Rockshaft housing, warranty?

[erisque]

Dropped off machine yesterday, JD4300. Service manager said they will get it fixed as soon as possible, did not touch upon whether warranty or not. I feel better its in the shop, but still worried they might give me a hard time. Dont know what I am going to do though, I am slowly becoming aware that the 4300 may not be big enough, or durable enough for the work I do. Another dealer said the 6" box on the machine is marginal and recommended changing out to 5'. I am considering, jumping up to 6400 hydro. but dealer said machine alone is $4000.oo more and I would have to purchase new loader. Please don't get the wrong impression, I love my tractor, I miss it right now, it can flat move some dirt and a lot more, do it real fast. But if your looking to buy a machine, talk to more than one dealer and tell them exactly what you expect machine to be able to do, I believe that is why I am having problems. I told the dealer I needed to be able to do light land clearing, small excavations "sod, dirt, thin asphalt etc. It does everything, except light land clearing creates to much stress on the machine, unless you go real easy and make no mistakes, this is harder to do than one may think. Its very easy to ask more of the machine than it can really endure, it may even give a false immpresion, that "HEY!" this is no sweat. This is where a knowledgable salesman "and honest" becomes important. I think they knew what I needed this machine to do was marginally capable, but because they wanted to make a sale, and stay within the $ amount I requested, I ended up with a 4300 when I should have actually been looking at a 6400 or industrial duty. Had they made this evident, I probably would have went the other$$$. Sure, I guess I am partially to blame, All My eyes could see is that baby sittin in my driveway, now its in the shop more than at home, I "DONT" blame the machine. One guy replied to one of my posts saying, "your using a lawnmower for a bulldozer" although this hurt and may be a little drastic, there is some truth to what he said. Add to this, a dealer which does not thoroughly test equipment "AFTER" repairs, and it makes for a REAL BAD experience. To have your machine in the shop for up to 2 weeks, have it returned with either same problem, or other one they created, Please, someone give me a GUN!

 

[beenthere]

I will be real surprised if JD doesn't warrant the broken casting, regardless of what you did to break it. JD has been doing this for years. They will consider how it broke, and attempt to design future castings not to fail. Some dealers have been known to get warranty from Deere and turn around and charge the customer for the parts and labor. Hopefully none do that anymore, but I would make contact with an area or region JD rep if at all possible. Get some hard answers before accepting a big bill. Wish you luck getting fair treatment.
Are you talking of going to a 4600, or as you state, the 6400?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...Are you talking of going to a 4600, or as you state, the 6400?...</font color=blue>

I think he saw the JD6000 series rockshaft casting... and doesn't want to take any chances in the future.../w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I agree, I'd find it hard to believe anything but a "warranty repair"... even just for PR purposes...

 

[dmccarty]

Erisque,

I think JD should replace the housing without cost to you. As my dealer says, JD designs this stuff to work within the limits of the machine. I don't see why a 5 or 6 foot box blade would have make a difference. If your 3PH can lift the box your tractor should be able to push dirt with it as well. Frankly I just don't see moving dirt around with a box blade puts that big of a strain on the tractor. I pick up logs with my 4n1 FEL that certainly don't do my front tires any good! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif But the tractor and FEL should not fail if I can lift the material. BTW, I put down the heavy stuff when my tires don't look happy! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif That certainly stresses my tractor more than then box blade. I have pulled up some stumps with the box blade as well.

The only way I could "breaking" the tractor with a long box blade would be if you snagged a corner of the box on something and kept going. But in that case the tractor should just stop and spin its wheels. The only other thing I can think of is if you are running around in B or C range doing this stuff. That might make a difference if you come to a hard stop when something snags the blade. If I'm "bulldozing" with either the FEL or box blad I'm in A range and usually 1st gear. Maybe 2-3 if the area is safe enough to work in.

What gears are you using?

I'm clearing lots of land with my 4700. I've cleared one 600 foot driveway and house site. I'm starting on another. I have piled up timber slash and downed trees on a 4 acre site as well. I don't think I'm stressing the tractor. But I do take my time.

I was looking at an old MF 165 last week. This thing has been used and certainly is not well taken care of anymore. One of the things that stood out was how wimpy the 3ph looked. It was basically just tubes. Nothing to compare with the 4700 and I would think any of the 4000 line has more robust 3ph than this MF 165. This tractor used to work a farm that is 100's of acres in size. The farm has shrunk over the decades and nobody will tell me how big the farm is today. I'm only family by marriage not blood! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Just the road frontage has to be close to a mile and the farm has to go back at least a good half mile or more.

Later...
Dan McCarty

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...The only way I could "breaking" the tractor with a long box blade would be if you snagged a corner of the box on something and kept going...</font color=blue>

Or if you are going in reverse pushing...and hit the right sideways/diagonal angle causing undue stress... /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif