i am also all red and the nearest dealer is 30 miles away. almost everything around is green so if that dealer ever goes broke lexion would be one i would look hard at. however i have heard if it is a weird brake down its a b*tch getting parts.

 

I've heard from some owners that Cat give you a box of parts (most common breakdowns) and replaces those as you use them. Maybe that's just for the custom cutter guys or for certain dealers. not sure. Nearest parts for me on the Cat (sorry, LEXION) would be slightly over and hour away. Not a long ways, by any means, but farther than I have to go now. Our area is predominantly green as well, though I've seen a few more 2388's roaming around this year than in years past. I know of one Cat guy in the area and a couple New Holland's, but mostly green here.

 

Parts will depend on our dealer somewhat. We don't have a Lexion combine but do have a Challenger tractor and with Altorfer they have a parts drop box 10 miles from us where their shuttle truck drops off parts every morning. That might not be fast enough for emergancy repairs but will take care of most part needs. Service will also depend on the dealer, we used to have a top notch Cat ag mechanic 5 miles away and the guy that replaced him is 40 miles away but when their truck shows up they have pretty much anything they might need with them.

How did the demo with the 560R go? We've been running red as well and we've been happy with them but I'm interested in the Lexion next time we trade. A neighbor went from a 2377 to a 570R this year and is very happy so far, they've had a couple of very minor repairs but he said the capacity and sample is unmatched. Resale value on the Lexion's kinda sucks but that makes for some pretty good deals on the 1-3 year old machines compared to other brands.

 

I work for a dealership in Texas, the largest CAT dealer in the U.S. Our Ag division is very small compared to some of the CAT dealers though. With any CAT dealer you have one big store centrally located to the customers. They combat that with drop boxes in neighboring towns, so customers don't have to travel back and forth to get their parts. For my ag customers in my territory, we have offered to put a parts bin on their place that holds all the major components that we see the most common failures. We do on occasion have an oddball part that fails, but when that happens, if we don't have it in stock, we typically have the part within 24 hours. Some CAT dealers participate in a loaner program for the loyal customers. When your combine breaks down and we can't get it back up and running within 48 hours, we will loan you another machine to use so you aren't losing valuable harvesting time. Like I say we are small fries compared to the guys from Bulter, Ziegler and Altorfer and this is a handful of things we do for our customers. I can't speak for the competitors, but they do have an advantage on us, because there are more of them per square mile. We try to make up for that by having these expensive trucks that we can keep weirdo tools in that our mechanics might need at some point. A CAT dealer can typically do the things in the field, that your Deere or Case dealer has to bring to their shop. Less hassle for the customer.

Our combine compared to the competition. There is no comparison in corn. Our combine will outperform anything out there, class for class. Then of course we have the largest combine in the world. Soybeans, from what I have seen is one of the tougher crops for our combine unless you spray them first. It will still run with anything out there, but it won't leave the competition in the dust like it will in corn. Wheat, pretty dang productive. As far as clean sample.... how clean do you want it? It's about as clean a sample as you can get from a combine. It will take you a little use to getting the setting right for your conditions. Quite honestly the settings from the factory might not even get you close at times, but it is a decent generalization of where you should start.

Hope this helps.
Jason

 

Got the 560R at about 5:30 tonight, and ran roughly 25 acres through it before shutting down. HOLY ****! That baby smokes corn like it's a drug. Ran it side by side with our 2588 and another Case combine (to be named later). The Other Case machines is a hoss, too, but I think the 560 was easier to adjust, and just had more power/capacity. That said, the other Case machine was pushing corn pretty hard, too. Both machines were running 230+ bushel corn at 18.6% at 6.5-7 mph speeds. The salesman didn't have it set quite right when it showed up (not far off though) and all I had to do was close the top and bottom sieves about 5 clicks each, and voila! Spotless samples with nothing out the back end. I'll know more tomorrow. I get 50 ac. in some severe hills to try it out. Could be make or break for the 560. On flat ground though, it's making it very hard to stay loyal to Case.

 

You have to consider that you are comparing a class 6 Cat to a Class 7 Case (I read your other post and know what you're driving). So think what a 570R would do to that precious flagship of nostalgia, the 7088.

 

WOW! knocked 50 acres of corn out in our most extreme hills in under 5 hours. The only way I could get corn out the back end was on a sidehill with my left side down. There's an opening at the back for some electrical wires that lets corn just pour out, but otherwise that baby is incredible. And that's WITHOUT the 3D sieves.

On a side note, the neighbors saw us drive by with it and gawked the whole time. I got a call from one of them a couple hours later asking if they could ride in it. I told them to ask for a demo. They did, spent 8 hours running, and are currently about to trade 2 Deeres in on one. These are guys that bleed green. Pretty impressive.

 

Class size most certainly does not mean apples to apples or anything closely related. If so, then why does it only take a class 6 Lexion to out do the class 7 competition?

