Latest auger install on my blower. Have video, need opinions ASAP!

[arsenix2001]

So how do you adjust the chain? If you find the point at which it's tight and set it there chances are it'll be too loose causing premature wear. If you set it when it's at it's looses position it'll be too tight and you'll stretch the chain and put extra force.

If you accept it the way it is and a year or two from now you find that you can't keep chains on it then what? I would hope that if Woods washes their hands and says that's the best we can do them Messicks will take care of you. Just because it throws snow today is not a good enough reason to accept it, would you accept a car with a rod knocking because the engine still ran or a TV set with smoke coming out of it but still displayed a picture?

My thoughts exactly al, you touched on one of my many concerns. But apperently Im crazy and shouldnt expect something brand new to run smooth. I mean good grief, its not that hard to center a sprocket! Not like they have to rebuild the whole machine. Seems like such an easy fix its dumbfounding, but I guess not.

 

[leonz]

The car might be OK for my wife, but I draw the line at smoke in my living room.

They do not have sence of humor when you forget to get something fixed though


I quit 22 years ago when the devil weed was $1.85U.S.D., a pack and I was not going to pay $2.00:laughing:

 

[hawkeye08]

arsenix2001, hope this works out for you on Monday.

Reminds me of a large hay cuber we had back in the late 60s, early 70s. It was build in South Dakota and there was a problem with the feed auger to the cubing station that caused jams daily. Factory guys could not solve it, so Pa sat down and designed a fix (he had mechanical engineering degree and farmed). When he was done, the auger had a clutch mechanism that allowed the operator to back off the feed in a manner to avoid jams. The factory guys wanted to see it so they came out west and spent a couple of days checking it out, ended up adding it to all the units they had sold and put the fix in the production floor also. Pa did not get anything for it, but sometimes you have to just go ahead and fix it. If Woods welds a piece to the auger shaft and then bolts the sprocket to that, seems some shims would take care of the wobble after the holes were drilled properly to take care of the run out. BTW, if I recall, we cubed about 60 tons of hay per day before the fix on the cuber and after the fix, often did over 75 tons per day. Jams cost time and time is money.

You are right in wanting this corrected, it should run for years without issues if setup properly, but if not... who knows how long before it breaks.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

I'm sure Messicks have other blowers at their store...suggest you ask them (since they're following this thread, they may offer) to view another blower in operation...see if there's the same problem.

We don't stock Woods blowers, but we ran some of other makes and sent the videos to Woods along with the ones of the problem blower. They are aware there is a problem, thus the action we are seeing.

This thread is getting pretty insane guys... 7 pages? Its amazing opinions can be so polarizing about somthing that people have no stake in.

 

[5030]

We don't stock Woods blowers, but we ran some of other makes and sent the videos to Woods along with the ones of the problem blower. They are aware there is a problem, thus the action we are seeing.

This thread is getting pretty insane guys... 7 pages? Its amazing opinions can be so polarizing about somthing that people have no stake in.

Ahmen to that...:thumbsup:

Thats why this country is in the mess it's in. Lots of opinions and little positive action.

 

[arsenix2001]

We don't stock Woods blowers, but we ran some of other makes and sent the videos to Woods along with the ones of the problem blower. They are aware there is a problem, thus the action we are seeing.

Thank you guys for taking the time to do that, good to know. Hopefully the rep can come up with a fix tomorrow. Look forward to hearing from Don when you guys hear something. Have a nice evening.

 

[grsthegreat]

If woods is offering you your $$$ back...take it.

either wait for their new design, or go but a different manufacturers unit.

My old Farmking ran 100% true, no flex at all, and the only noise i heard was the sound of the rolling chains.

 

[nspec]

Boy, I don't know from where I'd be more disappointed if I were Arsenix - the threads on this forum or the actual problem with the blower. The hostility is beyond ridiculous.

