Muffler Source?

[eagle5473 0]

Anyone have a good source for a muffler for an AC 720? (ac620 or 616), I might even take one for the Powermax line and play with the dischage pipe a little....any ideas?

[RayS 79]

Are they still available through a Simplicity dealer?

[JayeHawk 0]

Hey I'm in the same boat. My Simplicity dealer told me he could still get new ones. For only $250 plus S/H. Ouch , any other ideas.B)

[patrician12 0]

There is no muffler for $250.00.Years ago before exhaust went stainless on cars we used to do 7-10 systems a day.Remember years ago you needed a muffler every 2 or 3 years?Any way we did so much exhaust in our shop we bought direst from AP Goerling and Maramount Arvin direct.We paid between $10.00 and $15.00 for a muffler.We couldn't send anything back on warranty.So there was no warranty,guarantee,advertising or stocking on there part.We still have our own pipe bender,cutters,strechers and welders.Here is the point as long as the exhaust pipe coming out of the engine ANY muffler shop will be able to fabricate a muffler and exhaust for your tractor for a fraction of the cost.Some of the foreign older cars where the mufflers are obsolete are about our tractors size.On my 916 I have a 1980's Ford fiesta muffler on it.

[Marty-MN 0]

sandy lake had one in stock for my 620 but it was 200.00, I shopped and found a muffler with pipes off a powermax that had a briggs installed for a lot less but had to go fifty miles to get it.

[dlcentral 1]

Isn't it sick that some s.o.b. sits behind a desk somewhere dreaming up prices for this crap a muffler for a skidsteer is over 1700

[KohlerMan 0]

You can probably find one at tractor supply co. (It wouldn't be original) KohlerMan

[BLT 717]

quote:

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Originally posted by dlcentral
Isn't it sick that some s.o.b. sits behind a desk somewhere dreaming up prices for this crap a muffler for a skidsteer is over 1700

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I am one of those S.O.B's. It ain't dreaming Dude, it's volume. When those skid steers were built, a lot of volume items were bought all at once along with a best guess on spares. Then a guess on how many of those spares would be used on a annual basis and quotes were called for the pricing on that basis. Let's say for argument that your muffler was bought on a 3-5000 quantity over a three month period for a 120 day buy window and for spares I only need to buy 3-5 a month to take care of my parts business, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that my purchase price will almost quadruple for the piece that I bought 3-5000 at one buy. What would you do??? I ain't gonna' buy 5000 of them on a hunch. If I got caught doing that,I would be on a corner holding a tin cup, a collar around my neck and an organ grinder playing some music. Simply said lawn and garden tractor parts are low volume compared to the automotive market and replacement parts are not cheap in some cases.

[Al 6]

Bob, You are right on. We were buying a muffler for one of our projects from an OEM (not Simplicity)becuase we couldn't justify the cost of having it made special. We wwere paying 142.00 our cost for it. I called up to order a few more. Sorry NLA, but we will sign off our rights to it and you can buy it from the muffler co. Called the muffler co and was told that to even buy anything from them I would have to commit to $50,000 per year annually or they would not even open an acct. They did recommend an arrangement with a distributor that could work our items in, in smaller numbers. We got a quote. Under 5 to 9 nearly $500 each. After 100 per order we would get down in the OEM range. After 250 we woulud get ahead. Several years ago, we sold a spacer for a 9020 to a guy. It was about $35.00 I nearly had to give hiim CPR. This thing is about 3/4" od with a hole about 3/8 ths or 1/2. I said it should be about 4.00, I'll call the factory. I called Gary Bley then the head of parts. I asked him about the part. I asked if they might have made a typo and hit 35.00 instead of 3.50. He said: I'll call you back. He called the next morning and told me that the last time they made them they made 10 pieces. They were for a 9020 and they would never make any more. Taking the set up costs to cut and bore and turn them, then the set up for the heat treat, then the centerless grinding to .001 spec and then dividing this time by ten parts and they price was right. He said if we bought them on stock order, we actually bought them slightly below cost. He said if they had made 1000 of them they would be$3.10. This is why parts for old equipment are expensive. A: They are made in low volumes, thence a higher cost. B: The movement is slow, so the cost of storing the parts and the turnover rate is so low that the cost has to cover the cost of capital on items like this. If a mfr has 25,000 in a part that is a very slow mover, the price is going up to pay the interest and property taxes on the inventory that lays there and turns over very slowly is going to be reflected in the price. There is a court case by the IRS and Thor Power Tools that has a direct effect on this. A manufacturer cannot write down the cost on inventory unless it is sold for the writedown cost. So obsolete parts get scrapped to reduce the inventory cost to keep the return on investment in line. If manufacturers couuld write down the inventory costs and keep the parts, one wouuld probably get lower pricing on obsolete parts that are laying on the shelf and not turning. Inventory turnover and turns per part number are critical in surviving in business. BE THANKFUL YOU CAN BUY OBSOLETE PARTS, BECAUSE ECONOMICALLY MANUFACTURERS WOULD MAKE MORE MONEY BY GETTING RID OF THEM AND GETTING MORE TURNS ON LESS INVENTORY WITH PARTS THAT COST LESS. AL Eden

[BrianP 1]

Unfortunately for us in the hobby, obsolete parts are extremely expensive. I almost needed CPR myself when I went to the Simplicity dealer for the small "charge pump" on the side of my Sunstrand hydro. I walked in thinking ok, maybe $125.00...hopefully a lot less. I wasn't prepared for a quote of $474.15! My wife was with me and I thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of her head and roll across the counter! I only paid $400 for the whole 7016-H in the first place. Thankfully I got a whole used Sunstrand pump from a club member for $120.00 + shipping. As Bob and Al have said, this all comes down to supply and demand. The less the demand the higher the cost per unit. They have to pay for their tooling and production costs somehow. I may not like it, but I'm resourcefull enough to find another way. Don't like high parts prices? Try this on for size: a friend who worked for GM back in the 1970's related how it was standard practice for obsolete parts to be trucked out to a landfill site and crushed with an earthmover. There were even guards on site to prevent employee theft of these obsolete (yet brand new) shocks, carburetors etc. Something about liability for selling obsolete parts or some such. Back when I lived in NJ, they had an "inventory tax" so most parts houses didn't stock much. Now that I live in SC, I'm still surprized from time to time, to ask for a part and find it in stock and not need to special order it. You should be able to have a muffler fabricated at a muffler shop for less than the price of OEM. The small car muffler sounds like a good bet to me.

[Roy 0]

Bob, Al, and Brian are correct. The tax and storage space for spare parts can eat up their value in only a few years (or less). After that it costs a company money to keep them. Hence they are frequently scrapped. From my professional experience as a Plant Engineer.

[Al 6]

Brian Could these parts have been parts that had been recalled or new parts that needed to be scrapped because they parts that had been in stock and were defective, or needed to be updated because of an update. Any parts that would be part of a recall etc, would need to be destroyed so no one could get one and put it in service and the mfr would be liable because the brakes failed etc and it was caused because the owner had one of these parts in it. Al Eden

[BrianP 1]

Al, As I understood it from my friend, these were not recalled or defective parts. They had been made obsolete by new designs and for liability reasons were destroyed. Something similar to the way the Chrysler Turbine cars were scrapped after the company had finished their research with them. Don't want the public bringing a lawsuit over things, so into the crusher. That's one job I wouldn't want, love mechanical things too much I guess.