Holly F...ng Branson!!!!!!!

[2515R Dude]

On the 100 hours the piston broke, i reported it, it was still under warranty. Dealer replaced it.
Now the boom has cracks!!!!! They beefed up the hydraulics but forgot to beef up the tractor

This is when the piston broke

actor

 

[FullMetalBucket]

Yikes. I hope that gets fixed under warranty as well.

 

[oldnslo]

The broken piece is the cylinder rod and curious what you were doing when it broke. Possible a defect in that rod from heat treat.

Hard to tell from pictures but is that just a poor weld where it is cracking vs actual metal tearing?

Not trying to make excuses for Branson, just trying to determine failure.

 

[2515R Dude]

Nope, it is 2.5 years already. Warranty is 1 year.

 

[2515R Dude]

The broken piece is the cylinder rod and curious what you were doing when it broke. Possible a defect in that rod from heat treat.

Hard to tell from pictures but is that just a poor weld where it is cracking vs actual metal tearing?

Not trying to make excuses for Branson, just trying to determine failure.

The rod broke when digging a creek bed, really soft gravel. No defect was found by me nor by dealer, nor by Branson, He says he sent it there. Probably a lie as always.

The weld is bad, but the metal is torn as well. Metal cracked in two places on each side.

 

[tacticalturnip]

You've had the worst luck with that tractor. I know that your experience isn't the norm, but still, it makes me happy I went Kioti.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I know many 1st time tractor owners get the 2515 as their 1st one, but hot damn that sucks.

 

[zzvyb6]

Reminds me of the building under construction in Thailand that collapsed. Videos show the Chinese fake rebar being broken in half BY HAND ! Like breaking sticks for a bonfire. A word to the wise ....

 

[ning]

Reminds me of the building under construction in Thailand that collapsed. Videos show the Chinese fake rebar being broken in half BY HAND ! Like breaking sticks for a bonfire. A word to the wise ....

Wow!
That's the last time I have the Chinese build with reinforced concrete for me in Thailand!

Meanwhile, very happy with my South Korean tractor...

 

[HamishMacCheap]

I just traded a UTV that was in the shop three times since I bought it in June of last year. I spoke to the shop manager when I dropped it off the last time and it didn't seem to me that he was confident there would be a satisfactory resolution to the problem. There were also a couple of very minor things that weren't right which I chose to ignore rather than take it in for repair.

It seemed to me that I had a lemon and when a dealer offered me a good deal on a trade, I took the offer. The dealer was aware of the problems when we made the deal.

I have no problems with the dealer, the machine was the stinker. I decided to trade rather than face an uncertain future of repairs in the future. I am just too old to deal with avoidable roubles.

The OP may have a machine that is a stinker.

 

[2515R Dude]

You've had the worst luck with that tractor. I know that your experience isn't the norm, but still, it makes me happy I went Kioti.

Kioti was on my list, actually it was on my list on the first position, but they didn't have Backhoe with no ETA, branson had everything

Tractor, loader, Backhoe, 6' box blade, forks, loaded tires for $26k OTD instead of waiting God knows how long. No one had backhoes then and no ETA but I just bought a 60 acres neglected property and needed a tractor like yesterday. Very tempting.

So far, 5 hours all front lights stopped working, head lights were replaced, 20 hours water pump replaced, 50 hours throw bearing, tractor had to be split. 100 hours the rod. 150 hours a hose on BH blown, 175 hours water hose blew, 200 tractor has to be split again for oil leaks from transmission. 445 hours the boom cracked. Nice record for a good tractor lol...

 

[jyoutz]

Kioti was on my list, actually it was on my list on the first position, but they didn't have Backhoe with no ETA, branson had everything

Tractor, loader, Backhoe, 6' box blade, forks, loaded tires for $26k OTD instead of waiting God knows how long. No one had backhoes then and no ETA but I just bought a 60 acres neglected property and needed a tractor like yesterday. Very tempting.

So far, 5 hours all front lights stopped working, head lights were replaced, 20 hours water pump replaced, 50 hours throw bearing, tractor had to be split. 100 hours the rod. 150 hours a hose on BH blown, 175 hours water hose blew, 200 tractor has to be split again for oil leaks from transmission. 445 hours the boom cracked. Nice record for a good tractor lol...

Wow. It sounds like that machine was built on a Monday after a long holiday weekend.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Unbelievable bad luck you have had on this tractor.

 

[WinterDeere]

Wow. It sounds like that machine was built on a Monday after a long holiday weekend.

Sure doesn't look like a build quality problem. I mean, weld quality isn't great, but when you see metal tearing and not a broken weld, it's design issue. Material selected was too thin for the task.

The broken cylinder rod is interesting. When heat-treated hard, they fail easily under tension, not so much under compression. But of course the curl operation has them under tension, so I'd guess there must be some pretty critical specifications on the heat treating and annealing process for cylinder rods used in curl positon, and maybe this one did not get manufactured according to that spec? Could also be a design issue, if rod diameter is insufficient, but then you'd be seeing Bransons losing curl cylinder rods all over this forum.

 

[ning]

When heat-treated hard, they fail easily under tension

such as when using the bucket edge as a dozer?

 

[WinterDeere]

such as when using the bucket edge as a dozer?

In theory, yes. But you'd think any manufacturer would recognize that's bound to happen, and design accordingly.

I've used the bucket on most of my tractors for grading and leveling, pushing and pulling every which way you can imagine, with never a failure of this type. I'm sure others put them through even more abuse.

 

[2515R Dude]

Sure doesn't look like a build quality problem. I mean, weld quality isn't great, but when you see metal tearing and not a broken weld, it's design issue. Material selected was too thin for the task.

Exactly what i said in my first post

 

[tradosaurus]

You've had the worst luck with that tractor. I know that your experience isn't the norm, but still, it makes me happy I went Kioti.

And I'm sure you could find owners of the Kioti (or Kubota or etc.) that have had similar issues.

 

[WinterDeere]

And I'm sure you could find owners of the Kioti (or Kubota or etc.) that have had similar issues.

Build quality issues are common to all brands. But design issues are less common month the more premium priced brands. A lot of the hidden cost is in design refinement and optimization.

 

[tradosaurus]

Build quality issues are common to all brands. But design issues are less common month the more premium priced brands. A lot of the hidden cost is in design refinement and optimization.

True to an extent. I don't think price point (premium price) is an indication of quality.
Before I bought a tractor I watched a few Messicks video comparing same size JD to the Kubota. I really wanted the green paint but realized that I was paying for the paint not the quality.