A rant

lynnmor

Well-known member

Equipment
B2601-1
May 3, 2021
1,707
1,504
113
Red Lion
You need to grease the right palms. Safety inspections are a scam.
shop around... there are probably 100 places to go in your area.

Worse case, You can do ball joints in an afternoon.... for the cost of a case of beer.

Did you test the ball joints yourself?
I could write a book on the faulty crap from Pennsylvania State Inspections. One example: Ford dealer wanted $700 to repair my dragging front brake saying warranty didn't cover it because it was rust. I took it home then cleaned and greased the caliper pins, there was no rust. The idiot bent my brake line so that the hose rubbed the coil spring so he could use power tools on the bolts. The idiot could have killed me, maybe he was the one that put 2 quarts too much of the wrong oil in the engine.
 

chim

Well-known member

Equipment
L4240HSTC with FEL, Ford 1210
Jan 19, 2013
2,999
2,472
113
Near Lancaster, PA, USA
At work we had three different F150's spit a spark plug and tore out the threads. Repairs - all in round numbers - at our trusted local garage were $1K. They took a week because they broke a tool off in the head. It wasn't easy to switch away from this shop because our COO had a "relationship" with that shop owner and had his personal vehicles taken care of there.

Stocker Chevy in State College charged $500. A small shop 10 minutes from our headquarters recommended by a friend (Nate's Automotive) $250.

Part of my job was handling vehicles and Nate's ended up with essentially all of our work for vehicles in our area. Our projects were spread out across a good part of PA, so when we had good experiences with dealers like Stocker, we kept using them.
 

Daren Todd

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
Massey Ferguson 1825E, Kubota Z121S, Box blade, Rotary Cutter
May 18, 2014
11,026
8,987
113
Vilonia, Arkansas
That 15K is real low in my area. ever since 'Walkerton', installers have been gouging , typically 35-45K for a septic system,takes all of 2-3 days. Next door would have been >$50K until I asked WHY 2 pumps, 3 tanks when GRAVITY works just fine....

as for ball joints, check Rock Auto for them, next day delivery and say $150 per hour X 4 ?
Thats why I shopped around. My system uses a pump for the liquid. But my leach field is 150ft from the house and up a hill.

Neighbor behind me had to basically install a mini sewage treatment plant because his ground wouldn't perk. (I'm still not sure why he couldn't install a mound system)

Anyway, his system still came in quite a bit under my first bid of $15k. His cost a little over $10k for installation.

His system has one pump, to transfer the liquid to the tanks. Liquid goes through 4 separate chambers. Each chamber has an aerator in it.

Once it enters the first chamber, gravity takes over. Once one chamber is full, water flows to the next chamber.
 

skeets

Well-known member

Equipment
BX 2360 /B2601
Oct 2, 2009
15,344
4,659
113
SW Pa
Boys Im sure I could find everything at auto zone or rock or another supplier. Problem is at least around here another shop wont touch it after it has been flagged by a dealer. And I am no longer in shape to do things at home any more. Old sucks! I guess the pint I was getting at is the insane prices charge for parts and labor, since that money does not go to the guy working on it. I do thank you guys for the input guys :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user