John Deere Dealer

[PaulinSD]

Our local JD dealer here in Sioux Falls had a used JD 90 boom flail mower on the lot. I inquired about this machine back in late June, thought it would be an asset for our mowing business. After hooking it up to my 1050, it failed to operate. Through the months, he had told me it needed a new valve block, which Deere does not currently produce. Ther tried to find generic parts locally, no luck. The machine is a 1996 model, and Deere does not produce it any more. The dealer was asking $3500 for it. I asked him what he would take for it, and $2000 was the reply. Last week I offered him a check for $1000 and he took it. Knowing it was a simple machine which has 2 double acting and one single acting cylinder, and one hydraulic motor, I knew it wouldn't take much to repair it. He did claim the pump worked, and the problem was in the valves. I picked it up last Friday, took it to my employers shop, and started tinkering with it. The hydraulic fluid was very low, and below the pump intake pipe. the oil was dirty brown. The remote cables for the valves worked for the cylinders, but not for the motor. Tearing that apart, it was assembled incorrectly, not allowing the cable to operate the valve. With that corrected, the flail drive now works. Next to drain the oil, clean our the tank and filters and refill. I'll post some pics later next week of the machine. It's sad to see a dealer so lax in customer service, and the inability to correctly and timely repair something. I'm no hydraulic wizard by any means, but some things are just common sense.

 

[Bird]

You can sometimes find some real bargains when the owner (whether dealer or not) doesn't know what he has or how to operate it or how to repair it./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[PaulinSD]

You certainly have a point there , Bird. Other than mine, there is one other in the area, still running. The dealer also confided, they have bigger fish to fry. I'm sure they do too, they sell farm equipment and the MF line. I'm sure they did not want to bother with a small implement in the shop when they can sell new Deeres and MF's out front.

Paul