I for one, without even seeing pictures or videos, would turn that unit down based solely on the noise it is making. I've worked around all sorts of industrial equipment for 30 yrs, and I can tell you that isn't right. We had a mixer wagon on the farm (not a forage wagon - a heavy duty tmr feed wagon, and the two augers were each driven by a chain that had to be 25 feet long by the time it snaked around all the pulleys - or more. It was absolutely silent when it ran. Sorry guys, it's unacceptable. This isn't an $1000 King Kutter. Woods has been around a long time, and they get top dollar for their equipment. Is it the same as one of the high end blowers? Probably not. But it's not flying into outer space guys! This is a rather simple piece of mechanical equipment. Corn choppers and balers run smoother and quieter than this.

If you're gonna disagree, fine. That's why some people like chocolate and some people like vanilla. But for God's sake, keep it civil fellas! Check the attitudes at the door.

 

[pilot-werx]

From what I understand we are working on this. Understand, we sit in the middle of these things and advocate for customers. We need to give Woods a chance to look at and respond to things before jumping to conclusions. We sell about a half dozen lines of blowers, I'm awefully disappointed how this one seems to be going myself. I think highly of Woods and thats not what I expect of their products.

From what I understand, the Woods factory rep is stopping out Monday to take a look at it.

Say what you what want but.... First, I always side with my customer... Without them I am unemployed. Second, load the thing on a truck and ship it back... I cannot believe that you let it go this far!

 

[5030]

Well... It could have been built on a Monday morning at 8:30 am by a crew fresh from a hard Sunday of watching football and consuming adult beverages......

I wonder why Woods originally built Kubota's domestic implements and then all of a sudden, Kubota started building their own????:confused2:

 

[arsenix2001]

Boy, I don't know from where I'd be more disappointed if I were Arsenix - the threads on this forum or the actual problem with the blower. The hostility is beyond ridiculous.

I for one, without even seeing pictures or videos, would turn that unit down based solely on the noise it is making. I've worked around all sorts of industrial equipment for 30 yrs, and I can tell you that isn't right. We had a mixer wagon on the farm (not a forage wagon - a heavy duty tmr feed wagon, and the two augers were each driven by a chain that had to be 25 feet long by the time it snaked around all the pulleys - or more. It was absolutely silent when it ran. Sorry guys, it's unacceptable. This isn't an $1000 King Kutter. Woods has been around a long time, and they get top dollar for their equipment. Is it the same as one of the high end blowers? Probably not. But it's not flying into outer space guys! This is a rather simple piece of mechanical equipment. Corn choppers and balers run smoother and quieter than this.

If you're gonna disagree, fine. That's why some people like chocolate and some people like vanilla. But for God's sake, keep it civil fellas! Check the attitudes at the door.

Thank you for the kind words. I love the part of your statement I highlighted, because the funny thing is, if you want to talk price being a factor in quality... I basically remembered I had quotes as high as 4700 plus shipping and the units msrp is over 5K. Hardly what I consider a low price point. Messicks just got me a really great deal of under 4k with shipping and I thank them for that. Ugggh, anyways guess well see what happens tomorrow. I have decided I am taking smooth running or nothing after watching some other units run. Im glad Messicks is on my side on this now and realize it is not proper operation. Hopefully a mutual fix or resolution can be made soon. Back to the pro bowl.:thumbsup:

 

[leonz]

Actually, RAD out Canada builds most if not all of Kubota and John Deere attachments for smaller lawn mowers and snow blowers.

 

[5030]

Actually, RAD out Canada builds most if not all of Kubota and John Deere attachments for smaller lawn mowers and snow blowers.

No small here... M9 and 105

 

[arsenix2001]

Well it appears the woods sales rep was out yesterday and took another video which they sending back to engineering. They will be testing a new unit off the production line as well. Hoping to hear back something as to thier intentions later today.

 

[PILOON]

Actually, RAD out Canada builds most if not all of Kubota and John Deere attachments for smaller lawn mowers and snow blowers.

They also operated as Bervac!

 

[rbargeron]

Well it appears the woods sales rep was out yesterday and took another video which they sending back to engineering. They will be testing a new unit off the production line as well. Hoping to hear back something as to thier intentions later today.

