Thank you. In no way were my comments an affront to Palmetto Brush, but merely a question related to the impact a forum can have on someone's purchasing decision, and what constitutes a product wide problemwith regard to the limited amount of people that actually post on these. This forum is is much better than others with regard to the information shared and the opinions displayed.
Digdeep, Robbie Hegwood & jmfox,
As a newbie to large acreage and purchaser of ag/construction equipment, this forum (and your input) is priceless. Every (or most) salesmen I talk to do their job, which is sell their machines. This isn't helpful in deciding between competing products. I take you guys back to when you started how confusing it all was. If you started in construction as an employee, you had an advantage folks like me don't, that is, the ability to use, over a number of hours and days, different manufacturers. I, and folks like me don't have that luxury. Even a demo, though better than nothing, hardly makes up for days and months (years?) of "seat time" with various makes and models. And even a constructive demo isn't assured as the only dealers reasonably called "local" to me handle just two makes of CTL's, Terex and New Holland. So, now the intangibles come into play, which is where you guys come in. Welcome comments from this forum, yes, sometimes conflicting, makes the decision interesting, if muddier. Yet, all one has to do is ask deeper, drill-down questions. For instance, how important is a local dealer for a machine that is #2 on your list vs your #1 that might be an hour or two away? In my case, that local dealer machine being the ASV/Terex, which was #1 on my list until the undercarriage comments and lack of manufacturer support shook my confidence (#2 is the Takeuchi/Mustang twins). The ASV tops out in most areas of my needs, including operator comfort, power, top speed (I've got a lot of acreage to traverse), track ground pressure (some lawn), torque and electrical system. It was a no-brainer for #1 until I consider the "real" possibility of an axle breaking at less than 500 hours. And mulching will be part of the machine's chores, though, a small part. True, I'd be a sole owner/operator of this machine on my own property, meaning I'd be prone to babying it. So, if it would not be subject to the kind of use/abuse a commercial operation would subject it to, is the potential axle issue moot? Don't know. And the notion of having to overly baby a new 10,000+ lb TL seems ridiculous. So, therein lies my long-winded question: Does an ASV/Terex stay #1, given it leads in most of my needs except for the fact that it might stop dead and cost me $10,000 in only 400 hours? I've acquired a lot of respect for the Takeuchi machines and probably would not regret a purchase of one (remember, I have no experience with anything else), but I don't like the idea of fear or misinformation driving me from something that better suits my needs. Salesmen, manufacturer service departments and even dealers that carry different brands all have agendas. So, I guess the answer is you learn all you can from the best sources and let the chips fall.
