sheared ram shaft on my loader cylinder today

[stevenf]

I can't believe it but I hurt my baby today I was smoothing a roadway and went to dump the bucket on a 1251A loader mounted on a M9000 the ram is probably 1-1/4" thick and it sheared when it was almost fully extended before I got it shut down I probably dumped a couple of gallons of Hyd fluid. Although its in warranty its a long tractor ride away with my bucket raised and flopping so I removed it and took it to my Kubota dealer they say they'll have a new one by Friday. The metal looks like its forged steel and it broke like a piece of graphite just a loud pop and hyd fluid blowing everywhere out the open cylinder.
Has anyone else owning a big Kubota had a ram fail like this I wasn't even working it hard right when it did it although I've put almost 200 hours and a lot of it has been loader work.
Steve

 

[slowrev]

Apparently a flaw in the metal, I would think.
Ben

 

[stevenf]

I called the dealer this morning they hadn't even looked at the cylinder yet and after some healthy whinning on their part as to whether warranty would cover it they have agreed to get the parts to rebuild the cylinder and have it ready by Friday if possible. The Service manager told me that the cylinders are designed to have pressure front to rear or rear to front not side to side, I was a bit taken aback and my only civilized retort was last I checked the M9000 is not a reciprocating machine and the road/spillway channel that I was working on is perfectly straight and 8 feet wide plus 6' deep so its quite impossible to go anywhere but straight forward or back. Needless to say after the discussion with his boss this morning he and I will probably not be best buddies but dam he didn't even write a work order until this morning after I did his work for him removing and delivering the pieces early yesterday AM and then he had the gall to tell me that warranty may not cover it. I really thought I had found the perfect tractor dealer but this stunt has definitely left me wondering if I made a mistake in my decision to go Kubota or at least this dealer.
Steve

 

[slowrev]

That was the bucket dump cyl that broke ? How would you set side to side action there ? Unelss the loader frame has a lot of flex /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Ben

 

[stevenf]

You got me all I know is I saw red when he was explaining about only going forward or reverse. Maybe he thinks he installed a 6 way bucket on my little ole tractor /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( ........................ I really thought I had found the perfect tractor dealer but this stunt has definitely left me wondering if I made a mistake in my decision to go Kubota or at least this dealer.
Steve )</font>

The dealership might be quite good, but the Service Manager is the problem. I would immediately ratchet this up to the owner of the dealership and see what satisfaction that you get from him. Many times, the owner isn't aware of what is going on in the Service Department until he hears it from customers. Doing a warranty repair requires some effort on the Service Managers part to do the processing of the paper work. It might be that he just is lazy and knows that if he can make this a paid repair, that the Service Department will look better financially. Also, he might be getting commission on all service repairs that he writes as part of his compensation, which he might not get on warranty repair work orders.

 

[stevenf]

I felt exactly the same this morning after talking to the Svc mgr and found that he hadn't even written a work order much less looked at the cylinder, I immediately called the branch manager and my saleman and gave them both some cherished pieces of wisdom and magically less than an hour later the Svc department had disassembled the cylinder and ordered the parts to repair it under warranty. I'm sure my love affair with the service department is over but I've spent darn near 50K with these guys and I expect to be treated that way.

 

[stevenf]

Well folks it took calling the branch manager to get it done but I got my repaired cylinder back today along with 2.5 gals of UDT to refill the resevoir once I get the new cylinder back on all covered by warranty. The Service mgr is miffed he wouldn't even look up when I asked him if he had it ready to go this morning he just said yea its out there on the floor if your here to pick it up. I'm not sure now if I can continue to use them for the service but my 200hr service is due soon so I'll give it a try and see how he behaves then and make a decision as to our future. It'd be a shame because the next nearest Kubota dealer is probably 50 miles away so I'd probably have to think about selling it and switching to New Holland, John Deere or Kioti as they are located actually closer to the ranch then Kubota is and since I drive the tractor to them for service 50 miles is out of the question, 15+ miles one way is bad enough.

 

[Junkman]

Either a conversation with the owner of the business is in order, or you could also have a conversation with the service manager. I would tell the owner that the service managers attitude is going to cost him yours and others business in the future if he, the owner, doesn't straighten out the service managers attitude. The other alternative is to tell the service manager that his attitude is bad for the business and that if he treats you like trash, you will be discussing this with the owner/management of the dealership. Either way, I am certain that it will make a difference. It might not be the difference that you are looking for. Having been in my own business for over 40 years, I know that one unhappy customer can cause you to loose many others. As a business owner whenever I ran up against a unhappy customer, I tried all that was reasonably possible to resolve the problem. If I couldn't, then I asked the customer what would make him/her happy, adding the caveat "that I deal with reasonable people reasonably, and unreasonable people not at all". If they asked for something reasonable, I tried my best to accommodate them. If they asked for something unreasonable, I would ask them if they really felt that it was fair to me or my business. Many times, after they thought it over for a few seconds, they realized that the request was unreasonable and common sense was restored. Just don't wait too long to have this conversation, because right now it is still fresh in everyones memory. Later on, it might just sound like sour grapes.

 

[stevenf]

Junkman, I had the discussion with the management and they responded happily and willingly to fix this it, the problem is I think they're all afraid of making their svc mgr mad and having him quit. My concern is kinda like a restaurant type concern if you send it back theres a good chance somewhere along the way back to the table something foreign will end up in it. I also own a business and I can relate to both sides and your right I probably should have a talk with the service guy especially since I feel like the managers are afraid to. He is talented but just a south end of a horse going north type attitude.
Steve