Thoughts on new CTLs and warranties

[SkidTracks]

Over the years, of buying four new CTLs, with full factory warranties. Things have changed in last couple of years, and not for better.

Two recent purchases of CTLs, from two large and well know makers, has me seriously questioning value of factory warranties. Not add-on warranties, which were already of questionable value.

Recent experience comes down to, servicing dealer and manufacture don't know what is causing problem. And have chosen to declare machine fixed. Under the claim of "working as designed". Even though problem developed after couple months of use. Dealer's Field Tech saw problem early on, and he had never seen such a problem. With problem continuing to get worse as time progressed, to point of being a safety issue to operator.

I would suggest, until manufactures start standing behind Factory warranty's and dealers get well trained service techs, you are better off keeping your current CTL vs. trading it in. Exceptions would be - your CTL caught fire or it was submerged under water for several weeks...

 

[fortworth-cowboy]

Well, that is a Problem not only for CTLs , it is also for Cars, Trucks, ATVs etc.
With that comes that you can not find decent mechanics anymore, the young people have not enough experience and the experienced mechanics are not getting enough paid. And I know what I am talking about, I walked away from being a Shop Foreman for almost 5 Years because of the pay.
I saw the struggle and still see the struggle at Dealerships which sell CTLs.
And trust me the requirements for Factory Warranty for a Dealer are ridiculous. As an Example, Main Harness Failure: Manufacture gives you 6 Hours to replace it, that includes the Diag, the removal and the reinstall. Between you have to take about 150 Pictures (each connector from the failing harness) plus a Bible long Story what failed and where and so on. On Top of that, even a experienced mechanic can not get the harness out under 4 Hours (DEF Tank in the Way and many other things) and you can not cut the old harness because the manufacture might want it back and if it is cut --NO Money for the Dealer.
On Top of that, after Covid the QC was basically not existing. Sometimes we got machines on the Yard on a Truck which were not even running.
You mentioned that " Not add-on warranties, which were already of questionable value." -- Let me ask you this, and Bobcat here as an example:
1 Year Bumper to Bumper Warranty included -- 2 Year Battery Warranty included -- 5 Year Emissions Warranty included
The add on you can buy is either 3 or 5 years, basically Bumper to Bumper excluding Wear Items (Which are also excluded by the Original Warranty after a certain amount of hours) I wanna say a warranty for 3 years for a T770 cost ~ $3500 and a 5 year ~ $5000.
One harness or one controller or one hydrostatic pump failure or one drive motor and this warranty paid for itself! IF the owner keeps up with the maintenance and has receipts ---GOLDEN! BUT there is the Problem--- keeping up with the machine is in most cases the Problem. How many times I WOULD had a Drive Motor Warranty (One Drive Motor ~ $ 4500) but the customer did not change the Drive Motor Oil every 500 Hours!

So there is more issues withe the WHOLE Industry! Factory, Dealers AND Customer!!!!

 

[mrbb]

I'm going to add this as well
the dealer you have to use also matters

some dealers know more, and do more to HELP a customer get something fixed under warranty, than other dealers that won't fight for you!

and it also comes down to how knowledgeable the dealer is at warranty claims and repairs in general
like said many times before, the DEALER matters there not all the same

just like machine operators, there not the same either!
and can seriously effect longevity of machines there using
some times going to a different dealer can net a lot different result on repairs and warranty's , just due to there experience and ability to problem solve to HELP you, or not!
also which means how warranty reps, work with a dealer
they need to play well together to have the best outcome!

and they ALL don't play well together has been my experience , which then means YOU the owner of said machine, has to learn to do extra homework to get best results if your unhappy with what is being offered to you

going on forums like this, reaching out to warranty folks and even OEM, or all of the above and then some
and I Highly recommend you start off being extra nice, even if you don;t want to be(or have reasons to not be)
but asking for outside warranty parameters ,
help can happen if , again you get the right person to work with you!
its all about wasting a lot of your time to try and get to this magical person,,

but it can happen, been there done it a few too many times, as nothing made anymore is all that great!
as sure is lots of costly junk being sold these days! IMO
but it all fall;s on your shoulders to get good help anymore, days of good customer service are gone by MOST company's it seems!

 

[SkidTracks]

Wouldn't be so bad if some dealers selling couple major brands, didn't try to play us (customers) for dumb, lay blame on us, or simply dismiss serious problem** as not a problem.

**Never mind what machine's brochure says and manufacture's website says. It's what after-sales they want to claim.

I had one dealer blame me for Air Conditioning problem. Claiming A/C problem was do to debris between radiator and A/C coils, and my failure to clean it. Some debris sure, but not enough to cause A/C problem. Had dealer bothered to test A/C system after cleaning out debris and blaming me, dealer would have found A/C was still not working. Three clues would have been: 1) Temperature inside A/C duct was about 85F on 95F day. 2) A/C system was very low on charge. 3) Adding a charge didn't hold much over 24-hours.

Same dealer went on to replace A/C compressor (after I found leak for them), questionable A/C lines, and dryer canister. Except, A/C system didn't work when they were done. A/C was now putting out 70F air on 85F days. After more wasted time and service manager putting me down** before his manager, and claiming 70F was great, working perfectly, blah, blah; later I found new problem. Dealer had put A/C dryer canister in backwards, resulting in expansion valve and coils getting a mix of freon gas and liquid. Seems canister labels, and pictures aren't enough, canister needs output threads different from input threads.

** More blame, including need for tinting windows, lecture on opening cab door (grasping at straws), replacing cab air filter (already done), and my unreasonable expectations.


Had another dealer try to convince me that our CTL was not overheating. It was simply to hot a weather for CTL. Mind you, this was years of running CTL doing same work in hot weather, without even hint of overheating. After replacing parts, several at my expense, with costly transports to/from dealership. An experienced (new to dealer) technician finally found problem. A very hard to see, plastic air duct, had melted and collapsed. Why any manufacture would place a plastic air duct behind hot side of a turbo-charger and suck air through it is beyond reason. Metal duct, sure.

Thus CTL owners may well be better off, keeping their current CTL going; than buying a new one with promise of factory warranty work. Factoring in, warranty work will occur when dealer gets around to it, and CTL may set un-worked on for weeks and later un-repaired for weeks.