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I was under the impression that tractor manufacturing was down to bolting together bought in components at this point, such as the various Turkish Perkins engin

I was under the impression that tractor manufacturing was down to bolting together bought in components at this point, such as the various Turkish Perkins engine + ZF gearbox + Carrero front axle + random cab companies cab, with a bit of fabrication to make parts to hold it together. A coop building a highly repairable tractor could make this their value proposition by publishing the diagrams for the fabricated parts, and the full list of parts they bought. There's little reason that a fairly normal fabrication shop couldn't be making tractors, and making them competitively with mainline manufacturers

baremetal 3y ago
> There's little reason that a fairly normal fabrication shop couldn't be making tractors, and making them competitively with mainline manufacturers Economies of scale. We don't live in a fantasy land where things work a certain way just because it would be nice if they did.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
  To add to that: if I'm purchasing a hugely expensive piece of capital equipment that my business depends on, it's nice that I can repair it myself when I have downtime, but if I need it up and running tomorrow, it's probably worth it to bring in the repair tech who does it day in, day out and can get it done a lot faster than me. That local fab shop would now have to provide 24-hour on-call service, which is a completely different business.
  - baremetal 3y ago
    > it's probably worth it to bring in the repair tech who does it day in, day out and can get it done a lot faster than me. Indeed, and that is cheaper than keeping a guy on staff that can fix your equipment. The biggest farmers I know keep someone on staff. The next tier down use outside repair services. And the smallest guys (I am a small time farmer, emphasis on small) repair their own stuff. So in the context of myself and my own needs right to repair is crucial. But I can argue for the right to repair in general as well: Flexibility is key, in light of creaky supply chains.
  - redeeman 3y ago
    no, there are loads of mechanics anywhere that will happily work on things, they are simply prevented from working on many aspects of modern vehicles because it is made impossible by the manufacturers

baremetal 3y ago

> There's little reason that a fairly normal fabrication shop couldn't be making tractors, and making them competitively with mainline manufacturers Economies of scale. We don't live in a fantasy land where things work a certain way just because it would be nice if they did.

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
To add to that: if I'm purchasing a hugely expensive piece of capital equipment that my business depends on, it's nice that I can repair it myself when I have downtime, but if I need it up and running tomorrow, it's probably worth it to bring in the repair tech who does it day in, day out and can get it done a lot faster than me. That local fab shop would now have to provide 24-hour on-call service, which is a completely different business.
- baremetal 3y ago
  > it's probably worth it to bring in the repair tech who does it day in, day out and can get it done a lot faster than me. Indeed, and that is cheaper than keeping a guy on staff that can fix your equipment. The biggest farmers I know keep someone on staff. The next tier down use outside repair services. And the smallest guys (I am a small time farmer, emphasis on small) repair their own stuff. So in the context of myself and my own needs right to repair is crucial. But I can argue for the right to repair in general as well: Flexibility is key, in light of creaky supply chains.
- redeeman 3y ago
  no, there are loads of mechanics anywhere that will happily work on things, they are simply prevented from working on many aspects of modern vehicles because it is made impossible by the manufacturers