Son decided he didn't want to fix up the other Kuhn FC 243 RTG and we went with him to work out a deal on a new one, same model. It came in last week and we went by today and it was in the shop being assembled. We wanted to see how it was going and naturally the rollers is one thing we wanted check out since the old one has roller problems but we found out it's 10 years old.
Anyway the District Rep. is meeting with us possibly Monday to take a look at them. Here's a couple pictures, both spots appear that someone tried to smooth out a seam with a grinder or a sander or something and completely took off the round edge in about an 1 1/2" long spot, I'd say there's close to 1/8" ground away in one area. The other spot doesn't appear to be as bad but not happy about either spot. Is this something we need to be concerned with or not? We have one with roller problems we don't need another. They're planning on delivering it next week.
I would not like that either. It would be really hard for them to convince me that was "normal" for a NEW machine. If I paid for a new machine, I would want ALL NEW PARTS, not one that had already been repaired...........
.............that is unless I understood that before the deal finalized, and got one he!! of a discount on it.
That just looks like a manufacturing defect and the roller should be replaced. I wouldn't negotiate a lower price as you are then stuck with whatever comes.
I think it had bad spots in it and they tried to do something to smooth out the top roller. Possibly even some filler because a small piece rolled off in my wife's hand. The bottom roller has no spots like this at all that we've seen.
If its not right its not right! You bought a new machine defects are not acceptable. When companies price them as they do squawks must be addressed immediately and corrected! Replaced roller now!!!!
Luckily they don't have a dime in it right now except time and fuel to and from dealers. Haven't even signed any papers except to get approved for financing.
Well my wife may have hit on something that I hadn't thought of. Notice how clean that area is? I ran fingers over those areas and it was free of any dust or pollen. Some of the sheetmetal had so much pollen on it I thought there was something wrong with the paint until I ran finger through the pollen. We looked over this thing pretty good when it was sitting in the crate. We didn't see any marks or scuffs of any kind but were not able to rotor the rollers because they had the cutter heads secured from turning. The grind marks on the roller were very fresh when we saw it today and the other week it was covered bad with pollen and dust. What she's thinking is they either ran a forklift fork into it or gouged the roller trying to lay the machine down.
This whole fiasco has been one big cluster flub. They made the deal at one dealer and that dealer had it shipped to a dealer closer to us to save on freight and let the closer dealer assemble it. Then the original dealer is suppose to pick it up and deliver it. None of this was relayed to us until the, supposed, company decision was made to handle it this way. To me that's like buying a car and the dealer bringing it into another dealer to have prepped. Maybe that's the way they do business these days. That part of the deal alone has left a sour taste in our mouths ever since we found out this was the way the deal was going to go down and now this problem shows up.
You might be onto something about being hit with a forklift.
What does a set of rolls cost for this machine? I would maybe talk them down in price as much as you can. Use this discount to buy another set of rolls or just the top roll. Take the machine as is. The fix job might not last one season or it might last for years. But you will already have an other set to put in when they do give.
I would tell them we were starting over and they would be assembling a different machine. Even with a new roller they would be selling this one to someone else.
They can figure out how the damage happened and follow up on that because it would be their mower.
You bought new. Not "like new" or refirbished.
If you buy this one you will always wonder what happened. Fork lift stabbing, dropped on something, backed into something on the truck etc. Any future breakdown would have me wondering if it was because of what ever happened.
I agree Tim. I think right now the whole deal is off regardless of what they do. Wife and son are just completely soured on the whole deal. I got to thinking about what the guy at Circle C told me about the tubing underneath factory rolls and he said that it's only 1/8" wall seamed tubing, very thin to begin with and if it's got a ding in it the rubber is going to probably turn loose eventually. He said when they make new rollers that start with 1/4" wall tubing, I believe he said seamless tubing but don't quote on the seamless part.
I agree Tim. I think right now the whole deal is off regardless of what they do. Wife and son are just completely soured on the whole deal. I got to thinking about what the guy at Circle C told me about the tubing underneath factory rolls and he said that it's only 1/8" wall seamed tubing, very thin to begin with and if it's got a ding in it the rubber is going to probably turn loose eventually. He said when they make new rollers that start with 1/4" wall tubing, I believe he said seamless tubing but don't quote on the seamless part.
I agree Tim. I think right now the whole deal is off regardless of what they do. Wife and son are just completely soured on the whole deal. I got to thinking about what the guy at Circle C told me about the tubing underneath factory rolls and he said that it's only 1/8" wall seamed tubing, very thin to begin with and if it's got a ding in it the rubber is going to probably turn loose eventually. He said when they make new rollers that start with 1/4" wall tubing, I believe he said seamless tubing but don't quote on the seamless part.
