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NO More Simplicity Parts


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Simplicity parts are now Briggs And Stratton Parts. I bought some parts from my Simplicity dealer yesterday and they are no longer marked Simplicity, they are marked Briggs and Stratton on the packaging. The Simplicity name is going down the tubes. A good number of the parts for older tractors have already been discontinued NLA.
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It's funny because there is more money in parts over the long run than the sale of the whole item. 4,5,6 or more times the money part by part. I guess Simplicities last too long and they will want the volume of a lesser made unit. Very sad. Very sad.
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Toro made over the Wheel horse parts system when they took over Wheel Horse. Their new system made looking up parts and getting them so difficult that alot of dealers around my area just quit Toro. Used to be a dozen different dealerships in a 30 mile radius around me you could get Wheel Horse parts and tractors. Now theres only 2. I suppose the same thing could happen with Simpliicty in the upheaval going on.
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One of the Briggs branded parts I got was a gas tank cap/gauge for a 7117S and it don't fit in to the filler neck of the tank, you have to force it in, to wide for the opening.
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Thanks for info Maynard. It's almost like what happened to Generac after Briggs took over. Parts being NLA, and not fitting correctly.
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I feel your pain. I finally came to the realization that I have got my money's worth out of the Hudson Commander and figured it's time to maybe go buy a new Rambler or Studebaker. Maybe really splurge and get a new Oldsmobile. I decided on the Oldsmobile. What used to be the Olds dealer would only sell me a Toyota and says nobody will sell me a new Oldsmobile (who are they trying to fool!.) I became incensed and said I will buy foreign and demanded directions to the nearest Peugeot or Renault dealership.
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A few months ago, I was talking to Calvin "cal", who is my Simp dealer, he told me about the parts label change, but he also told me how Briggs has discontinued all training seminars. Simplicity used to hold new equipment seminars all the time, now you get a DVD and a pamphlet in the mail:O:( Very disappointing to hear. I'm sure there will be a lot of changed that we are not going to like, or understand. I guess loosing a few die hards like us is the cost of doing business.
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I also just brought home a bunch of Simplicity parts that had to be ordered and each one of them was packaged in B&S packaging. At first I thought they handed me the wrong order but then I saw the part numbers and realized they were my parts.
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quote:
I feel your pain. I finally came to the realization that I have got my money's worth out of the Hudson Commander and figured it's time to maybe go buy a new Rambler or Studebaker. Maybe really splurge and get a new Oldsmobile. I decided on the Oldsmobile. What used to be the Olds dealer would only sell me a Toyota and says nobody will sell me a new Oldsmobile (who are they trying to fool!.) I became incensed and said I will buy foreign and demanded directions to the nearest Peugeot or Renault dealership.
Maybe try a Plymouth?:O
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Sad to hear... B) But it just reinforces how valuable this place and this group are going to be in the future....:O:)
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I was joking about the Oldsmobiles but Simplicity is not the only American icon that seems to be headed towards joining the Dodo bird in the extinction club. My folks drove Chevys. I drive Chevys. I would like to trade in my 03 Trailblazer right now. I priced a replacement. A stripped one will cost $5K more than a well equipped one cost me in 03. Chevy, well, GM, is in very serious trouble and that trouble is likely going to change my history of buying new Chevys. Decades of financially punishing collective bargaining agreements and the medical costs of 435,000 retired workers has pushed Chevy into a corner where they need too much money. Of course, Chevy is simply sinking. Simplicity's fate seems more cruel, an American icon becomes a bit player to a company it used to buy engines from.
