DMiller
Senior Member
Good luck on another supplier, none of them are in it for the customer anymore, just for sales.
The new catch phrase is "Manufacturer on Demand". I've putting up with this BS for over 3 years on a machine thats now 10yrs old.I went to a conference awhile back and heard that parts from all manufacturers was going to be a problem going forward.
Now THATS effing ridiculous!Parts are becoming an issue from Cat of late. Waited four months for a hydraulic valve section for a 3 year old rubber tired loader this summer.
Parts are becoming an issue from Cat of late. Waited four months for a hydraulic valve section for a 3 year old rubber tired loader this summer.
Fixed that for you ............It's probably a dollar driven decision made by today’s corporate accountants who never had a completion date to satisfy.
It seems as though all manufacturers are one big monopoly, or they are all connected at the hip. Not one will step forward and provide a simple machine that lasts and the parts to maintain it. If one did, the rest would lose a lot of business. There is no competition. Isn't that what a monopoly is?
This is a good post, the emission requirements must certainly have been a major PIA for all manufactures engine wise. However the quest for easy operating controls ( electric everything) joysticks and the like has added to the complexity and reduced reliability. It's true the newer machines are nice to operate but it all comes with a cost. I think back to the 623E I owned the hydraulic scraper controls were long levers directly off the valve spools, no pilot valves or wiring. Was that really all that bad? I never thought it was that demanding to pull the levers and they always worked. That is just one example, it is the case across all of todays equipment, they work with a flick of a wrist when they work.There is a tremendous amount of changes that have been forced on mfg's by all this emissions BS. Part of that is making sure it can't be disabled or disconnected. That means that you're forced to have connectivity for all components and make them all dependent on each other. Plus we've made stops at Tier 2,3,4i, & 4 final...each having their own issues, requiring their own parts, and changes.
It's a cluster F that has also driven up costs on everything and made getting enough testing done almost impossible.
On the dealer side it's made parts stocking insanely costly. And worse it's so competitive that the margins in equipment are half of what they were even 10 years ago...under 8% on new...often less. Used isn't much better.
I'm out of that world personally...but I can assure you it's not any fun right now.
It wont be long before you sit in a machine and operate it with a Gameboy controller.This is a good post, the emission requirements must certainly have been a major PIA for all manufactures engine wise. However the quest for easy operating controls ( electric everything) joysticks and the like has added to the complexity and reduced reliability. It's true the newer machines are nice to operate but it all comes with a cost. I think back to the 623E I owned the hydraulic scraper controls were long levers directly off the valve spools, no pilot valves or wiring. Was that really all that bad? I never thought it was that demanding to pull the levers and they always worked. That is just one example, it is the case across all of todays equipment, they work with a flick of a wrist when they work.