Who fixes your tractors/machinery?

f140

Would most people have tractor mechanics nearby that they drop the machine to be fixed or do ye use main dealers?

I used to have a mechanic here years ago that would come to the yard and do repairs here. It was very convenient as I didnt have to take the machine far away. He has since retired.

I also cant understand why there isnt more younger lads going out at it on their own.

bogman_bass

Guy a mile and a half down the road. Great guy and very reasonable but takes on too much work so you could be left waiting

whelan2

f140 wrote: »

Would most people have tractor mechanics nearby that they drop the machine to be fixed or do ye use main dealers?

I used to have a mechanic here years ago that would come to the yard and do repairs here. It was very convenient as I didnt have to take the machine far away. He has since retired.

I also cant understand why there isnt more younger lads going out at it on their own.

Some tractors need computers now to be fixed and garages are not willing to let their mechanics use the computers for nixers. We send our new holland to the main dealer to be fixed, we get a mechanic to come to fix the case in our yard.

K.G.

f140 wrote: »

Would most people have tractor mechanics nearby that they drop the machine to be fixed or do ye use main dealers?

I used to have a mechanic here years ago that would come to the yard and do repairs here. It was very convenient as I didnt have to take the machine far away. He has since retired.

I also cant understand why there isnt more younger lads going out at it on their own.

Two problems,you end working all hours due to pressure by custumers and unless you dont let any thing out the door with out money its very hard to get paid

mythos110

I do 90% of repairs myself. I worked in a garage for a year before heading to college so I picked up lots of tips. Had a clutch go recently that I just didn't have the time to do so I dropped it down to local lad that does nixers from his own shed in the evenings. Took a good while to get it back but he was very reasonable on price so I wasn't fussed.

From having worked in a garage as a first year apprentice (17 years ago!!) and seeing the level of jobs which I was doing on my own towards the end I couldn't justify dropping back to a main dealer for a service/minor repairs. However for more serious stuff (had torque issues in a 2003 Landini) I would use main dealer. Even in that case I had a job convincing the head mechanic what was wrong and where he needed to look to fix it. It told me the problem I was experiencing "couldn't be possible"! I came back the next day after he had taken it for a drive and he had changed his tune! Thankfully he sorted it fully in the end, a popped o-ring in the guts of the machine. Still haven't got the bill for that one.....

patsy_mccabe

Would do all light repair myself. Engineer by trade, so au fait with things mechanical. I also like to learn how things work so an added bonus for stripping things myself. I have a great mechanic local enough, who would do the heavy stuff engine related etc., but the likes of hydraulics, brakes I would have a go at myself. Have a fair tool set put together now as well. Tractor is 40 years old at this stage, so been through most of it at this stage.

Farmer_3650

Would do a lot of the repairs myself here. But if anything major went wrong, it'd be sent off to the dealer.

mythos110

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Would do all light repair myself. Engineer by trade, so au fait with things mechanical. I also like to learn how things work so an added bonus for stripping things myself. I have a great mechanic local enough, who would do the heavy stuff engine related etc., but the likes of hydraulics brakes I would have a go at myself. Have a fair tool set put together now as well. Tractor is 40 years old at this stage, so been through most of it at this stage.

Engineer myself too and also with a nice toolkit built up and expanded since my time as an apprentice! I find it very rewarding work to take something that is faulty, get to the bottom of it and get it working again. If only treating animal sickness etc was as logical and straightforward!
I do all repairs to the silage harvester/mower - all implements etc myself as you tend to need them going in a hurry and can't be waiting on someone else.
The only time I'd take a step back is on anything internal in a tractor as the workload of working fulltime and farming part time doesn't leave enough for that sort of project.
Happy to pay a professional on occasion!

lakill Farm

dads a mechanic by trade. he looks after jeep and family car. service /anti freeze machines here and lighter stuff depending on time he has. Mother is sick so that's a big time constraint on his time off work.

Handy man up the road looks after welding and anything ore technical especially with the mini digger etc. not a scrap of paper to his name but he would show up the best of mechanics and engineers. serious set of hands and a fantastic problem solving attitude.