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Hi, I agree, I am depressed by what is happening. Over the last 25 years I have created a phone # list of about 60 people at Simplicity that I have (had)a first name relationship with at the factory from the CEO on down and I was comfortable calling about related issues. Many we had shared time on cruises and trips like to Acapulco. The company was the absolute best we dealt with bar none. The atmosphere was like family and in 1983 the get together with all of the dealers in the nation (that wanted to participate) was called THE FAMILY REUNION. Three times I met Joe Wright the previous "Briggs" president of Simplicity. I told him each time: I hope Briggs realizes what they have bought and that they don't destroy the "culture". Now everybody has been ground up and mixed in the giant mass of bodies called Briggs. Not exciting. I realize they are dealing with the same problems that GM and the American Auto Makers are. Labor costs. Closing the plant will make a definite dent in direct labor costs. All of the parts have been changed into the Briggs parts system. Now all Simplicity, Ferris, Snapper and Giant Vac parts are Briggs. Briggs buys 1 number for the same part for all. The parts have all been moved to Briggs and they have a really modern computer controlled automated picking system that uses very few people. Briggs says they intend to make Simplicity MUCH bigger than it is now. With Wheel Horse, Bolens, Ariens and Gravely out of the tractor business, it looks like the market is changing. Simplicity had the Best Service Schools in the industry. Last year half way through they were dropped. I just talked to a person at the factory today and said I heard that service schools were coming back. He said it will probably be piggybacked with the Briggs schools, Briggs in the morning and Sim. or Snapper in the afternoon. A few years ago I was talking to Jim Wier (former CEO) about all of the Zero turns coming on the market. He pointed out that it REALLY costs a lot of money to tool to make a tractor, but 2 guys in a garage with a band saw, welder and drill press can get in the zero turn business. This tooling cost and the "Over Selling" of zero turns is affecting the tractor business. I personally think that about 1/3 of the zero turns that are sold the people should have a tractor. My humble opinion. I feel that the days of calling the VP of Sales as I did when the Sun Stars came out are over. I bought 2 Sun Stars before the marketing meeting. These units were the ones they showed at the meetings. My rep called me and told me that there was a new tractor coming out and he had an 18 and a 20 hp one and since ours was his last meeting he could sell them. I bought both sight unseen and the 20 was SN 7. I brought them home and looked at those puny 23/10.50/10s and widened the rims to 10.5 inches and put on 26x12;00x12 Bar tread Goodyear Terra tires. Next the 60 inch deck would dig in when you turned into a bank. I bought some little John Deere 111 rollers and made some sanitary brackets and put them on the front corners of the deck. Next I called Jim Myers (as I remember) and criticized the tractor. He said that they had bought some rims, and tried the 26 12;0 tires, but they wouldn't work because they hit the rollers. I said I have them on my tractor and they work. He asked how and I told him I used 8 ply tires and they lay flat and don't belly out. Next I hit him about the anti scalp rollers and he sent Bob Liebert down to look at them. In 3 weeks we had the tires and the roller issue taken care of. Those days are just pleasant memories, as today there is no way to have contact with the: make it happen people. They are all churning around in the belly of the giant beast. There have been some positive things come from the purchase, but I feel it is like when a Giant company swallows a small one most of the time, it is a loss. Usually the small company got to where it is at by knowing its customers, market, and product and doing an exceptional job. Then they get to a certain point and some big company looks at it and says, we can buy that and eliminate X% of the people and still do things adequately and make more money and the things that made the small company great go away and many times 5 years later a broken skeleton that has had all of the bones picked clean gets spun off and the things that made it great have been destroyed. I HOPE THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS HERE. Nuff said, I'll get off my soap box, and hope for the best. Al Eden
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This is bad news, I was going to put in an order at Jacks since they have a free shipping special this month. Now I am afraid I'll get the wrong parts and have a hard time returnig them. I'm not surprised about the B&S packaging but sending parts that don't fit right is ridiculous!!
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quote:
Originally posted by IronPony
Is anyone going to forward this thread to the Briggs people? Maybe the CEO?
A quick show of hands? How many of us have bought a NEW Simplicity in the last two years? I thought so. This group isn't really related to B&S profits in the short term. We may advise others that this is a quality tractor but even then we prefer the ancient ones, not showroom models. We're probably not even likely to switch to Honda engines for repower. Sigh...
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Hi Al, I was reading last night trying to figure out why I have no spark. The articles were written by Al Eden. To my astonishment the next post I read is from none other than Al Eden! It's like, yes Virginia, there is an Al Eden! On the parts front I just ordered new rear rollers for my 42 inch deck (3 longer center rollers, part #108432, and 2 short end rollers, part #108431). Simplicity has substituted part #1668513SM for the short rollers. The substitute short roller has a 3/4 inch ID as opposed to the needed 5/8 inch. The old ones are all gone and this new substitute is from later decks which have a 3/4 inch rod.
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quote:
Originally posted by duckman A quick show of hands? How many of us have bought a NEW Simplicity in the last two years? I thought so. This group isn't really related to B&S profits in the short term. We may advise others that this is a quality tractor but even then we prefer the ancient ones, not showroom models. We're probably not even likely to switch to Honda engines for repower. Sigh...
