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Right to repair

This is a thing in the Americas the right to repair your equipment.  Increasingly manufacturers take the view that they alone have the technology and the skills to repair equipment.  This is a big debate in America.  As far as farm equipment goes not so much in the UK.

First, I should preface my comments.  Our farm is unusual.  We operate a fleet of five tractors, that we acquired between 2019 and 2020.  A fleet of 10 ATV&UTVs and 7 Hilux, in addition to my personal vehicle a 1972 Land Rover and my wife's 2023 Ranger Rover.  

I largely rebuilt the Land Rover myself as a teenager.  I have owned this vehicle since 1989 and with the help of my dad and his brother, we rebuilt it.  It's not rusted, it starts the wipers work as does the heating...what else do I need

Every other vehicle is maintained by the dealers.  Granted our mechanic will do an initial analysis on the tractor and minor repairs on the ATV/UTV and the Hilux but the reality is that everything is still under warranty so there is no push on our farm to do anything ourselves.

David, our lead mechanic is already very busy.  He and his team will do the basic maintenance (changing oil and filters) but anything broken (like the Range Rover has on two occasions) goes directly to the dealer.  We do the maintenance ourselves (the dealers provide the parts) because they are too far away.

When David took the PTO transmission off the Case 220 it was so that it could be picked up by the dealer for them to take care of the problem (the tractor is now gone, for good).  David and his team have tons of mechanical issues to deal with around the farm, so we are all happy that the dealer is taking care of it.  Moreover, they have the diagnostic tools and the experience.  We don't.

Maybe that's the difference most farms in our area are professional and not amateur, they already have enough on their plates not to want to add repairs to complex equipment.  Moreover, and we did the analysis, dealer rates on repairs are really not that far off from what it costs on the farm.

More artisanal farmers, want to tinker on their tractors, and they usually buy 40-year-old Farmall (the predecessor brand to Case tractor we operate).

As one dealer explained to me, the problem now is that the electrical system is sufficiently complicated that any "home" change could fry a system.  Maybe it's not the smartest thing in the world to make tractors so complex, but on the other hand, we did that for virtually everything else...


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