my next truckmount may be a major brand

[juniorc82]

Bought a new trucking from a smaller company in the fall (I won't throw any one under the bus so don't ask me who I bought it from) while this manufacturer has stood.by their product and paid for all repairs, in hindsight I wonder if the extra 5 grand would have been worth buying a major brand. I am happy with the performance. 34 horse 47blower However it seems as though the.engineering needs.some.fine tuning and the process might.be a.bit rushed. After a break in period plagued with.small problems I think I am.ok.now and the unit.seems ok.and.is.performing.very.well. I think I could definitely appreciate a machine that was engineered by someone with.a formal.education and the consistency of quality that comes with a manufacturing plant rather than. A crew toiling in their.garage stopping periodically to a.swear the phone. I am replacing a machine this year.that my employee may run and I may go with a new problem legend

 

[Chris A]

stop.hitting.the.period.with.your.other.finger!

 

[juniorc82]

Gimme a break I'm riding to a job typing on a kindle and I have fat fingers

 

[hogjowl]

How WAS Nick, by the way?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Sorry to hear that Jon, you were so excited too. Hopefully its all worked out now and no longer an issue for you.

While the small builders may know what they are doing we've always preferred the big guys. Pay a little more but its a small price for piece of mind.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Bought a new trucking from a smaller company in the fall (I won't throw any one under the bus so don't ask me who I bought it from) while this manufacturer has stood.by their product and paid for all repairs, in hindsight I wonder if the extra 5 grand would have been worth buying a major brand. I am happy with the performance. 34 horse 47blower However it seems as though the.engineering needs.some.fine tuning and the process might.be a.bit rushed. After a break in period plagued with.small problems I think I am.ok.now and the unit.seems ok.and.is.performing.very.well. I think I could definitely appreciate a machine that was engineered by someone with.a formal.education and the consistency of quality that comes with a manufacturing plant rather than. A crew toiling in their.garage stopping periodically to a.swear the phone. I am replacing a machine this year.that my employee may run and I may go with a new problem legend

Are you coming to Mikeys Fest Jon? There are going to be a lot of truckmounts to try and play with.....

Mark

 

[dgardner]

If you have mad mechanical skills and are comfy working on all aspects of a machine, then buy from the little guy. If he is so little that he needs money up front to build it - then run in the other direction. Of course if you're that guy you might just as well build one yourself (shamelessly copying a successful major brand, of course).

Anyone else should buy a known, nationally distributed brand, and make sure whatever he buys will be supported by his local disty.

Another possibility is buying a worn-out well-known popular unit and Vawterizing it - you end up with a pro unit, it's Vnew(!) and you now know every aspect of its operation....

 

[ruff]

I've also always bought major brands.
Mainly because I'm too chicken and totally untalented to be able to deal with the mechanical stuff. I want my distributor to deal with all of that.

I want to concentrate on providing my clients with good cleaning service. And my local supplier to concentrate on keeping me doing it.

 

[juniorc82]

Don't get me wrong I am happy with my machine. It just had a hell of a break in period andI relize that while yes I saved some money in the beginning it did come at a cost. Its running great now and kicking ass Dnt get m wrong Im not writing a thread to bash the small manufacturer I am posting a thread on the merit of doing business with a major manufacturer. I am still pleased that I got the unit because all the parts I can get localy ad ts an open style unit so I can do a lot more service y self. I just wonder when it comes to putting a fulltime second truck on the road if I will go with the consistency of a bigger brand.

 

[Mikey P]

Life is never ez..

 

[Mikey P]

But I'm glad to see you back here Jon.


I do have one free bed left at MF if you want to come out

 

[ruff]

SoifIunnderstandcorrectly.Juniorisnotbashingsmalltruckmountmanufacturersatall.
He'sjustunhappyaboutbreakintimethatinthelongrunmayhaveormayhavenotsavedhimmoney.

AmIrightoramIwrongjunior?

 

[juniorc82]

Not trying to toss anyone under the bus mike. I believe you had a Judson at one point which encompasses most of the qualities that makes smaller manufacturers machines desireable like ease of maintenanc,e very little proprietary parts and lower cost ,but you ended up with an at AT at the end of the day. I I a going to be multi truck which is where Im headed I need some consistency and peace of mind and hell maybe altle re sale value also

 

[juniorc82]

SoifIunnderstandcorrectly.Juniorisnotbashingsmalltruckmountmanufacturersatall.
He'sjustunhappyaboutbreakintimethatinthelongrunmayhaveormayhavenotsavedhimmoney.

AmIrightoramIwrongjunior?

I will try and decript you keltic jibber jab and answer..... the short version of this post is that it may be beneficial to go with a machine with a proven track record that has had the kinks worked out. I have a good running machine I just felt like I was a guinie pig at times waitin for the bugs to gt worked out of my unit. Again proven track record is what I am looking for. Consistantcy means everything in any and every business

 

[Mikey P]

You do realize that the next time you call for help this thread will have is repercussions, right?


Brave of you.


Cudos!!

 

[ruff]

I will try and decript you keltic jibber jab and answer.....

Jon. My message was that I'm interested to hear what you have to say, however as a few others have remarked in the past, please press the enter button, say every three to four sentences. It will great!

The magic word is: PARAGRAPHS.

and this too:

stop.hitting.the.period.with.your.other.finger!

Give us a clue- What are the chances?

P.S. Anyhow. Ignore. You're safe. Sorry. No more harassment from me.