It's good of you to continue to post the developments - there are members quietly watching this thread who hope you end up with a decent product. If the machine had performed new as it does in the video, you might not have been very happy with it - but not outraged either. But now that everyone is watching, Woods should definitely step up and take better care of both you and Messick's. Quality control of this product has gotten away from them and they need to improve their methods.

 

[zzvyb6]

Sure glad I bought a snow PLOW. I might have hit an accorn and the blowcaster self destructed. In the time it takes to comment on here, I can do my whole 800' gravel driveway, the upper half of the county road and return without getting frosted by a chute rotation misunderstanding.

Glad I have a welder, too, just in case I hit an iceberg along the way.

Now I'm off to remove the plow and put the FEL back on. There goes another 10 minutes. Where's my Red Bull? That can cut it down to 5 minutes...

BTW: for $4,000, I can hire a whole lot of guys named Jesus to shovel my road by hand for the next 4 years. Unfortunately, I only paid $100 for the plow and $56 for 4 car brake hoses to wire it up. That's sure bad news for the unemployment rate, wouldn't you say?

 

[rambler]

Interesting - and long! - thread I happened upon. Here in MN I have not hooked up the snow blower yet - wow, that is unheard of.

So, as a farmer, I run a lot of machines with way more chain issues than that, and they run for 100's of hours a year with little issue. A chain on a slow speed blower cross auger is far different from a high-speed close tolerance situation. What I saw in the video will run longer than your tractor will last. The deal is, you are going to feed gravel and ice and snow lumps into that cross auger and hit it with several shock loads per minute that are worse than the bit of wobble it has.

I see they didn't get it perfect, and if it was originally much worse than this, I understand it's an issue that the manufaturer needs to improve.

That said, the bit of wobble will not be a problem for that application. As you back into hard snow, you will be flexing the cross auger and it won't run true anyhow. As you overload the blower with snow, it will again be flexing in other directions - at some points it will be running smoother with the 'pre-wobble' they put in it. This is a slow-speed, brute force, type of application, and it looks like they are building to meet the situation, not for perfection where it doesn't matter. If you showed us a timing chain to run a valve train, oh boy would that be a bad deal! For running a slow snowblower cross auger - ain't no big deal really.

However, you have come to hate this snow blower, and it will never, ever, never satisfy you. You will look down upon it, and blame it for every problem you have in life for the entire winter season.

I would suggest you try to return it, even if you lose a bit of shipping or restocking, and buy a different brand from a different company.

You will have happier winter seasons.

No good will come out of you trying to keep this blower, they could re-tool it from all new steel and spend $100,000 lining up every hole and cog of the entire machine, and you still will not be happy with it and find flaws and hate every time you hook it up to the tractor. Just human nature. You've talked yourself into this being a lemon, and 20 years from now, with the original chain and sprockets on it, you'll still be thinking what a lousy deal when you walk by it.....

Walk away from it, and buy something different.

Myself, I bought a snow blower that shelled out it's gearbox in the 2nd year I owned it. Out of warrenty sorta but not quite - one of those deals -, I took it to the dealer, he said he got into a paperwork battle with the manufaturer, they wanted me to fill out a 5 page survey & mail to Canada... Dealer said he can get the gearbox rebuilt local for $150 and I'd be back blowing snow on the farm in 24 hours instead of 2+ weeks hasseling with the paperwork & shipping.

I wrote the check for $150 and was able to feed the cattle the next day, and still have the blower tht I bought in the mid 1980's, only put shear pins and oil and a couple of bolts into it since. I didn't get wound up on the issue, and everything was fine. Local place musta had better gearbox parts that the original manufatuerer, and I have a lot of snow blowing over the years.

Likely the original manufaturer 'owes' me the $150 - but things worked out great, they are bankrupt and no longer around, I still use the blower to feed my cattle. Who got the last laugh?

Hope you find a different machine you like and can get on with life, rather than stuck in some sort of eternal gripe.

--->Paul

 

[arsenix2001]

Interesting - and long! - thread I happened upon. Here in MN I have not hooked up the snow blower yet - wow, that is unheard of.

