New JD owner

Now, just so that I understand. Did you say the sprocket was new $80, and the post was discontinued, and the machine shop could rebush the sprocket and rebuild the post for $30? If so, that is nowhere close to saying that you could have the parts "made" for less money. Re-bushing a sprocket and welding up and grinding down a post is a far cry from fabricating them from scratch, and as an old machine shop hand I know what I'm talking about. Re-bush/weld up is an apple-n-oranges comparison. Tell me if I didn't understand, as the description was a little unclear.

If hire the shop to lay out that sprocket and index and mill all of the teeth and reliefs, bore it, put in some snap ring grooves, etc., and that machine shop will tell you that $80 is only a down payment. Examples like this are why I said, IMHO, the "JD Parts are overpriced" statement has not been accurate, at least in my expereience and that's going back some. Part by part, compared to availability brand between brands, it's all pretty equal. I think it's an urban legend, predicated upon one off situations, not looking over a few hundred examples. I can give you some examples of parts that I purchased during my last bumper to bumper refurbishment, which was a 70 Diesel, where the genuine part was less at Deere than through other sources, like say, NAPA on seals and bearings that crossed at my local Motion Industries.

Also, if you buy alot of parts, strike an agreement with your dealer for special pricing on shop service hours, as well as parts. I negotiate a sizable discount prior to my starting a big project, or a substantial work period since I might be working on more than one green machine, with discount levels based on the dollars that I've spent for the year. The more I spend, the bigger the discount I get. It gets indexed at specific breaks, $500/$1000/$1500/$2000/$2500 and up. On a 4440 that I restored after a nasty cab fire in 1981 cost $6,000 in parts in 1981 dollars, and I had a pricing agreement set up with the dealer and it worked out very well for me. He was sure of a chunk of parts business, and I knew that as the project cost more, I would get a bigger and bigger discount. The three different JD dealers that I have used pricing agreements with all told me that I was the first person that ever asked for a deal.

MAY GOD BLESS THE USA

You say alot of research and development goes into their stuff, That's fine, but why charge us for it. that's their baby. I didn't ask for a million dollar design for a ROPS or whatever else. The problem is all of these friggin sue happy people out there. The way I grew up is you fell on your can, you got up, brushed yourself off, mumbled to yourself about being a dumb a##, and went on your way. Now a days you can get sued for your dandilions spreading to your neighbors lawn. People just need to get over being dumb, and quit suing for their retardedness. THAT'S why so much research goes into parts, for the legal reasons. On the cardboard of a fan belt is a warning telling you not to change with the engine running. WTF, you know somebody sued because of that or there wouldn't be a warning on it. Legal fees=higher parts prices. Simple as that!

I have a little insight on R&D as I am an engineer on a Deere remote test location. We test because we want our product to be supreme without blemish, and of course because we want it to be expensive when you buy parts from your dealer (that is out goal). When a machine is tested for durability as we test at my location the machines are completly dismembered when the test is finised to check for internal wear. Because Deere cares for the customer they will not sell these machines for fear that something will not be reassembled correctly. They would rather throw it in the trash than to sell a bad machine to a dissatisfied customer.

As far as overpriced parts..... how bout I just bought all the parts I need to rebuild the shifter on one of my 720 tractors for around $30.00. They are all still available! Go to a dealer of another color to find out how many internal parts are still available! If the unlikley case is that they are still available they wont be cheap!

As a stockholder, I thank you for your buisiness, and hope that you will continue to buy Genuine John Deere Parts.

I buy parts for a lot of different colors, and the "JD parts are overpriced" is wearing thin and really never was accurate, just easy to say. There are a lot of 40+ year old machines that are not obsolete because the company continues to source parts for them. That overhead had to go somewhere.

Buy what you like and like what you buy I say. Bitchin' about the cost of a parts for an old machine that you want to try and get by with so you can avoid the cost of a new machine is your problem, not mine.

If you can't afford to pay, then don't play. Simple as that.