I do the breaking and paying

Sam Kade

I'd do most of the repairs myself and the mechanic up the road does the more complicated stuff. Only problem he is fairly reasonable and does cars as well but every Tom, Dick and Harry are running to him now with cars so the farm machinery is only a sideline :mad:

Timmaay

mythos110 wrote: »

Engineer myself too and also with a nice toolkit built up and expanded since my time as an apprentice! I find it very rewarding work to take something that is faulty, get to the bottom of it and get it working again. If only treating animal sickness etc was as logical and straightforward!
I do all repairs to the silage harvester/mower - all implements etc myself as you tend to need them going in a hurry and can't be waiting on someone else.
The only time I'd take a step back is on anything internal in a tractor as the workload of working fulltime and farming part time doesn't leave enough for that sort of project.
Happy to pay a professional on occasion!

Another engineer here ha, and would happily spend all day messing about with machinery, but as a full-time dairyfarmer it certainly doesn't pay for me to do much machinery repair work anymore. Even keeping a good set of tools together is a challenge nowadays (finally got the workshop somewhat cleaned out a few weeks ago at least ha). Thankfully I've a good local independent mechanic, he's kept well busy and will take afew weeks before he can get around to any of the non critical jobs. The aim here moving forward would be to keep 2 simple and reliable enough tractors, the small few bits of machinery like the topper, fert spreader etc, keep them all fresh enough, and in general keep the need for unexpected machinery downtime low enough. And of course the few good neighbours who you can liberally borrow stuff off when needs be ha.

kay 9

Same as most on here. Fix what we can and everything else to a man that's as hard got as a unicorn. Usually busy or on the beer. He's fixed alot of problems over the phone too Which can be handy.
Ps. Some amount of engineering heads on here . Proud of my fellow farmers.
Plumber, pipe fitter and welder myself. The skills can be useful at times.

_Brian

We're both engineers, while I don't work maintenance any more that's my background, other lad works maintenance too.

We repair/bodge/fabricate our way along best we can, but as part timers with young kids time is the biggest obstacle.

Currently the 885Xl is waiting to have cab lifted off and a repair in the back end done as lift arms stopped working. Haven't done it before but few bits of days will get it done. Split it and fitted new clutch last year.

emaherx

I'm also an engineer by trade and fix / service all the tractors / machinery here. Would tackle most work without hesitation. But would send off some parts to specialist machine shops if necessary.

Seems, to be a lot of farmers in engineering roles..... Or engineers playing farmer!

_Brian

emaherx wrote: »

I'm also an engineer by trade and fix / service all the tractors / machinery here. Would tackle most work without hesitation. But would send off some parts to specialist machine shops if necessary.

Seems, to be a lot of farmer in engineering roles..... Or engineers playing farmer!

I hired maintenance for years in large operation and would always seek out lads from country backgrounds who tinkered with stuff all their lives.

HR asked me about it one day and laughed at my response.

I wanted lads that we're accustomed to having to figure out something to get a machine working rather than lads who never saw a "bodge" done in their lives. I'd be looking at lads hands during interviews, you can always see a lad that tinkers with machines, hands tell it all.

lakill Farm

_Brian wrote: »

I hired maintenance for years in large operation and would always seek out lads from country backgrounds who tinkered with stuff all their lives.

HR asked me about it one day and laughed at my response.

I wanted lads that we're accustomed to having to figure out something to get a machine working rather than lads who never saw a "bodge" done in their lives. I'd be looking at lads hands during interviews, you can always see a lad that tinkers with machines, hands tell it all.

hides my hands , fairy soft :cool:

emaherx

_Brian wrote: »

I hired maintenance for years in large operation and would always seek out lads from country backgrounds who tinkered with stuff all their lives.

HR asked me about it one day and laughed at my response.

I wanted lads that we're accustomed to having to figure out something to get a machine working rather than lads who never saw a "bodge" done in their lives. I'd be looking at lads hands during interviews, you can always see a lad that tinkers with machines, hands tell it all.

It's funny that you say that, because when I was approached within the company for my current roll, the conversation started with "Your a farmer right?" "You probably have worked on some big machines?" and finally "you don't mind getting your hands dirty?"

kay 9

Only problem with that is I know some lads that are always at machinery but break more than they fix.
Granted, most people with farming backgrounds have an edge on the competition.
Sometimes it's nice to teach a fella from scratch as well, a lad with no bad habits or that thinks he knows it all.

emaherx

Think we all know some of them. I know plenty of farmers who shouldn't be allowed to open the tool box unsupervised

patsy_mccabe

kay 9 wrote: »

Only problem with that is I know some lads that are always at machinery but break more than they fix.
Granted, most people with farming backgrounds have an edge on the competition.
Sometimes it's nice to teach a fella from scratch as well, a lad with no bad habits or that thinks he knows it all.

