Lower cost parts..???

[wheelie]

I just bought a Brute (MTD) with a 46' deck (believe about 2009 model year).. The tractor itself looks like brand new.. not a scratch or wear mark on it.. The deck has a couple issues.. Center spindle is going out (Center blade was bent so probably the cause..) and the discharge chute is missing.... HELP.. a Discharge Chute at $45.00 or more.. Sure would like to find a place with better rates.. I also have a 2000 14HP 42 inch Ace (MTD). that Have ben keeping running for the last 6 years.. .. appreciate any advice .. both on costs and on the mowers.. This Brute is way more sophisticated than I have ran before. LOL.. Thanks..

 

[Rivets]

Give us model numbers so we can see what you are talking about, as our ESP has been interrupted by the debate on Tuesday.

 

[StarTech]

Yes MTD recently had some huge price hikes on certain items to the shops but want us to hold the line. The $45 is an usual price for these chutes. But as Rivets suggests post your numbers and we see if any online retailer can give you a better price.

But I just brought some idler pulleys that were under $9.50 cost in June that are now they are 14.02 each with the same list price of $15.58. If wasn't for me ordering enough other parts to get free shipping I would be losing money. MTD don't mind sticking to us shops but being a pain insisting on us to still keep the old list prices. NO wonder my bottom line is tanking lately.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

If you can get the parts. A bunch of stuff i just want to restock with from Stens and HL supply and my stihl dealer are backordered for months.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Say thank you to President Trump
Bringing production back to the USA and having a trade war with China was only going to do one thing to prices
All my wholesalers have increased prices this year
RGS went up 15% and Stens went up 4% .
Discharge shoots are mower parts and just about every deck uses a different chute and they are a bulky item so a lot of warehouse space needs to be devoted to them
Warehouses cost money and a single pallet space can run over a grand a year so you need to be making over a grand in profit a year on what was on that pallet just cover the cost of it sitting there getting old.
Then it has the be ordered, picks, packed, despatched & delivered to the shop before finally being in your hot hands so in reality at $ 45 they are most likely loosing money on it .
FWIW a 42" craftsman ( Husqvarna style ) deck chute down here is $ 175 ( Aus ) around $ 120 US and they would be the most common & fasted moving chutes down here .

 

[StarTech]

If you can get the parts. A bunch of stuff i just want to restock with from Stens and HL supply and my stihl dealer are backordered for months.

Yes the pandemic and trade wars are really messing things up. Most of my back orders are finally clearing up. I have been lucky enough on common parts that to of have them in stock and just need replacements for stock. But by the time they arrive I was already needing them again.

I got parts that currently back ordered from the first week of June. NGK spark plugs and Husqvarna parts are currently on back order. At the item are on back order are stock items. A lot time I shop for items that are in stock which cost a little more than the distributor that I normally use but turn around times are important is profitable to charge a little more on repairs.

A lot of the prices is just plain profiteering too with others being currently sold at break even prices. An example is the 941-0919B bearing that has a list price of $14.99 from MTD. My lord it is a 6204-2RS bearing from China. I get mine from a local bearing supplier less than the MTD distributor. And Jack's is asking $16.04 that bearing and I know what that bearing from my distributor costs so they making over 5X on it but there other parts from MTD that they making barely any profit at all on.

But anyways you will not find me paying $15 for a $3 bearing. Now of course I buy 30+ bearing at a time too. For the repair shop we got to use our heads and build up a good cross reference database. Sometime distributors for OEM are just lower at times than places like Stens that are just reselling OEM parts at a higher prices. I have been building my cross reference internal inventory database since 2014.

When it comes down to it the end user isn't the only that being squeezed. I can just scream at times lately. Four more years of this squeezing will put me of business if not sooner.

 

[bertsmobile1]

bearings are always a worry.
I get most through my mower wholesalers because I trust them to be good.
Price is less than retail for a standard bearing so I can add a mark up.
The most counterfited items apparently are bearings .
According to the engineering supply shop I get the ones my wholesales do not stock from.
Way back he showed me dealer notices about fake Timkin, SKF & NGK bearings from the 3 distributors al of which included a spotters fee for any one who could identify a supplier of counterfit bearings.
It also reminded them that factories in China, Indonesia,The Phillipines & India will put any name on the side of a bearing that the customer asks for if the quantities are big enough.
Timken notice also warned about giving refunds asapparently there was a scam a the time where people were buying genuine Timken bearings and also counterfit Timken bearings , then returning the fakes for a refund.
So now any one returning a Timken for refund can only do it via a credit card and the "wrong" bearing gets sent back to Timken for certification .
What really blew my mind was some time latter when I mentioned it and the owner told be Timken had taken several thousand people to court over the scam in Australia alone.
Apparently it has become such a problem in commercial avaition that all bearings now have serial numbers and if the engineering clerk can not trace that number all the way back to the factory it does not get fitted.

 

[StarTech]

A very valid point. This why I order from a known source too.

When it comes to safety and reliabiltity it is very important to use known good bearings and being trace them back to there source is a good way to verify where they were made and if there is a manufacturing problem. When flying you just can't pull over and stop because a bearing failure. Outcomes are usually heck a lot worst.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Besides mower parts i see a lot of chainsaws. There are no husqvarna dealers near me but there are 3 Stihl dealers so this is Stihl country. All 3 dealers are always backed up about a week or so on saws getting repaired. I have people bring me saws out of warranty that dealers tell them the cost of repairs is more than the saw is worth. I look up the parts needed to fix the saw from stihl and if the parts are available they are ridiculously priced. If it was not for aftermarket parts there would be a lot more chainsaws in landfills. A few days ago my Neighbor showed me a quote from the dealer in town for an M-tronic MS362C with extra bar and chain $964 plus tax. Sometimes i think stihl just want to sell saws and is wanting to not fix broke ones because they know they will but another stihl.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Stihl run several different lines of products
nearly all of what they sell are the low end Chinese made ( they have 2 factories in China + a carburettor plant ) aimed at chepskate home owners and these are the "not worth repairing " range
After that the Brazillian ones ar the next cheapest followed by the Italian & USA ones
Top line are the German made ones
Down here the same model can be made in more than one factory so when a particular saw suddenly is on special really cheap, you can be sure it has come out of the Chinese factory.
The key is in the serial numbers
1 is Germany
7 , 8 & 9 are China