[AT] 1970's farm equipment

[Henry Miller]

The 1970s when efficiency experts ruled every thing with the bean counters. Cut cost and quality were number one. The auto world had it worse than most because they suddenly had to meet emissions rules that they didn't really know how to do and so rube Goldberg contraptions were designed to that standard with predictable results. 

Modern just in time is often very inefficient, but the cost savings elsewhere make it vastly more cost effective. Consumers have also caught on to the idea that quality is sometimes worth paying for. Where the above doesn't apply is a race to the bottom that we can't win. China, like Taiwan and Japan before them is starting to drop out of the game. Africa is probably next in my opinion: Vietnam and Pakistan play a bit but they are not large enough and to beat China and they are not far behind China into getting out of that hole. India could win for a while, but they have a lot of smart people who know how to make quality (training on the job in the US or Europe) and would rather skip the cheap junk period. 



-- 
  Henry Miller
  hank at millerfarm.com

On Sun, Oct 20, 2019, at 7:36 AM, John Hall wrote:
>   Seems a lot of you guys really like talking manufacturing farm 
> equipment, so here is one for you. Be it working on our stuff, which 
> everything we have now is OLD, or working on equipment for other folks 
> (which we have pretty much stopped doing in recent years), It is my 
> opinion that some of the worst engineering and manufacturing took place 
> in the 1970's. I've ran into a couple different things that were hard to 
> find parts for, even the old guys at the dealership could not find it in 
> the parts books, or  the books were wrong. Then there is the wrench 
> turning where I just think what a bunch of idiots designed this.
> 
>   Here is my latest adventure. I had one of the dual tail wheels on a 
> Mohawk rotary  mower to literally rust apart while using it last week. 
> It made it a long time, so no complaints there. My complaint is how it 
> was put on. Picture a typical fork arrangement with a segmented mower 
> wheel. Not this wheel is mounted on a 1" axle with a coarse thread 
> locking nut (not the kind with nylon either). Wheel has tapered bearings 
> and grease seals. Sounds quality so far. First issue is they used 2 
> locking collars to set the tension on the wheel bearings. Second, there 
> is no spacer between the collar and the inside of the fork. Now the axle 
> is an axle, not a bolt--but it is only threaded on one end. The other 
> end is a fabricated head from a piece of 1/4" plate with a hole punched 
> in it, then welded to the axle. Too thin to hold on the head with a 
> wrench, the answer was to run a bead of weld on the outside of the fork 
> to provide a stop to rotation--this was factory. The head is not welded 
> to the fork. I could not get the cleat/bead of weld to hold the head so 
> I could remove the nut, nor could I get a wrench of any sort to hold it. 
> So I welded it to the fork. Then when I finally got the nut to turn, it 
> literally ripped the factory weld right out of the head. Anyway, I got 
> the repair done but all the while thinking what a waste of design.
> 
> This one particular machine has had a multitude of other issues, bent 
> tail wheel supports, 3pt hitch literally breaking, superstructure for 
> gearboxes cracking, splined couplers on gearboxes wearing out, mounting 
> bolts falling out of gearboxes---these are not from abuse either, just 
> poor design, had a neighbor with the same mower and the same issues.  I 
> told my father that afternoon that crap like this was why the US was 
> owned by Japan in the 7-'s and 80's.  My opinion is based not only on 
> farm experience, but 30 years in a machine shop.
> 
> John Hall
> 
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