Genuine John Deere Parts

[pfoxy]

Just out of idle curiosity, how many folks here get ALL (or mostly all) their maintenance and repair parts from their John Deere Dealer?

I'm completely happy with all my John Deere products. My dealer is okay. Unfortunately, he has a "take it or leave it" attitude about prices, which annoys me a little, and as a result, I only spend my money at his establishment when I have no choice.

I don't buy into the concept that oil and filters with John Deere's name on them are automatically better than anybody elses. I've been using all NAPA filters on my 1988 JD since the very first maintenance cycle, and, again, I'm completely happy with the results.

I haven't had to do any repairs on the JD stuff, but when repair time comes up for things like my Howard rototiller or my Woods backhoe, once again, I go to the dealer only as a last resort. As an example, when I needed to put new bearings in my tiller, the dealer wanted over $150 for a set of standard-sized bearings I got from NAPA for less than $75.

Not trying to change anyone's mind here, as I said, just idle curiosity.

 

[OCDLubeman]

I tend to bounce back and forth between the brand loyalty group and the aftermarket group. My gut feeling is that if you are VERY careful, you will get good results with high quality aftermarket parts. So, I do not buy EVERYTHING at John Deere. I also believe that a few of JD's things are better. There are probably few companies that make the best of everything.

I have been burnt a few times. When Oliver was taken over by White tractor many years ago, they did away with the Oliver transmission fluid additive and the dealer told me to use "this stuff". A year later, my transmission required a $1,000 dollar repair - coincidence? My local CAT dealer just told me of a $6,000 dollar engine repair because a Hastings "will fit" fuel filter was the wrong micron size, allowing abrasives into the cylinders and scoring them. Probably not Hastings fault, but maybe a wrong cross reference by someone?

I went all NAPA ten years ago (price /convenience?) just to boycott the dealers. But, I recently went back to JD oil/filters when I discovered they were almost the same price (cheaper at JD in a few instances!) I even used to buy NAPA brand oil until Valvoline (Ashland,NAPA) told me that the NAPA oil has a "lesser quality" additive package than Valvoline.

I maintain about three brands of tractors (including J.D.) and it always seems that one or another filter for each brand is not available through NAPA, so I end up going to the tractor dealer for that one filter (means two trips). On other occasions, the cross references are confusing - sometimes two alternatives are available and I don't get a good answer when I call the filter company. My Kubota hydraulic filter is $28 dollars vs. about $5.00 at NAPA - is Kubota gouging me or is there a $23.00 quality difference - I hate to guess on a $14,000 dollar tractor.

My current trend is to stick with dealer parts (filters, etc.) except in extreme cases. I can get everything in one trip and with my company discount, often times the price is not much more than NAPA. In fact, I can get JD filters and most fluids cheaper than NAPA.

So, there is my not too concrete answer. For me, peace of mind ranks high. Next, comes convenience and availability. Price is important in some instances. Aftermarket is o.k. if you pay attention and don't always trust the counter person.

Dealer prices are competitive on some things, but they really rape you on parts you can't get elsewhere. The rack and pinion unit on my JD gator was over $400 dollars - I can get a power steering one for a car at Autozone for under $200 dollars -go figure. I always buy bearings at our local bearing wholesaler.

Randy

 

[treeboone]

When I did the 50 hour service on my L4610, I priced Hydro transmisson filters from Napa. Like you said, 5 or 6 bucks! Why pay 10 times that for brand name?? Shortly I was shuttling gravel, a heaped bucket, up a slight incline in midrange. It was working, but not having any difficulty pulling it. suddenly the tractor stopped and my foot went to the floor on the hydro pedal. I immediatly shut it down and saw the hydraulic pooling under the tractor. Long story short, the 'O' ring seal was not designed for that kind of pressure on the 'equivilant ' filter. Actually, even the Kubota filters from the dealer are not as beefy as what came from the factory on the tractor. I just buy Kubota filters now, its cheaper in the long run.

 

[smilingreen]

Paul,
I deal with the JD dealer exclusivly, only because he does all my service work. I am not using the same dealer I have bought my JD tractors from, because they gave me lousy service, they were over priced and kept my machine for almost a month and did not fix it. I went to another dealer closer to where I live and he had my 335 running perfecly in 24 hours and only charged me $45.00. I told him that he had my business from now on and any new purchases we made in the future. I have a landscape company and can not be without my equipment for more than 24 hours. If I need something repaired, I bring the machine by the shop, he pulls one of his mechanics off of a job and they have it fixed usually in a few minutes and I am back on the road again. Now that is what you call good service from a dealer! /w3tcompact/icons/king.gif So, I buy their parts and it works out good for me.
Not to mention, we have some real idiots that work in the auto parts places around here. They will grab something off the shelf without looking it up to see if it even fits my model of equipment. Sometimes, I think these guys are illiterate and just try to visually match something up. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

 

[JATO_RaT]

treeboone, the hydrostatic filter on my Kubota is much, much heavier then a standard filter. First of all the base is a machined piece of aluminum aboit 3/16" thick. The casing is thicker. The thought of using anything less would scare me. As far as oil filters go, I have found the Kubota oil filters very comparable to the NAPA gold filters in price and easily in quality.