So, as a farmer, I run a lot of machines with way more chain issues than that, and they run for 100's of hours a year with little issue. A chain on a slow speed blower cross auger is far different from a high-speed close tolerance situation. What I saw in the video will run longer than your tractor will last. The deal is, you are going to feed gravel and ice and snow lumps into that cross auger and hit it with several shock loads per minute that are worse than the bit of wobble it has.

I see they didn't get it perfect, and if it was originally much worse than this, I understand it's an issue that the manufaturer needs to improve.

That said, the bit of wobble will not be a problem for that application. As you back into hard snow, you will be flexing the cross auger and it won't run true anyhow. As you overload the blower with snow, it will again be flexing in other directions - at some points it will be running smoother with the 'pre-wobble' they put in it. This is a slow-speed, brute force, type of application, and it looks like they are building to meet the situation, not for perfection where it doesn't matter. If you showed us a timing chain to run a valve train, oh boy would that be a bad deal! For running a slow snowblower cross auger - ain't no big deal really.

However, you have come to hate this snow blower, and it will never, ever, never satisfy you. You will look down upon it, and blame it for every problem you have in life for the entire winter season.

I would suggest you try to return it, even if you lose a bit of shipping or restocking, and buy a different brand from a different company.

You will have happier winter seasons.

No good will come out of you trying to keep this blower, they could re-tool it from all new steel and spend $100,000 lining up every hole and cog of the entire machine, and you still will not be happy with it and find flaws and hate every time you hook it up to the tractor. Just human nature. You've talked yourself into this being a lemon, and 20 years from now, with the original chain and sprockets on it, you'll still be thinking what a lousy deal when you walk by it.....

Walk away from it, and buy something different.

Myself, I bought a snow blower that shelled out it's gearbox in the 2nd year I owned it. Out of warrenty sorta but not quite - one of those deals -, I took it to the dealer, he said he got into a paperwork battle with the manufaturer, they wanted me to fill out a 5 page survey & mail to Canada... Dealer said he can get the gearbox rebuilt local for $150 and I'd be back blowing snow on the farm in 24 hours instead of 2+ weeks hasseling with the paperwork & shipping.

I wrote the check for $150 and was able to feed the cattle the next day, and still have the blower tht I bought in the mid 1980's, only put shear pins and oil and a couple of bolts into it since. I didn't get wound up on the issue, and everything was fine. Local place musta had better gearbox parts that the original manufatuerer, and I have a lot of snow blowing over the years.

Likely the original manufaturer 'owes' me the $150 - but things worked out great, they are bankrupt and no longer around, I still use the blower to feed my cattle. Who got the last laugh?

Hope you find a different machine you like and can get on with life, rather than stuck in some sort of eternal gripe.

--->Paul

Thanks for the sage advice. That video was the latest auger and by far the best out of the three. But after all this trouble, I want it smooth. The chain slap WOULD drive me nuts. Honestly though if they can just get it right, Id be happy. Still no word back from them...

 

[arsenix2001]

Well, the news isnt good. Woods engineers tested a new unit and it demonstrated the same characteristics. "they feel there is no cause for concern and will continue production as is". I love it. They earlier admitted its messed up, but not messed up enough to do anything about it. Live with it. I told my salesperson to tell the rep I didnt want the unit. He was supposed to talk to the sales rep but he was honest with me and said with woods taking the stand they are, he wasnt sure what they were going to do as far as a buy back. So Id most likely already be out the 300 in shipping and probably 150 for the chute deflector I modified. Then there was mention of a possible restocking fee... But at this point its all hearsay. He was going to meet the the woods rep last night and get back to me monday morning. Im not sending this thing back and losing possibly 450-1000 for nothing. With the price I purchased it for Id rather just live with it and take my chances on ebay. I did tell them that if I took the unit at bare minimum I wanted an extended warranty in writing over the standard one year. We'll see what happens monday but either way this sucks and I dont think I'll be buying/recommending woods products anytime soon.