maintenance or repair - Snowmobile Forum: Your #1 Snowmobile Forum

upersleder · 01-09-2006, 01:45 PM

just wish to share something with you guys.

i used to own a small engine repair shop, it was my last name + maintenance and repair. well people used to say they were the same thing, i would have to disagree.

when you buy something it is designed to last a certain period of time, give you so much use before it breaks. now lets take a snowblower, they are designed for a four to seven year trouble free life.

so lets say you buy a snowblower along with your neighbor, at the same time and you both use it when needed, first year great, fall comes, yours starts, you use it, your buddie takes his to me and i do the $40 maintenance on it. next three years same thing, your buddie has $160 into his snowblower maintaining it, you have $0, good so far, but then you hit the damn newspaper in the driveway, in reality your neighbot does too, both at the same time no less! while he shears his $1.99 shear pin because someone has been greasing his machine, yours was all rusted up leading to you bringing it to me for a $500+ REPAIR! see the difference?

point is, maintain your equipment, wether it be the snowmobile, car or lawnmower, you'll be money ahead. learn how to do it if you can, buy a manual, read it and save yourself headaches. even if you have to pay someone to maintain it, it will be cheaper than reapiring it later.

IndianRvrShiver · 01-09-2006, 03:37 PM

Good words, uper!!

BRPforlife · 01-09-2006, 03:41 PM

I agree, a little maintenance goes a long way.

vMaxxKid · 01-09-2006, 05:12 PM

i couldnt agree more. Thats what i love about this site, if you dont know something about ur sled you can ask here without getting made fun of. Everyday i learn more and more stuff here thanks to everyone.

94zr580 · 01-09-2006, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vMaxxKid
, if you dont know something about ur sled you can ask here without getting made fun of.

thats true to some degree, oil cap any one?

ecsnowmobiling · 01-09-2006, 05:22 PM

Awesome words uper

and I agree about not being made fun except cough oil cap cough

big guy · 01-09-2006, 05:29 PM

Pay me now or Pay Me Later!

Jace · 01-09-2006, 06:01 PM

I work on robots and computer automated machinery for a living and we perform LOTS of maintenance (which saves on down-time). We have many PM's (Planned or Preventative Maintenance) monthly, semi-annual, and annual for each robot.

UpperSleder, you're gonna laugh at me but my simplicity is 12 years old now, and the front augers have been stuck for about 10 years. I had removed the shear pins completely and applied some more grease each year but they wont break free! One of these winters, I'm gonna have a problem and will have to use the torch to heat up the tubes and drive them off.

letitsnow · 01-09-2006, 06:09 PM

in my dads buisness he has preventive matinence that he does. one account canceled last year because they thought it was too much money. about 2 weeks after when he would have gone there they called him with soo much stuff f'd up, it costed them 2 or 3 times more than the PM. he told me it was all stuff that would have been covered with PM!

illwerral · 01-09-2006, 06:20 PM

Highly important stuff, no machine can be expected to work properly without proper care.

**smallengineguy** · 01-09-2006, 07:46 PM

I DO own my own shop, and I preach it every year to my customers. I still have the person who says "My piece of junk brand X won't start!" and I look at it and say to myself, no wonder....It's not the brand, it's the NEGLECT!!!

94zr580 · 01-09-2006, 08:59 PM

no matter how much matinence u do, your sleds gonna have problems. so is your bike, car, and lawn mower. but yea, neglect will certainly make it burn out quicker. just sayin u cant totally prevent problems.

rgoers · 01-09-2006, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by smallengineguy
I DO own my own shop, and I preach it every year to my customers. I still have the person who says "My piece of junk brand X won't start!" and I look at it and say to myself, no wonder....It's not the brand, it's the NEGLECT!!!

Speaking of neglect: I have an old Murray push mower that I bought back in the early 80's ('84 I think). I have never (yes, never) changed the oil in it. I leave old gas in it all winter, and it still starts with a couple pulls in the summer. Some day the old thing is going to die... wish it would hurry up, so I can have an excuse to buy a decent push mower.

illwerral · 01-09-2006, 09:27 PM

lol I know where you're coming from. We have a mid 80s Volvo car that always ran just good enough to not merit a new vehicle. It would make terrible screeching noises, the doors got tied shut at least once, but my dad would be damned if he took it off the road

Until finally my brother and I couldn't share the back seat, and we got a van

BRPforlife · 01-09-2006, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rgoers
Speaking of neglect: I have an old Murray push mower that I bought back in the early 80's ('84 I think). I have never (yes, never) changed the oil in it. I leave old gas in it all winter, and it still starts with a couple pulls in the summer. Some day the old thing is gong to die... wish it would hurry up, so I can have an excuse to buy a decent push mower.

I'm in the same boat with my snowblower! The thing has been in the garage for as long as i can remember, never change the oil never change the gas over the summer. Starts up no problem every winter and gets the job done. It's got a tecumseh motor in it and we've never had a single problem.

fr0st · 01-10-2006, 08:22 AM

my old 89' corolla is now at 305 000 km and still going strong... it has original clutch in it... it's not even rusty...and the AC still works(repaired once).... ever seen a 89 corolla with no rust on ORIGINAL paint? this one is

the previous owner was a manintenance freak.. it has a windows Excel file from day 1 with ALL that has been done with the date, and mileage.. always had syth castrol in in mineral in summer ( yes he mixed oil) and thei thing wont even take a 1/4 of a quart between oil changes.. you dont even here a squeak or rattle anyway.. it looks liek it has 150 000 km on it.. my wifes car 99 protege has more noises all over with 115 000 km

THATS maintenance..

Fr0st

94zr580 · 01-10-2006, 04:03 PM

how many miles is 305000 km? i wish i could say good things about my previous owner... 93 isuzu pickup. the rust fairy paid it many many visits.

fr0st · 01-11-2006, 09:47 AM

it's 183 000 miles.... i took the compression of it, it's not at a 145-144-149-152

not too bad for a 17 year old car.. and doesn't even burn oil.

it's a good winter beater... of and also good when it's over 100 degrees outside ( A/C)

Fr0st