I would have to measure the thickness of the roll on my kuhn but it is alot thicker than 1/8 of an inch. I also talked to circle c and they only make new rolls or north american mowers. Kuhn krone and some other are european. I kept reading about guys saying how thin the rolls are, so I looked at my kuhn, they are thick, heafty shafts.
Now about what to do with the new machine. Ask them what happened and see if you get an honest answer. If they are not honest dont deal with them. If they are honest and are trying to fix things or make things right than yes maybe you can work something out.
Sound like an agreement was made to purchase the machine. They have meet their end of the contract and have delivered the machine. There was some damage in shipment or assembly and unless they just refuse to repair or replace the roller with a new one they have meet there obligation.
All he has to do is refuse the machine. No way can anyone expect him to accept damaged goods, no matter how good the repairs.
If I bought a truck that had to be delivered from another dealer, I would not accept one that was wrecked on it's way to me.
I would be tempted to get the serial number off this machine and make sure they did not try to slip it to be as a different machine once repairs were made.
Well rajela let me put it to you this way. When a salesman tells you he can't come up another $500 on the trade-in because he needs it to cover his freight to get from his dealership to the farm here. He then has it delivered to a dealership that's 6 miles away from here and says he might just let the nearby dealer sell the trade-in and doesn't mention anything about all this until we ask for him to tell us when it comes in so we check it out, as far as I'm concerned that's breech of "verbal" contract. We didn't want the local dealer involved in this transaction period but he went about making all these decisions without our consent. He gave us the best price and he's a huge Kuhn dealer where as the nearby dealer will not even try and sell a Kuhn mower conditioner, they'll sell Kuhn rakes and tedders but to our knowledge never a mower conditioner, they wouldn't even give us a price on it until we forced their hand on it and now they're the ones handling the assembly and he informed us that they will be handling any service it might need. What kind of service is one going to get after someone dumps a mower on someone else's inventory lot and then is informed them that they will be assembling it and handling the service on it even though they didn't sell it? I think it's a piss poor way of doing business.
To me its very simple. I wouldn't touch that one, I would ask for another. As stated above take down the SN. If it did get damaged in assembly, the last thing I want would want is the same bone head tearing apart a new machine and installing new parts.
Yeah, I agree if you decide you don't want this particular machine there is nothing saying you have to take it since you haven't signed anything. The fact that they tried to cover up the damage by grinding it down would piss me off....they should have told you about it before trying to do anything. Maybe look into a different brand of mower?
Yeah, I agree if you decide you don't want this particular machine there is nothing saying you have to take it since you haven't signed anything. The fact that they tried to cover up the damage by grinding it down would piss me off....they should have told you about it before trying to do anything. Maybe look into a different brand of mower?
If they truly considered the mower to be your mower, they would have shown you the damage and asked how to proceed as soon as it happened.
I am with Cline that it would tick me off that I had to find the damage and that they had attempted to smooth it over with out telling me.
If you had not noticed the damage until after cutting the first time then they would have blamed it on you, said you hit something. The fact they were not up front with you is a deal breaker.
Now you have rookies trying to assemble a machine they have never sold yet alone assembled.
The mower and both dealers are damaged goods in my book.
It is a shame that the mower is the brand and model you feel comfortable with.
Tell them you changed your mind after seeing the damage the machine had, contact Kuhn, and never go back to that dealer again.....that's the craziest way of doing business I've EVER heard of......
Another thing that upsets my wife a lot is the fact that we're going to have to handle this at the local dealer where her family has been doing business longer than we've been alive and she's on a first name basis with over half the people working there. We're just hope they don't take all this personal but we fear they will. To me all of this could have been avoided if the original salesman had handled the entire thing through his dealership, there would be a brand mower probably sitting in the shed right now or this week and everyone would have been happy. Here's what she told him Friday on the phone, "buying a new piece of equipment should be a joyous occasion but since we're small potatoes compared to what some people buy I guess we don't matter", he didn't have much to say. My wife is one tough cookie and handle pretty much anything that's thrown at her. She grew up helping her late Dad like she was a son, milking cows and handling day to day stuff on the farm ever since she was about 8 years old.
Would it be better to deal with the dealer who you originally did business with? This has kind of been dumped in your local dealer's lap. Since your wife knows them well and hard feelings could happen, I would probably call the original dealer.
They created this, let them deal with making it right with you or the smaller dealer.
I wouldn't accept these rolls. I don't have an opinion on accepting this particular machine, but I wouldn't take it with these rollers. It will start delaminating in the damaged area, maybe sooner than later. From the photo it looks like maybe a glancing blow from the tip of a forklift fork. It looks like there were some holes drilled in the damaged area? It didn't leave the assembly line in that condition. The Kuhn rep probably won't expect you to take it in this condition.
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