Do you take it to the dealer for maintenance or do it yourself.

[JRH02]

How reliable has the 410J been, I been looking at those and the 310's..

It is actually more than I need but the price was right for me. I've had zero problems that were the 410's fault. So far just a coolant hose to the hydraulics cooler (wood rat) and a replacement hose to the BH curl.

 

[Reddogs]

I do everything myself. If I screw something up I learn from it.

I usually try to, but when a tractor shuts down completely, it can be a real headscratcher....

 

[vintagefred]

I've always maintained all my equipment, anything with moving parts. One thing about doing it yourself, you know it's being done right.
Sometimes the people doing the work don't do it right.

Ditto from me. When doing priority maintenance or repairs I often find other incidental conditions that need attention before they become serious $ repairs. Also, by doing it yourself you gain experience and skill that can be applied to other makes.

 

[spruce Deere]

Do all my maintenace myself. Lube, oil changes, minor or major repairs.

I have a real paper jd factory service manual for my 790, a flash drive with the service manual for the LS... Wish it was a real life physical paper manual though.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Just want to point out that sometimes the dealer can do the service at your house, for a reasonable and not at all excessive fee. Saves a round trip, and maybe they're smart enough to batch it with other services in the area if they can (heck, there are 3 kubotas just on my tiny stretch of dead end dirt road). Saves a lot of time. I don't have the option of moving it myself, my truck isn't big enough to move my tractor.

 

[Reddogs]

Do all my maintenace myself. Lube, oil changes, minor or major repairs.

I have a real paper jd factory service manual for my 790, a flash drive with the service manual for the LS... Wish it was a real life physical paper manual though.

Whoa... what service issues have you had with yours. Do you have a Model 70 front loader with that..

 

[spruce Deere]

My 790 has the model 300 deere loader. Bought the Deere shop manual not long after the 790.

I have had to replace the hydraulic implement pump twice, my own fault, replaced the bevel and drive gear on both sides of the mfwd and two water pumps.
Original water pump missed the three year warranty by one day, second one not sure what happened. Started leaking just like the first at only 175 ish hours, Deere water pump to boot with a flushed system also. Third pump install I used a whole bottle of coolant treatment with new coolant after another flush. So far so good.

The 790 was max what i could afford new and after 13 years of being my only tractor, year 'round use sometimes hard, it got me were I am now and would do it again...

Deere dealer was real good to me, wish it was still here. Between my work back then and the tree farm, I was in there often for parts, supplies and knowledge. It changed hands and most of the original employees left after the 'buy out'. The new management of the dealer is not the same and a lot of farmers, loggers and long time customers like me took there business to different dealers.... Like the LS tractor I own now.

 

[Hoodoo]

My new tractor will come up on 50 hours in a month or so.....I'm going to do it myself. Used to work on cars back when you could.....I'm fairly handy (more as a builder), but I figger I can get 'er done....

 

[fidowanttobe]

I do all my repairs. Period. My tractor came in several crates. While assembling it, I also took more apart to see what the gist was with this or that. With manuals, internet, YouTube, and common sense you can take care of anything that is not a computer glitch.
Now, . . . . the wife's 2022 Buick, I won't even point a screwdriver at it. Waaay over my pay scale. And have no interest in learning on it.
With everything I need to know for building maintenance at work and at home, manuals are my go to. Buy a book or a eBay flash drive manual and research first. After you know how, it's just lefty-loosey, righty-tighty.
My trouble may be that I have ZERO faith anymore that it will be done right without doing it myself. All the good "Old Guys" are retiring!!

 

[erikjohn67]

I’m like a lot of the posters in this thread where I will fix almost everything and refuse to pay someone for something I can do and then I know it was done right. Over they years I have spent more than I needed to on repairing things because I misdiagnosed it or I broke something else while trying to fox it but in the end 99.9% of the time I ended up spending less than I would of and I gained the experience of doing the fix. Nowadays with the internet and youtube there is almost nothing that someone hasn’t shown or provided instructions on how to fix.

There is really nothing mechanical or electrical that scares me from getting into. Now that being said once you get into “electronics” things can get a little more tricky and diagnosis isn’t as intuitive as the mechanical and basic electrical issues. In some of these instances for the untrained tech (me) it becomes a matter of trial and error, you replace things until you have fixed the issue. I will usually weigh those potential costs to what it will cost for me to paying someone that has the proper tools to diagnose and fix the correct part the first time.

Financially I can and have for a long time been able to afford to pay someone else to do these things but as another has posted I’m sure over the past 30+ years I have saved 100’s of thousands of dollars by doing all of my own repairs. Of course there has been headaches, frustrations resulting in extended period where this thing is not fixed, wrench throwing, and cussing, but I still love fixing things myself and the idea that I am self reliant.

I will do anything from change/rebuild engine/transmission to rebuilding front ends/brakes/cylinders to rewiring an electrical system to building/fixing a computers/tvs/etc to swapping components out of any household appliance to most any household wiring to building furniture and cabinets to welding projects to restoring cars and doing bodywork to rewiring and repairing circuit boards to any type of copper or pvc plumbing and really the list goes on. I’ve forgotten about more things I have built or fixed over the years than I remember and I would guess the same is true for a lot of posters here just because I’m guessing more often that not if you own a tractor you are also handy.

Earlier this week our secondary water heater on my addition tripped the circuit breaker so this morning I have been testing both thermostats in it and checking the resistance on the coils. So far things on the water heater itself seem to be checking out and I have it working just the top coil with the lower one disconnected. I think the circuit breaker may be going bad as it is an older Federal Pacific panel and they are notorious for going bad because it kicks off with both thermostats and elements connected but the lower thermostat and element seem to be working properly. For me this is too be continued…….