I've said this for years;
Any truckmount is only as reliable as the sum of its parts...
Why does it seem like SO MANY of the "Texas Mounts" are lemons? I personally refer to them as "Northern Tool Mounts"
Suffering from
"Built on a Monday" Syndrome.
Think about it, they are JUST square tube frames, with the same or similar motors, pumps, blowers.
The only real variables are weld quality, alignment, and how many miles of hoses they use to try and control the water temperature.
They cannot be selling anywhere NEAR as many as the Big Three TM mfgs... yet an OVERWHELMING number of them have major engine/blower/pump issues, vs the Big MFG's
They don't make those components; they slap them on their frame and call it done.
The issue is, they need to make a profit, but don't have the BUYING POWER of the Big Three , so, they turn to Northern tool, who HAS the buying power, who also accepts a much, MUCH, MUUUUCH higher percentage failure rate from the products they buy, than the Big Three do, because they don't care, if they sell a Brigs 23hp engine, and it fails, who looks bad? Briggs.
If
Sapphire sells a TM, and the Briggs engine fails, THEY look bad.
SO, Texas Joe wants to buy 30 - Kohler 23.5hp motors at a discount of $100 each, Northern tool is more than happy to sell them the Kohler units
"Built on a Monday", It's the same friggin motor, but I'll guarantee you they are units thrown on an assembly line moving 2x faster, by a totally different crew.
Other major problems; are that they are a revolving door of model designs, no one unit is identical to the next, each customer is the Beta tester of that unit...
Alignment issues, poorly crimped hoses... and enough of them to stretch around the earth several times.
But... you have other so-called "Garage units"... I won't insult Judson by including them in this category, so Ill refer to anything herein as "Small batch" units.
You very rarely if ever hear of any issues... They have consistent designs, (Not changing hardly at all in 40 years in Judsons case)...
They aren't trying to blow units out at the cheapest price, so they a buying their components from better sources.