Month: April 2022

Last time I shared the news that we got ourselves a digger. Now after roughly two weeks, I wanted to share a quick update on the good, the bad and the ugly.

So, on the 8th of April we went to the JCB Scot depot in Muir of Ord to pick up our digger. But before we could actually do that, we had to visit the cool guys at Farm & Forestry Equipment in Ardersier to borrow a trailer. When we finally arrived in Muir of Ord, the digger was actually there and the people on site actually sort of knew we were about to collect it. So far so good.

What was not so good, was the “fully serviced” digger appeared as being not so fully serviced. How could I tell with my zero minutes of excavator experience? For example, the hydraulic switches of the boom were not working. Obviously something that can get unnoticed during servicing. But no worries – the mighty on site engineer just hissed “boys” and called in one of his subordinate mechanics.

With a universal screw wrench the problem was immediately fixed and quite as immediately broke again. After some retries I was assured if this *ever* broke again, someone would come up to out place to get this sorted. Great! (sneak preview into the future: as soon as we unloaded the digger the problem resurfaced and has not been properly repaired until now)

After some loading we were good to go and crawled back to Caithness. But not without paying a quick visit to Clynelish in Brora.

We enjoyed the view in the lovely bar/café on the first floor and continued our journey all the way to our plot, where we were warmly welcomed.

So what was next? After unpacking we not only found out that the boom hydraulic switch was again not working (only moving to the left), but also found the bushings being broken when we took off a bucket. To the defense of the “fully serviced supervisor” this can also easily get unnoticed when you are not changing the buckets before handover.

In addition, the as being “new” sold earth drill was apparently not so new, but only a refurbished model (as we could see by some delivery note that someone had forgotten to take away before handing it over to us). But it actually did not matter, as the sockets for the hydraulic were not the same size as the ones on the digger anyway.

Trying to find a positive side: the mechanic would not have to come over to just fix a single problem, but a lot of things. After sales servicing to its excellence?

So I found myself in the position to report my digger “DOA” and was quickly assured that someone would come over to help me on that. Being handed over a mobile phone number I left a message with some clear coordinates where the patient would to be found and waited to the next morning (without any real hope, that actually some would show up).

I was wrong. In the moring I got a call and suprisingly two guys showed up and did their work:

• Bushed repaired CHECK
• Auxiliary hydraulic valve adjusted CHECK_{It was only a temporary fix and the right adapters were missing.}
• Hydraulic pedal fixed CHECK_{It fell off after a couple of pushes on the pedal again.}

So after the mechanics left, I could at least try with my “new” earth drill. Just to find out, that the hydraulics on the hydraulic hoses of the drill leaked. And I found out, that the hydraulics tank was nearly empty. Also something one normally would not notice when performing some service work before handing it out to a customer.

Side note: in what status would I receive something by that company that was *not new* and *not fully serviced*? This was actually a question I later asked the sales guy. Answer: inconclusive.

But hey, labour seems not be the most expensive part of repair works and therefore I was able to enjoy a vitis of the mechanics on the same day!

To cut a long story short; here is the result as of today:

• Hydraulics fixed
• Hydraulic oil refilled (free of charge)
• Hydraulic pedal still not repaired

And now still waiting for the next visit of the mechanics.

And to wrap up the whole story:

JCB Scot was really helping to get this issue fixed; until now this has all been done under “warranty” of a nine-year-old digger.

So would I ever buy a used machine again (me, who has no clue about construction machinery)? Maybe, but probably only “cheaper” and “smaller” machines.

Would I buy from them again? Probably yes, as they still provide a “good” service overall (and they are the nearest seller from our plot).