I take exception to your assumption. I buy alot of new Simplicity parts to service my tractors. I generally revert to a used part only when the part is NLA. I've had such poor experience buying used parts off the internet that anymore, I'll pay more to get a new part. Occassionally, you'll find a decent used part, but more often than not it'll be a little better than the one you already have, and if that's what you are looking for that's fine. I also buy from my local dealers even though it costs me more that if I used the sponsers of this site. My complaint on the local dealers is that they mark up their prices anywhere from 5-10% over the Simplicity MSRP which is pretty lucrative considering that I believe that their cost is probably 40% off the MSRP. Most of the time they don't even have the part in stock and they order it. 100% markup over their cost to simply type in the numbers into their ordering system, receive the parts, and maybe give me a call and let me know that their in. Most often, I'll show up before they give me the call. Of course, I don't even use them to look up the part numbers since I'll come in with a list of the part numbers I'm looking for. The parts are still Simplicity parts even though they are in B&S packaging. I believe that the part number ends in SM to denote Simplicity. Except for some standard fasteners, there isn't going to be any possibility that Briggs designed parts can be substituted for Simplicity parts. The real question is how long will Briggs continue to offer new parts for these older tractors. I think we may begin to see many more NLA parts. I'm disappointed in the engineering of the new tractors. I was looking at a new Conquest or Prestige at the dealer and noticed that the steering arm on the LH spindle is welded to the kingpin. No keys or set screw to attach. The RH spindle is retained by a snap ring and would be serviceable, but how would you service the LH spindle? Is is less expensive to manufacture? Absolutely. Is is more expensive to service? Absolutely. When you take a close look at the other details of how the parts are engineered, you'll see many examples where part designs have been re-engineered to take out considerable costs at the expense of serviceability. As far as I can see, the MTD's and Simplicity tractors are just not that far apart anymore, except for the price of the tractor.
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I still have a 82 Murray going strong (cast iron rear end and a heavy-ish frame--not tinny). I was looking for a manual and a rear hitch for it. No info is available from Murray since Briggs bought them up. I think you can get manuals/parts for models made over only the last 5 years. The people at murray don't even want to give you the time of day if you don't have a newer tractor. Hope the same doesn't happen here.
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Steven, anyone else- I apologize if I offended anyone. I'm just saying if Briggs is intending to sell tractors we're not very relevant to their business plan. If Simplicity had been making big money on parts then Briggs would be keeping that part of the business going, and maybe they will. Would it help Chevy sell cars if they had most of the parts for the 1972 Camaro still available? Could they make a profit doing so? I am depressed about this, as are we all. I'm just saying it makes (perverted) economic sense and the New Briggs isn't going to miss us much. In an ideal world the abandonded Port Washington engineers and other workers wind up making and selling parts as a separate enterprise. Yeah right. :( -Don
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quote:
Originally posted by Bunky
Sounds like it's Time to go Green and yellow :D:)
I don't think so......666ngr2B):O:D
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quote:
Originally posted by Bunky
Sounds like it's Time to go Green and yellow :D:)
The only green and yellow I want to see around my place is my yellow tomatoe bushes! :o) I really hope that the parts side of things don't go the way of the dinosaurs like many of us are scared of. One of the things that has suprised me since getting interested in Simpletractors is the availability of new parts, even though the machines are so well built that they rarely need them. This is scary news indeed! But I do not care if the parts are totally stopped, I am NEVER mowing with a Deere again!sm00
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Hi Duckman, You are lucky I am sticking up for you since you threw me in that time I was bidding on that tiller, LOL! I agree with Duckman, this club is mainly about ancient tractors and used parts are big part of it. As I just mentioned, the 4 inch rollers on a 42 inch deck are all gone and the substitute roller is useless. I noticed Skunkhome (please don't yell at me) just bought a good supply of nice 4 inch rollers with metal bushings on eBay. A very nice buy since they are now officially rare or extinct. There is never a time I am not bidding on used parts or waiting for them to show up. I have had some bad and overall excellent luck buying used parts. I buy new parts regularly as well. To illustrate my point, at the end of the day, my only way of getting some "real" 4 inch rollers, with the nice metal bushings, is to go sweet talk Skunkhome.
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