Is every Deere dealer inflexible on lawn & garden?

[leonz]

I must be living in lala land with the wrong dealer. I have had no real support after the sale from my original dealer but they love to see my money. They could not even tell me how to properly hook up the snow blowers driven belt as I had not used it in 2 years when I needed to buy parts-New very expensive drive belt of $140.00 plus tax and they did not have pulleys to sell me and they said leave it the last winter and we will look at it as they could not remember how it was set up-it would have required another 60+ mile round trip to pick it back up.

I made the mistake of bringing a knife to a gunfight when buying the crated LA115 and when they being JD tell me you get what you pay for makes me wish dad never traded the 1968 IHC cub hydro with the Kohler 12 horse engine with the belly mower and the single stage snow blower and snow chains. They did tell me my LA115 lawn tractor with the mower, snow plow(worthless) suitcase weights, and snow blower with 186 hours might be worth $100.00 towards a trade.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I must be living in lala land with the wrong dealer. I have had no real support after the sale from my original dealer but they love to see my money. They could not even tell me how to properly hook up the snow blowers driven belt as I had not used it in 2 years when I needed to buy parts-New very expensive drive belt of $140.00 plus tax and they did not have pulleys to sell me and they said leave it the last winter and we will look at it as they could not remember how it was set up-it would have required another 60+ mile round trip to pick it back up.

I made the mistake of bringing a knife to a gunfight when buying the crated LA115 and when they being JD tell me you get what you pay for makes me wish dad never traded the 1968 IHC cub hydro with the Kohler 12 horse engine with the belly mower and the single stage snow blower and snow chains. They did tell me my LA115 lawn tractor with the mower, snow plow(worthless) suitcase weights, and snow blower with 186 hours might be worth $100.00 towards a trade.

I don't know why they would offer an LA115 with a tuff tork 40 and say you can use it to snow plow, much less with weights.

Old Kohlers were good engines. I wonder what the cub cost in 1968? Probably a lot more than LA115 money in 2011 era.

I guess the thing that happens with a lot of people is, they buy the cheapest JD they can get, it looks almost the same as a $10,000 garden tractor and they expect it to do the same.

 

[Smoothas]

it's too bad you had that experience with dealer-- there are about 100 YouTube videos on how to hook up a snow blower to 100 series tractor. And why would your dealer sell you a crated la115? DId you get it from dealer or home depot

 

[leonz]

I don't know why they would offer an LA115 with a tuff tork 40 and say you can use it to snow plow, much less with weights.

Old Kohlers were good engines. I wonder what the cub cost in 1968? Probably a lot more than LA115 money in 2011 era.

I guess the thing that happens with a lot of people is, they buy the cheapest JD they can get, it looks almost the same as a $10,000 garden tractor and they expect it to do the same.

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I bought it from a JD Dealer, I probably could have bought a used 3020 diesel with a back blade and been better off.

I do know the single stage snow blower on that cub was a thing of beauty and the tractor barely wimpered when I used it to clear snow on a steep paved driveway.

I wanted and needed a new mule because the wheel horse 244 was retired and in the weeds. They were selling the LA115 at a discount to me as it was old inventory. I figured that almost 20 horsepower was more than enough to clear snow and mow but I found out differently.

I said OK I saved a some money on a quality product OR so I thought and i was supporting an employee owned company.
The step up would have been the 2305 but I would not have been able to buy the 2 ton dump trailer I needed to haul 35 full cords of wood from the lot my brother was clearing for my fathers new house.

Its bad enough they delivered it with the lawn mower mounted on it when I asked to have the snow blower and chains installed on it as it was the beginning of March when they brought it.

The next season I went to install the chains and they were the wrong ones and I called to see about exchanging them for the right size chains and they said forget it, no refund, I was so pissed off I called their home office and had my purchase money refunded for the value of the chains. being the good sport I was I bought more parts than the value of the snow chains for the LA115

I was told it would be more than adequate for the job with a snow blower(it was not) and they sold me the wrong chains) and I bought the plow because I wanted to do grading with it and its worthless. The first time I used it made me a believer it was not built well as it has no depth control. I had to load the tires with Windshield Washer Fluid to have enough traction to use the bloody thing in snow and trying to clear hard packed snow with the snow blower and it always costs me a lot of wear in the chute-I am on chute number three by the way.

