Is Your Gator making a CLUNKING NOISE underneath? READ THIS!

[doodle]

We had our 2008 XUV 850D Gator (350hrs) serviced at an Ohio JD Dealership last month. It was making a thunking-clunking sound coming from under the floor board. The dealership replaced the front-end bearings, drive shaft, and also replaced BOTH centrifical clutches to the tune of about $2000. My neighbor has 2 850D XUV's and also had them at the same dealership for the SAME CLUNKING noise. The bearings in his Gators are also toast; one of the clutches was cracked. After many phone calls and talking to various people we finally got some action at the dealership level.
John Deere Company agreed to pay 1/3 of the bill, the Dealership agreed to pay 1/3 of the bill. that brought my bill down to about $670. Still a lot of money to spend.
Our gator has been making that noise since early 2012, it had maybe 280 hours on it when I first noticed it. (280 hours is 7 weeks of working 40 hours a week, our Gator is not moving all the time, it idles a portion of the hours is has...think about that.) the gator is ready for a $2000 repair bill. This is ridiculous. Let me tell you why. The bearings are crap...most are made in CHINA. Parts that replaced the worn bearings are also made in...yep...CHINA. Cheap parts. Our neighbor is working on one of his and purchased bearings made in USA...you can tell a marked difference for the better.
While all of this was going on we have identified 7 friends/neighbors within a few miles of us who also have the same problem with their Gators. 2 of these made this noise from the very beginning while the gator was still under warranty. One person was told by their dealership "Oh, they all do that". The other one was told to "...back up about 20 feet to put the wheels back in sync..." Unfortunately Those gators are now no longer under warranty. All 7 are about 2005 or later models, most with low hours and are making a clunking noise underneath. We all use our Gators on farms to do chores. No rough stuff, mud bogs, creeks, etc. Just checking fences, cows, feeding, taking trash out, hauling firewood and chainsaws, going back and forth to barn, getting mail, etc.

IF YOU HAVE A GATOR MAKING A THUNKING-CLUNKING NOISE THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:
Call your dealer from whom you bought it or who you deal with and talk to the service manager. Print out this post and tell them that JD company is aware of the problem. They should fix it for you and pay for at least 2/3 of it. Stay on them. If enough people with Gators innundate JD maybe they will recall these gators. If not, I see an opportunity for a possible class action lawsuit.

I wish all of you the best in resolving your issues with this. Please pass the word around to everyone you know who owns one of these.



"There are more colors than GREEN"

[ratrod]

The engines in the 825i are all made in China and have a pretty dang good reputation. I work for a company that builds an over half a million dollar machine under its own name plus under the name of the largest construction equipment manufacture in the world and at least half of the hydraulic fittings have CHINA stamped on them. Now don't get me wrong I can see things from your point of view as I hate buying anything from China but your talking about machines that are 4 to 7+ years old, and bearings don't last forever especially those exposed to the elements. Now I do agree that a low hour machine like yours shouldn't be needing 2k in repairs, but if in those hours the machine is being put to the limits and beat day after day and the same issues were to arise, if the machine is 6 or 7 years old, or theres a lack of preventative maintenance being done, you can't expect JD to pay for it. If your not happy with what JD charges for repairs, buy the parts and fix it yourself. I feel your pain, we have an 07 Arctic Cat 4 wheeler with less than 400 miles on it and its been nothing but problems. The wheeler has been used hard a few times, and parts have failed but I'm not blaming the quality of the machine because of it. Its a tool, they get used, abused, and sometimes break.

[doodle]

I am 60 and my husband is 66. we have never left the gator sit out, always in garage unless we are using it, we do light work with it on our farm, do not drive in the rain or mud or creek. Has never been used hard. The 7 Gators i know of we are all in our 60's aand 70's and no one mistreats them. We do not beat our machine day after day. Neither does anyone else. Just about all of them have fewer than 400 hours. 2 of my friends have gators that made this noise right from the beginning when they were new. If you think about 300 hours on one of these machines, with a portion of that idling - not moving, that is a mere 7.5 weeks of working 8 hour days...not even 2 months. 1/2 of the summer...etc Our gator started making this noise at about 270 hours. It was 4 years old. That is 67.5 hours a year, 5.625 hours per month, 1.3 hours per week, .18 hours or 10 minutes per day. That is not very much time for the bearings and drive shaft bearings to be shot. John Deere is well aware of the problem with the China bearings. So I put this post out there to be informative and helpful for anyone else who is having a problem with noise, steering, bearings, etc. go see your John Deere service manager and stay on them to help you.

[homert3]

Wondering why the 2 gators that made the noise right away were not taken in right away under warranty??? Also wondering if the other 2 gator owners would have noticed this before someone pointed it out to them that they were dissatisfied with noises coming from the machine.

The other thing confusing is the way you break down the usage. 10 minutes per day for 1500 days is a lot of exposure to dust, moisture, etc. Dust is one of the biggest contirbuters to bearing failures.

So beyond that not sure how clutches effect the MFWD bearings or wheel bearings with a "clunk" symptom. I think I would recommend a different mechanic. Sounds like you guys are getting taken to the cleaners.