Dealer damage

[Mud Mechanik]

When buying a new tractor (not sure about implements) you can actually ask the dealer how long the unit has been on his lot (there's a term for this which I forget), but this was very important to me when I bought my tractor new.

Very important to me as well. I just purchased a new 1660 Massey Ferguson from a dealer 1100 miles from me, one reason was that it had only been sitting on his lot for ~2 months, the one at my local dealer (45 miles away), had been sitting there for over a year and had begun to fade a little and there was some rust on the bucket welds and such where rain water had been collecting and the bucket apparently had not been off of the ground in a year. I'm not saying that this was the only reason that I purchased from an out of town dealer, but it sure helped me make my mind up.

 

[slowzuki]

So they are loaded too? Even more reason they got scratched. I've done 4 sets of them myself now, first 3 loaded, last size not from 17.5x24, 16.9x30, 18.4 x 34 and 650x65x34 (24 inches wide) and all times they got scratched. I had a tire shop work on them, and they got really scratched.

You can't horse loaded tires well by yourself, they end up damaging the wheel studs which is an actual problem, so you almost need to slip a pallet fork under the rim, this scratches it. Most tractors can't have a strap run above as the fender will get damaged. Its also hard to cradle the rubber as the tire will fall over once its off.

Swapping discs around scratches the rims because the rims aren't perfectly round off the discs. Forcing the disc on scratches and removing it sometimes scratches because the clearance is tight. Also on a large tractor like the 34's I did, the centre is 1/2" stamped plate and weighs near 200 lbs.

Lastly, if the rims/tires just need to go side to side and have the discs in the same orientation, its easier to leave the discs on the tractor and undo the rim bolts. Getting loaded tires off in this case leaves lots of scratches while trying to adjust the jack height and work the tire off. Saves a lot of time though.

It comes down to expectation, if 99 out of 100 clients don't care about scratches on rims, they are used to doing something the normal way, it will take some effort to get them to do it another way.

Chipping is way different than huge scratches. My wheels had numerous long scratches over them-way beyond the lug nut area. It looked like the mechanic was doing the job himself and used a fork lift with pallet forks or something similar to lower the rims on their side. Some of the longer scratches were 5-6" long and 1/4" wide in areas..that is uncalled for.

 

[slowzuki]

If 99/100 customers don't care, then yes. It costs money to cater to customers with particular tastes, if they are a small market, you don't bother.

The method of changing ag tires in the field is the same as in the shop! There is no tire machine! There's bars, the sledge with the narrow head for bead breaking (pst, they do hit the rim with it too when standing on the tire swinging away)

I'm not suggesting skipping regular maintenance but keeping rims shiny is cosmetic only, hence why we don't have chrome rims on tractors.

Keeping your customers happy is a waste of time??

If you are out in the field changing tires, yes you will scratch things. This tractor was taken to the dealership where they should have the proper tools and hoists to do the job without damaging the goods. If scratches are OK ,then why bother changing the engine oil or hydraulic fluid properly, that takes time may be considered a "waste of time." If my mechanic scratched my trucks chrome rims while changing a tire, he would certainly be paying for it, not considered "typical damage."

 

[D7E]

The method of changing ag tires in the field is the same as in the shop! There is no tire machine! There's bars, the sledge with the narrow head for bead breaking (pst, they do hit the rim with it too when standing on the tire swinging away)

20 years ago maybe . Any decent outfit has a generator/compressor and a hyd jaw for removing in the field . Most farms have that technology by now !

 

[murphy1244]

my tractor came with loaded tires and NO dings or dents and they put a new seat on it.

 

[boggen]

All -

I am curious if you guys have had the same problem I have had with my John Deere dealer. Everything I buy from them - whether it be my I-tach quick hitch, a ballast box, my tiller and bush hog, the bucket on the loader- all come delivered scratched to heck (the tractor, bush hog, and tiller sat outside for a year before I bought them).

I am not a farmer by any means; however I find myself going to a very large dealer and am curious if the mentality of these bigger shops is, "well it's gonna get scratched anyway when they start using it." I have dropped a lot of hints to the point where I think they know I am not happy. The last time I picked something up they threw in a can of spray paint as a joke. I will be honest and say I do have a friendly relationship with this dealer as I have gotten to know all of them through local farmer.

Anyone ever have this problem and is there anything you can do about it? Or am I just expected to go home and touch up the things myself that I am unhappy with? Is my **** rententiveness coming in to play too much here?

dealers, most likely have some sort of place to drive a tractor around and use some implements, or perhaps haul tractor and implement out to someones property to a test drive.

heck i test drove and down right "abused" the paint on some machines. when i test drove, due to i wanted to know if the machine would do what i wanted, vs carrying about the paint.

the paint on the bucket, box blade, bush hog. could all been put in from simple test driving of unit and using the implements from another customer that did not buy the tractor you eventually got.

when i go to someone else's farm, and i look at the machines and implements i can tell fairly good what gets used. because there is no paint, and the metal ends up shinny.

if you walk back to repair shop were they have a bunch of machines being worked on, you can really see the metal shin, and paint scratched up. or missing were things were used hard and put through the dirt and weeds.

do not get me wrong. if buying new i would be wanting a nice tractor with no scratchs or dents on it. more so the dents. but the paint. i would have to be some what hesitant. and look at the hour meter for tractor. and make a determination of if someone else test drove / tested out the implement but did not buy. if it looks used, then i would have a hard time accepting / paying for new price for it.

though even that last sentence can be hard to state. USED. to me, is looking at grease zerts and were the grease would end up and dust / dirt in areas were rain or a good cleaning may not get to. if new and test drove / tested implement out, type of used. tough call. i might ask for little bit off on price. if things were beat up / paint torn up pretty good.

 

[Cat_Driver]

If I buy something that I know I'm going to scratch or dent the first five minutes I open it, then I don't have a problem. BUT, I won't take anything home that I don't open the box and inspect it before it leaves the store if I am never going to scratch it, like a TV, or some electronics.

I understand New is New, but one needs to pick your battles otherwise you'd be fighting everyone all the time for merchandise.

Once I bought a phone system, got it home and it looked used. I hooked it up any way, then I heard all the messages left on the machine from the person who returned it.

Problem is I was the store was an hour away.

Another problem happened to with with a product for my RV and that store was two hours away. I made them pay me $50.00 for fuel for the RV because I had to come back.

 

[Lohman446]

I once bought a used Suburban from a survey company. It was severely scratched up as it often had to go in the woods. I asked the owner of the company about it and he told me that the first thing he did with it when he bought it was take it down the nastiest trail he could find to scratch it up. Otherwise his employees would have worried about the paint and not done their jobs efficiently.

That being said if I could afford a $30,000 tractor for hobby farming I could afford to pay the labor it would take to treat it gently. On the other hand that same tractor on a full out farm is a cost of business and the owner may not care about scratches if prevented them cost money.

 

[slowzuki]

Doesn't scratch em to load em.

my tractor came with loaded tires and NO dings or dents and they put a new seat on it.

 

[slowzuki]

Not in any tire or tractor shops or farms here. Not on any of the mobile equipment service trucks either but they will use their crane to break beads. Maybe in big town shops or in BTO's shops. Forestry tires are a bigger customer than ag here but they use the same service trucks and shop.

20 years ago maybe . Any decent outfit has a generator/compressor and a hyd jaw for removing in the field . Most farms have that technology by now !