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South central, Nebraska | The quality of the pivot will be as good as is it is assembled. That applies to all brands.
I have seen all brands around here work well OR fail horribly. Some problems can be blamed on supplier quality issues through the years (all brands) but most of the surviving pivot brands have evolved into good machines.
If your dealer has a GOOD assembly crew, you should be fine.
T&L has addressed the rolling issues on the planetary drive with an internal brake and the worm drives perform just the same as electrics except they don't use a rubber joint maybe because they run constant instead of start and stop. Make your own opinion there.
You can keep the speed control as simple as only having a flow control at the end tower to set speed or equip it with computer to control multiple functions including remote control like most others offer on the top models. There are a couple controller models in between too. That will be a trade off. I have never had an oil drive without electronics, damaged by an electrical storm. I have had pivots WITH electronics, damaged by electrical storms.
I have not seen the cost to propel an oil drive vs electric to be measurable enough to consider an issue. The energy used to pump water is where the real dollars are spent.
An oil leak is possible but very uncommon if assembled with a GOOD crew. The same goes with wire chaffing or poor electrical connections. Again, most of that points to a GOOD assembly crew. Oil drives have safety limits to shut down after a drop in oil level, maybe two or three gallons..... Much like a electrical leak that can start small but get bad enough to blow a fuse or trip an overload. Neither leak was free but, I would rather find the oil leak than the electrical leak!
Be careful about people discrediting any system because of experiences of a poorly assembled system or from a much older design.
The most basic systems generally have the most reliability, as you add features you also add more potential for break downs. Just like any machine in any business.
Make sure your dealer has a GOOD crew assemble whatever brand you decide fits your operation best and you should be fine. | |
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T-L PIVOT PROBLEMS
