What the heck was I thinking???

[treeslayer2003]

Argh!
I've gotta quit wondering what's next, cuz it keeps coming.
Today I lost the "differential drive assembly" on my JD 440b. I thought it looked like a CV joint, or a really short drive shaft. But what do I know?
I'm waiting on the John Deere dealer to call me back with availability...& price. I don't know why there'd be a problem with availability. It's only 40 years old. Part's guy said their computer system was down, so I guess I'll find out in the morning.
Did I mention that I will be glad when this job is finished?

Andy

Andy it may be cheaper and easyer to go to a drive line shop and just have them fix your shaft.

 

[redprospector]

Well, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. All I really needed was a U-joint, but John Deere doesn't sell just the U-joint.
While waiting on the parts guy to call me back I got to digging through my pieces parts and found 2 brand new U-joints...unfortunately they were for the rear drive shaft, and aren't the same size.
Parts guy finally got back to me when he got back from lunch. That's when he told me I'd have to buy the whole assembly. I was bracing myself for the big JD hit (which is almost as hard as the Caterpillar hit in case you were wondering). He said there was one in Dallas, I asked how much, he said he could have it here by Friday, I asked HOW MUCH................................He said $276. I asked, can we get it here by Thursday if I pay extra freight? The answer was no, so I guess I'll haul logs for another land owner tomorrow (if it doesn't snow). Friday I'll make a trip to El Paso when they say it's in.
I hate it when a $276 part can cost you 4 day's work. Parts guy said it wouldn't make any difference if I had a brand new skidder, he would have still had to order it.

Andy

 

[redprospector]

Yes you did. But on a job like that you can say it as many times as you want to.

I'm sure glad you feel that way about it, because I'm sure I'll mention it again before I'm done.

Andy

 

[northmanlogging]

I'm willing to bet there is a driveline shop near you that might have the u-joints on a shelf or just a few days out for much less...

I should probably call the one local to me and see what they can do, u-joints themselves are usually only $20-30 for heavy dooty truck ones. You'd think that the skidder joints wouldn't be a whole lot more.

 

[redprospector]

I'm willing to bet there is a driveline shop near you that might have the u-joints on a shelf or just a few days out for much less...

I should probably call the one local to me and see what they can do, u-joints themselves are usually only $20-30 for heavy dooty truck ones. You'd think that the skidder joints wouldn't be a whole lot more.

John Deere has "special" caps on the joints. We have one drive line shop locally. They said John Deere? Call them, if you need us to we'll put it together for you.
There are times when it's less expensive to just bite the bullet and buy the oem part, than to run all over the country trying to piece something together trying to save a couple hundred bucks.
Don't get me wrong, a couple hundred is a couple hundred any way you look at it. But if I've got something to that'll bring in $500 or $600 instead of trying to save $200, I'll generally go for the income and spend the $200.

Andy

 

[Gologit]

John Deere has "special" caps on the joints. We have one drive line shop locally. They said John Deere? Call them, if you need us to we'll put it together for you.
There are times when it's less expensive to just bite the bullet and buy the oem part, than to run all over the country trying to piece something together trying to save a couple hundred bucks.
Don't get me wrong, a couple hundred is a couple hundred any way you look at it. But if I've got something to that'll bring in $500 or $600 instead of trying to save $200, I'll generally go for the income and spend the $200.

Andy

Yup. Parts and maintenance aren't expensive when you compare them to what downtime costs. If you have too much downtime on hired-out machinery the word gets around fast in this business. Pretty soon nobody wants you.
If it's your own job the downtime will cost you time and it may be time you can't catch up on.
Gotta spend the bucks sometimes. It'll pay you back. Eventually. Some time. After while. One of these days....
Dammit...where's the emoticon for money flying out of your pocket?

 

[1270d]

Your parts counter wouldn't next day ship for you? That seems wierd

 

[redprospector]

Your parts counter wouldn't next day ship for you? That seems wierd

Nope, said it was too late to get it out today, and next day from tomorrow would be Friday.
It is odd though.....That was at 1:15 this afternoon. Of course that would be 2:15 in Dallas. Hmm.

Andy

 

[northmanlogging]

Yeah, getting it fixed today vs waiting a week... I always try to fix things myself, but Sometimes its just quicker to hire it out, like welding the blade back together or rebuilding a hydro cylinder, between werking full time and the logging I really don't have time to fix anything major.

 

[1270d]

Nope, said it was too late to get it out today, and next day from tomorrow would be Friday.
It is odd though.....That was at 1:15 this afternoon. Of course that would be 2:15 in Dallas. Hmm.

Andy

All the parts folks I deal with will next day as long as you order by 4 pm eastern. Then I drive to the ups hub the next morning and pick up as soon as it comes from the airport. Inthe bush by 830 or 9 with my parts. We deal with excellent parts guys at john Deere, Ponsse and cat.

 

[redprospector]

All the parts folks I deal with will next day as long as you order by 4 pm eastern. Then I drive to the ups hub the next morning and pick up as soon as it comes from the airport. Inthe bush by 830 or 9 with my parts. We deal with excellent parts guys at john Deere, Ponsse and cat.

Yeah, this outfit is new here. The outfit that they bought out was pretty good, they would have it drop shipped to me. This guy said that it had to come to their store, then they could ship it to me if I wanted. I'm going to have a talk with them tomorrow when I pick it up (200 mile round trip).
If they don't step up to the plate, I may try dealing with the one in Albuquerque next time, they are the same company though, and a 450 mile round trip. I've had to deal with them on the territory thing too.
Competition is good for business, unfortunately we don't have much of that out here.

Andy

 

[redprospector]

Well, here I sit waiting on a call from my John Deere dealer.
Parts guy said their freight was all messed up due to the ice on the road between El Paso, and Dallas. Excuses, excuses.
Once again I find myself in the position where no one cares that I'm broke down as much as I do.
This would probably be a good place to put a good parts dealer if anyone is interested.

Andy

 

[Hddnis]

I'd save the wire that you wound up on the drum and turn it in for scrap, some jobs if it wasn't for the scrap value of the stuff that slowed you down you wouldn't make anything at all.

How do you like the teeth you're running on the mulcher? They look like road planer points? Is that for rocky areas?


Mr. HE

 

[redprospector]

I'd save the wire that you wound up on the drum and turn it in for scrap, some jobs if it wasn't for the scrap value of the stuff that slowed you down you wouldn't make anything at all.

How do you like the teeth you're running on the mulcher? They look like road planer points? Is that for rocky areas?


Mr. HE

Haha. If it comes down to a few feet of barbed wire making or breaking me I'm in trouble. My John Deere dealer has been the biggest thing slowing me down lately. I wish I could sell them for scrap.

Those teeth are great in the rocks. They are actually rock trencher teeth. I've got a Fecon head too, but I like the Tushogg head with the rock teeth on jobs like this one.

 

[madhatte]

If you remember a couple of years ago me griping about the lousy performance and long downtimes we were getting from our Fecon head, you will be amused to hear that as soon as we passed the damn thing off to the PW shop, they took it out of service because they were afraid to break it... and then bought another. I do not understand humans.