The next guy that claims "green (or orange) paint doubles the price"

[KennyG]

To be clear, JD makes all their own tractors from the 1 series and larger. The smaller stuff uses Yanmar engines. As far as their mowers go, I don’t know where they are made. That’s another two statements I’m tired of hearing. Someone else makes JD tractors and they paint them green and smaller tractors are just glorified lawn mowers. I live on 3 acres, what I own is plenty of tractor.

Currently I think MTD makes the JD 100 series (what you find at the Big Box stores) like they do for most other brands. I don't think those machines are really of interest in this forum. All the rest are either built by JD or (like mine) built by Yanmar to JD specs. My 2320 has a lot of Yanmar parts but it's not a Yanmar clone and JD stocks all the parts for it.

Every year at the county fair, I look at the Branson's, Mahindras, and whatever else someone is selling that year compared to JD and Kubota and they are not equal. Just because the specs look similar doesn't make them equal. For some people, every tool is overpriced if it costs more than Harbor Freight and that's OK for them, but it doesn't make it right.

 

[dodge man]

I don’t know the exact year but somewhere about 5 years ago Yanmar stopped building the 1 and 2 series for JD.

 

[ovrszd]

Right, just be happy with the fact that you have the disposal income to pay more money for an equal product.

Even if I had that kind of money, my wife is a retired Controller with an MBA. She worked in manufacturing for many years. No way I could baffle her with BS to spend 50% more because they are nearby, or because my friends are familiar with the brand.

You see, it is not that Kubota and JD are more expensive, it is the fact that they are so far out of 'true'. Heck, the JD and Kubota fan boys help keep prices down on other brands.

I remember a time when Americans thought Toyota and Hyundai were not major brands.

You did exactly what beenthere said not to do.

 

[ovrszd]

The way JD is treating dealers and right to repair, I'd be embarrassed to be seen on one...

In my area dealership consolidation has been a good thing.

In it's base, I understand right to repair for the brand. In it's theory I understand owner's pushback. It'll get resolved.

 

[jyoutz]

I don’t know the exact year but somewhere about 5 years ago Yanmar stopped building the 1 and 2 series for JD.

The 4 series and above JDs seem like solid machines. When I was shopping I initially looked at the 3 series and was turned off by the aluminum casings and plastic everywhere.

 

[IndyIan]

Everyone's situation is different, your local brands dealer quality and location isn't the same as the next guy, I certainly have no regrets so far with my Kioti. My Kioti dealer was the closest and the best local one around, and I like how this tractor was spec'd out. It was about $8k cheaper to if you spec'd an MX the same way and parts of the DKSE design have features found on the GrandL line. The $8k I saved then is now ~$24k which more than covers the difference in resale value, and I don't really plan on selling it, so my $8k is still growing.
If the tractors were closer to the same price and there was a local deere or kubota dealer who was good, then I'd probably be happy with my other orange or green tractor.

 

[dodge man]

The 4 series and above JDs seem like solid machines. When I was shopping I initially looked at the 3 series and was turned off by the aluminum casings and plastic everywhere.

I’ve seen the aluminum vs cast iron and the sheet metal vs plastic arguments beaten to death also. If done correctly they can all be quality.

 

[WinterDeere]

Lots of fixation on what I said about oil change or greasing time, none of which have anything to do with the thread. But since you asked:

How do you get all your engines to be ready for an oil change at the same time?

I don't. I do them all in the same session, as described, but one at a time over the course a few hours. My point was simply that setup and clean-up would maybe double the amount of time required to actually change the oil, which is why my estimated time is 20 minutes to others saying 45 minutes. I probably spend a combined 25 minutes on setup and cleanup, as well, but it's amortized over a dozen machines when doing them all in the same day.

I guess if it takes you an hour to clean the loader zerks, that would be why you only grease them once per year.

I said it takes as long as an oil change, and my oil changes take about 20 minutes per machine, not an hour. Yes, by the time I clean the zerks, fetch the grease gun, sometimes have to change the cartridge, and grease all (12?) points on the loader, then clean up any old grease that was pushed out, it is probably about 20 minutes.

And once per year is probably right on the recommended service schedule with the hourly usage of the loader itself. Why would I do it more than that?

Anyway, thread has de-railed, so say what you want. Time to un-watch.

 

[jyoutz]

I’ve seen the aluminum vs cast iron and the sheet metal vs plastic arguments beaten to death also. If done correctly they can all be quality.

No argument. They just didn’t appeal to me.

 

[dodge man]

Until reading this thread, I hadn’t given any thought to the fact the loader zerks are recessed. I just take a rag and clean them out. Just thinking out loud but maybe they do that to protect them so they don’t get broken off.