 

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the class 6 Cat is similar in size to the class 7 7088. (HP, cleaning area, etc.)

 

Lol I dont see the reason why somebody created this classes...

I mena you still ahve to compare every single feature of the machine with eachother. Mhhh...I think this system is useless

 

Arcus you are so right...

 

A CAT dealer can typically do the things in the field, that your Deere or Case dealer has to bring to their shop????

Not sure whats so complicated on case machines that you need a whole shop...



Usually when our local Cat farmer breaks down they are down for several days.

Everyone else with 1480s' and 23/2588's are back up and going in a day....

Cat dealer is 2 hrs away and case is 45 min....

it makes a huge difference in how far the dealer is.....

 

Sounds like a nice machine. The case machines with self leveling sieves work real well in hills. I wish I could try a lexion, but no dealers in lord knows how many miles. Would be interesting to know how it stacks up. I was cutting green stemmed soybeans today at 5.5-6 mph with a 35' 2020 flex head.

 

I know who they are and they are never down for days unless by choice because they are working on them themselves.

They are also only minutes away from the resident service technician.

 

Well, completely sold on the 560............................ until I got the pricing. Pretty proud of that yellow paint. Don't get me wrong, that's one heck of a machine, but it's going to take an awful lot (i.e. fuel savings, grain loss savings, better samples, faster harvesting, etc, etc, etc....) to make up for the price difference. Could probably trade my 1 yr. old 2588 in on a new 8010 for the same price. Still mulling it over. Hard to ignore all the great things from the demo.

Side note: I also don't agree with the classes. how is a 2588 with 20 more horsepower a class 7 machine (7088)???? Just wondering. Also, I'm just wondering how much HP you can throw at a cleaning system once it hits it's size limits.

 

Just look at the Deere combines they just take a class six and add more hp to get a class 7 or 8.

 

Mhhh you gux in north America have the disadvantages of the curren €/$ exchange rate...

Go and get ur economy working again, then Lexions might be cheaper soon. A exchange rate for 1€=1,5$ like it was in the last months...There I can understand hwy its hard to mbuy a Lexion.

The lucky ones are those who bought one when it was 1€=0.89$...

 

Well, if they want to market them inn the U.S., maybe they should price them to move here, instead of pricing them like in Europe. Just a thought. Also, why even build the d**n things here? Probably takes more shipping to send all the parts to Omaha to assemble, rather than putting them together in germany and shippinng them that way. That's how they go to Russia, and other places from here.

Also, not just the combine, the yellow paint on the tractors apparently makes it worth more as well. I thought Deere was proud of their paint, but seriously.

I got the trade prices from my dealer today, and I can't quite trade into a 8120 for the same price, but I can get into a brand new '08 8010. Not that I need that big of a machine by a long shot, but that tells you how overpriced they are.

 

maybe you should look at a used lexion. They sure aren't overvalued on the used market.

 

The first price is always suppose to be a shock! You demo'd it, you know it can do. If you want the best, you're going to pay for it.

 

I've always found them very competitive in the price department, its part of the reason we still run them, similar price as new holland, less then deere.

 

ruff him up a little!

 

Hate to get into too much detail, but over $80,000 for a 560R with a C508 and a F530? That's giving up a '08 2588 with 260 hrs., 2208 and 30' 1020? Granted, the 560R ran well against the 7088 I had out, maybe even a little more. So I'll be generous and compare the pricing to a 7120. Can get into one of those with a 35' 2020 and new 3408 for low $70's. Can get into a '08 (new carry-over) 8010 with a 35' 2020 in the upper $70's. Hell, I can put a 40' 2162 draper on a 7088 (yes, it can handle it) for less than the Cat (ooops, Lexion). I don't know fellas, I know you may be "Paying for the best", but that's pretty ridiculous. I'm all for it if it TRULY is that good, but I don't think $28 G's better than a 7088 with a bigger platform.

 

How about the financing, how do they compare? For us that is where they have always been better, even with a higher sticker price, total cost of ownership has always been lower, unless if your paying cash I suppose.

 

We never talked about prices I always thought that in NA and Europe people kinda pay the same...But I wanna tell you some prices I heard...

Lexion 450, 6,6m header (new): 174.000€+ 16% taxes
Lexion 480 9m header (new): 212.000€ + 16% taxes
Lexion 440 6m header (new): 147.000€ + 16% taxes

(€/$ was nearly 1/1,5 at this time...today its 1/1,25

so it would be
450: 217.000 $ without taxes
480: 265.000 $
440: 183.750 $

Lexion 600 10,5m header (new) around 300.000€ + 16% taxes
(it was listed around 360.000€..Compare new NH CR 9090 listed with 10,7m header 420.000€ !)
So nearly 375.000$ for a Lex 600...

Mhh are thouse realistic prices you pay in the US for a new combine?

Is the price of a Lexion a problem compared to other combine manufacturers?