If I keep the LA115 for lawn mowing I will invest in a new Yamaha snow blower either the middle model or the 32 inch model as the US units sold now are to light and the Hondas are more costly and the chutes plug up on the high end models and cannot handle deep hard packed snow and melted ice and snow as well as the Yamahas in my opinion and my wife will will be able to use it as well.

 

[Smoothas]

Sorry you has such a bad experience at Dealer- even John Deere has a few bad dealers ( they don’t usually last) only good thing is you probably only paid about 1000 bucks or so for it. Someone at dealer should have told you even though unit has 20HP engine, the K46 only puts 2.73 HP to wheels no matter how big the engine is. Engine means very little when it comes to power to wheels- it’s the transaxle that counts. Sounds like dealer just wanted to “dump” old inventory

 

[leonz]

Hello neighbor,

Smoothas, If I had known that the K46 tuff torq was only capable of that I would have bought the 2305 with the loader and took my chances with its stamped aluminum rear axle and bought the one ton dump trailer. After pulling a wheel last week to do the mower deck lift repair I am more concerned than ever now with the simple key used to hold the wheel to the axle stub shaft as the wheel is no longer push fit tight.

For what its worth I spent almost $3700.00 for the mule, mower deck, snow blower, suitcase weight bracket, suitcase weights, service kit and delivery in 2011 before I walked out the door which was the year after they stopped selling the LA115 I believe. I bough the blade year before last and spent 330+ tax not including the fuel I used to pick it up.

I just have to hold on now and just hope it lasts as I cannot afford another mule. I looked at the 22+ horse cub cadets and I was even more discouraged when I looked at the mower decks driven belt and its many pulleys. I reminded myself the snow blower money pit I bought came from MTD or RAD as well.

I guess that is what trust got me.

 

[js5020]

To bad you got hosed with the 115. I am pretty much amazed walking into these dealerships when looking at new machines, many of the sales folks just don't have enough knowledge to be selling stuff (not limited to JD). I use prior experience and these tractor forums for real life knowledge along with my experience and use the sales folks only to aquire and crunch the numbers as many really don't know jack when it comes to application of machines as many have never owned or seriously used the machines they "sell", they haven't a clue.

I wanted an X3 series machine for mowing only, I walked into the dealer told them what model I wanted and the accessories I wanted asked for the price and availability, asked what programs were running at this point the sales dude tried to upsell me and I politely told him I was not interested I knew what I wanted and I was buying the model I came in for or I was buying nothing,,, the whole process took less than 20 min and the sales dude "sold" me an X300R.

I have had the X300R for 7 yrs and 400+hrs, the only things I have had issue with were the bearings in the blower unit had to be replaced (I think root cause was washing out the deck every mow), replaced the blower belt (wife blocked the blower and kept running it), other than that it's been nothing but maintenance items.

Yes asking on the forums will likely lead you into spending more coin (we love spending others cash) but you will be certainly not be under equipped!

 

[Smoothas]

Leonz- Did you get a kiss from dealer- cause he surely effed you :cool2:

 

[crazyal]

When I bought my Kubota the Deere dealer didn't even give me the time of day. They seamed like all they cared about was moving large tractors to farmers. It could of just been a busy day but I moved on and bought my Kubota. When it came to my X500 the dealer (different one further away) seamed to be focused on selling mostly mowers and gators. Maybe at their other locations they keep the tractors, I don't know. But they were quick and easy to work with. Didn't try to be pushy but wanted to show off all the features and how everything worked so I was fully informed. Over all I would say they did a good job. But they didn't offer me parts at a reduced rate (the Kubota dealer gave me 10% off parts).

 

[Oldoak]

When I bought my Kubota 19 years ago, it was from a dealership which sold both, Kubota and John Deere. I don't see a dealership like that today.