OUCH, their proud of those things

[getut]

Whew.. I got some B-day money a few weeks back and was going to spend it on a Pat's easy change for my tractor. I was expecting to pay like $50-$60 for it. I was FLOORED when I got to the site and they wanted $200. There are entire implements I can get for that much money.

Anyone that knows... why are they so expensive? Are they all made to order and the company only does an etremely small volume of them?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I would venture to say it is a fairly small volume company, but it also is a bit more complicated than in looks. You can get them for about $169 if you shop around. Personally, I think it is well worth the price. They are far easier to use than even extendable lower links!

No swearing, no knuckle busting, no blood, no need for a sledge hammer or pry bar.

 

[_RaT_]

Show me new implements that you can attach to a 3 pt hitch that cost $200 and I will show you how quickly I can turn steel to a twisted pile of tin foil. When something is well made, it costs. The good thing you usually only buy it once. I agree with Bob.

 

[getut]

I'm not saying there is a great deal, but subsoilers and landscape rakes are dirt cheap.

Plenty more steel in those than is in the easy change and plenty more welding rod goes into them. I was just thinking if they have made more than 5 of those, they probably have jigs and patterns that make turning these out fast very easy.

I can probably buy a whole 3ph assembly, lift arms and all, for the back of my tractor for $200.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I paid over $400 this spring for a good quality landscape rake (Midwest LR22-72) with tilt & swivel. I will grant you a sub soiler is under $200 for a basic little unit.

JMHO but I think it is a mistake to compare a small well engineered tool to a simply made sub soiler. If you want to place value on the weight of the product, then I suspect you have not priced bottled water and compared it with gas prices because even at our record high gas prices, it is cheaper than buying bottled water?

 

[getut]

I apologize. I wasn't trying to argue pricing and weight... not even at the start of this thread and I sure didn't want it to turn into this. I am just expressing shock at the price. They didn't and still don't seem like anything complex to me. So I was shocked to see it cost that much when a) it isn't big, so steel costs wouldn't account for the high price and b) it doesn't seem like any great engineering feat in the design... maybe equivalent in design complexity to a large adjustable wrench (with probably about the same amount of steel as one). Just a very useful little tool that to me seems way overpriced.

 

[Marine1]

getut,
The price of any object is a relative thing, for example, I was at the electronics repair place a few years back to get a car radio fixed. The man behind the counter said that they don't fix radios anymore because they were considered disposable. I didn't think of my three hundred dollar radio as disposable.
The point is, to some the easy change price is reasonable and to others it is out of line. I fall into the latter category. I didn't like the price either so I didn't buy one, which is why I have the deluxe 3 point hitch. It works just fine for me. I have never hurt a knuckle or used a hammer of any kind to put on my shredder or box blade. The hitch came with my tractor as a freebie so I have no idea how much they cost but you may want to look into them.
As a side note: I didn't really need the Easy Change system. I just thought it would save me some time. I doubt it would save me much time because now that I have practiced changing implements, it only takes me about three minutes to hook up my implements. That to me isn't worth it either, but this is just my opinion and nothing more.