Ya getting stuck in and tying things up with pallets and baling twine isn't always the best solution.

mythos110

The worst thing is getting a call from someone who has "had a go" themselves and made a balls of things. You ask them was this like that when you started? -"It was ya" but you know they have been rooting at it and haven't a clue. I can pretty much put anything I take apart back together, but if someone else has been at it I run a mile!

Also had a neighbour who asked me to help pull his 6320 John Deere off the road because the "computer was broken". I asked them what was wrong and he said they had to jump it that morning then the lights came on the dash during the day until it stopped driving altogether. I said I'd check the alternator for him as it sounded like he was just running out of power but he was certain that the computer was gone. Passed the following evening to see the JD van with the mechanic taking out the alternator! Never offered my services there again!

ganmo

i havent a bonkers how to fix machinery...i'll have a fair idea of what might be broken but i'd probably make things worse

a lad comes to fix the tractor, only got him a few years ago

Grueller

Routine maintenance and small repairs are done by the same clown that does everything around here.
Large repairs, ie splitting anything done by a local independent mechanic.
The clown by the way answers to Grueller.

The part time boy

Would do a fair bit my self . Father was very good at it too so we do most apart from the big fixes . Spitting a tractor ect.

Our main dealer is very good . If something is broken he talk us through how we can fix it . What to take of first etc .

Reggie.

lakill Farm wrote: »

hides my hands , fairy soft :cool:

I agree with ya

Attie

mythos110 wrote: »

The worst thing is getting a call from someone who has "had a go" themselves and made a balls of things. You ask them was this like that when you started? -"It was ya" but you know they have been rooting at it and haven't a clue. I can pretty much put anything I take apart back together, but if someone else has been at it I run a mile!

Also had a neighbour who asked me to help pull his 6320 John Deere off the road because the "computer was broken". I asked them what was wrong and he said they had to jump it that morning then the lights came on the dash during the day until it stopped driving altogether. I said I'd check the alternator for him as it sounded like he was just running out of power but he was certain that the computer was gone. Passed the following evening to see the JD van with the mechanic taking out the alternator! Never offered my services there again!

Have a mate like that only ring someone whom can fix it after he has been through it like a physic of salts and made a balls of things.

Who2

I will try and fix things myself, and do the services and such. But time is often the killer, at the end of the day it's only a big jigsaw and if you take it apart you just make sure your capable of putting it back together. Spotting the little things is the secret.

patsy_mccabe

I find that mechanics that sell you the parts are very obliging. They don't have to do any of the work yet still make money on the parts sold.
I find taking plenty of photos as you disassemble great when you are head scratching.

Sam Kade

Years ago I worked with a farmer who had a county 1164, the disc went in the clutch so he decided we'd fix it. We split the tractor with both ends supported on timber blocks :eek: we got the job done but had some fun lining up the splines to get it back together.

kevthegaff

Change minor things like hydraulic pump, feel pump, front axle shaft servicing but not the big jobs like clutch etc

G-Man

Sam Kade wrote: »

Years ago I worked with a farmer who had a county 1164, the disc went in the clutch so he decided we'd fix it. We split the tractor with both ends supported on timber blocks :eek: we got the job done but had some fun lining up the splines to get it back together.

Split a major to fix bolts on the clutch plate fingers.. I remember waggling the pto shaft with a wheel brace as we pushed it back together.. Major was not live drive, so I guess there was only one set of splines to lign up.. Would the newer tractors have multiple concentric splines.. I guess more things to waggle.

Sam Kade

G-Man wrote: »

Split a major to fix bolts on the clutch plate fingers.. I remember waggling the pto shaft with a wheel brace as we pushed it back together.. Major was not live drive, so I guess there was only one set of splines to lign up.. Would the newer tractors have multiple concentric splines.. I guess more things to waggle.

Same thing move the PTO, possibly engage the pto lever first. but the big Job was pushing it back together with all the wheels equal size and a foot to spare between the front and back wheels.