 

[bob vawter]

Vawterizing it

Thank you..i loved that.....

btw...i know where there TWO old Genies jus sitting there.....
no waste tanks OR i woulda bought them

 

[JS41035]

We just swapped engines on a prochem 405. Everything was exactly the same and bolted together. You do pay more for a brand name, but factor in warranty ,downtime and resale value it really is about the same. Also a well thought out manual with diagrams of all the systems of a TM is worth a lot. You can still download PDF copies of nearly 20 year old prochems.


....

 

[hogjowl]

You can get the reliability and support of the major brands and the simplicity of the garage built units with Truck Mounts and Cleaning Solutions. www.truckmounts.com

 

[Mikey P]

what do the TCS crew say when you bring up heat exchangers?

 

[dgardner]

I always wondered what the TCS stood for....

 

[Larry Cobb]

Jon;

Every manufacturer will have some engineering design mistakes.

Look at the recent SS PTO adventure.

When you take it in to a name-brand dealer, he just works around them and usually gets it working.

When you work on it yourself, you realize the little problems that are designed into the TM.

Open design is always better IMO to minimize the time spent for service.

Larry

 

[juniorc82]

Larry, I am very much a fan of open style truckmounts. I am not trash talking anyone and have said that I am currently satisfied with my unit. Al I am sayng is tht I can see the merit of going with a bigger band that has a proven track record. On the particular unit that I purchased only a handfull had been put in the field at the time so I caught the brunt end of certain design flaws that have been addressed by the manufacturer none the less still costing me down time . Personally I have talked with several people who owned smaller units of this brand who have had no problems atall with them. I just think te model I got needed to spend a little more time in R&d to work the bugs out. On thing that is attractive to me with the bigger brands is that often their units are tested more extensively before they go in the field. Im just givingan honest opinion telling the good and the bad so Im not really concerned about this head biting me in the ass .

 

[thecleaningdude]

Thanks for sharing, Jon. Glad things are working out for you now.

Couple of questions:

-How many hours until it was broken in and running smoothly?
-Were return calls prompt and were the solutions accurate?

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Jon;

Every manufacturer will have some engineering design mistakes.

Look at the recent SS PTO adventure.

When you take it in to a name-brand dealer, he just works around them and usually gets it working.

When you work on it yourself, you realize the little problems that are designed into the TM.

Open design is always better IMO to minimize the time spent for service.

Larry

What did you work out on the machine Brummett bought from you that didn't have a provision for belt tensioning?

 

[Mikey P]

each and every new truckmount will have issues. Butler, AT, PC, HM, Cobbs, EZ, Judson you name it.. all will have stuff go wrong.


YOU need to pick who you think makes the most consistent model with the features you want and has an easy to reach service department , rep or hillbilly with a cell phone.



So many choices..

Small car engine or lawn mower, aluminum or stainless, tried and true or new design with every build, Propane or HX, on top of waste tank or free standing, nut job shade tree garage welder or corporate soulless entity, 2000 miles away or the next city over, safety features or run for your life, looks like a Jr High science project or bad ass slick as it gets, board de'jour or dare not mention the name in fear of being told we told you so....

 

[Dolly Llama]

On the particular unit that I purchased only a handfull had been put in the field at the time


Personally I have talked with several people who owned smaller units of this brand who have had no problems atall with them.

pret'near any backyard mechanic can build a 36 blower TM
Gets a little tougher with a 45
47 and up is when the engineering problems start to manifest in spades

Al I am sayng is tht I can see the merit of going with a bigger band that has a proven track record.

It's not necessarily the "big name brand" manufacture you need to look at, it's whether the TM has been in production for awhile and the warts have been ironed out


..L.T.A.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think the biggest value of the bigger guys is the distributor network. You don't have to take it back to some guy 3-4 states away or cross country. You can buy it local or within an hour or two so "if & when" there is a problem you don't have as much down time trucking it back and forth.

 

[juniorc82]

calls where returned promptly, they paid to have any service related issue fixed at a local agriculture equipment dealership, some parts that where needed did require a follow up call or 2 but we always got them. Ive got around 200 hours on the unit now. My only complaint really is that there was a massive amount of small problems in the beginning and the downtime really hurt. I had a restaurant that I almost lost because I had to come back on 2 separate occasions due to mechanical failures. In all fairness some of the issues where due to a kohler engine which had electrical issues with the starter. That kohler engine also had overheating issues because it is so big that the manufacturer had to create a fan that mounted on the frame to keep the machine cool which helped considerably. My major quam is that I bought a machine that was still new to the field and not tried and tested. This could have happened weather I bought a major brand or a small brand so maybe my thread title is not fair. I think the main thing I will do on my next purchase is make sure which ever machine Ii purchase has a more proven track record ensuring that my business does not have to endure the lab rat phase. This was particularly disappointing because I refered a good friend to buy a machine from the same place and it has been the same story for him, and yes he is being taken care of but none the less he is having a machine with issues out of the gate.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Every manufacturer will have some engineering design mistakes.

Look at the recent SS PTO adventure.

Larry wasn't the Pro 1200 was just rpms on a unit installed on a smaller motor than spec? I never heard it was an engineering mistake. Sounds like you're back on the PTO war path again Larry. You really hate those units don't you?


Jon I would agree make sure the model of what ever brand has had some hours behind it. It will lessen the chance of problems with the unit, but like Mike stated all machines will have some trouble during their life of use.