I knew how it worked and answered all my questions. In my case I was sold not only on the product but the dealer as well.

 

[gregsm33]

Good luck with your new purchase Scott, hopefully it serves you good. I can see your issue with looking at a new tractor and it wouldn't start, that would put a bad feeling in your stomach for sure.