FLU419 SEE HMMH HME Owners group

[BigBison]

Just trying to get the SEE back to use the stock loader bucket for snow removal, now. All that snowblower stuff? Maybe next year, maybe my next SEE. If Couch wasn't gonna do the work, then Jay shoulda told me months ago so I could take it to someone else who's actually interested in getting it done instead of blowing smoke up my ass. Instead, I'm paying someone to do snow removal up at my place, despite that's why I even own a SEE in the first place, so yeah, ugly situation anyone and everyone else reading this is best advised to stay away from.

 

[BigBison]

Bad Faith. My attorney says my case is winnable because it's provable the other party was dealing with me in BAD FAITH. Never let Jay Couch have your Unimog, folks. Months of e-mails promising me title to the HMMH by week's end. Don't SAY that to your customer if you can't make it so, only generates animosity, and rightfully so! Can't recall my ever being anywhere near this upset with ANYONE, I have an intensity to me, but I'm really a patient, easy-going dude to deal with. Up until you expect me to wait until NEXT YEAR for you to make good on your end of our deal from last March. Unacceptable.

 

[The FLU farm]

Not that I condone drinking and posting, but should the thirst become overwhelming, I found the perfect remedy in the toolbox a while back.
Actually, I didn't even know what this lump was until recognizing it in a video on the "Unimog Tractor thing" thread three days ago.
It's a pump. A hydraulically driven pump.
Now, if I break the backhoe by trying to clean out an irrigation ditch too fast, the pump should be able to make the SEE propel the water downstream regardless of the condition of the ditch.
Well, if it works, which remains to be seen.

 

[BigBison]

Heh, *now* I'm drinking and posting, but I assure you I'm as stone-cold sober during business hours (certainly while making $35K deals) as I was making the duly-considered posts above.

Having trouble picturing you cleaning out an irrigation ditch fast enough to break a backhoe! lol

That does look like the "mud pump" accessory as seen in the FLU videos! How'd you score *that* and have you used it yet? I'm looking at it and wondering if it can power the fountain of Bourbon I'll need if I can't get my SEE picked up tomorrow. I've said my piece about that, I'm almost done whining, but don't think for a second I wouldn't rather be bragging about my SEE-blower and singing Couch's praises right about now, instead of driving the dually up to my place earlier today to pull the pickup-plow out of the snowdrift (top of my hogback), which I only hired so the crew building my Quonset hut could get in there... I really needed to not get jerked around on the SEE.

Because even if it *is* still OEM, just having a backhoe for several depths-of-winter weeks would be a big help, even if it doesn't have a hydronic system. Hopefully I'll have the SEE back soon, prolly the quickest way to get the lifting power I need to fix the leaky ram on the HMMH crane is the hoe... which I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish, CORE's been promising to ship me those cylinder rebuild kits "this week for sure" since the first week of August so I guess it's on to Plan B for that as well.

Yes, the HMMH has a hydronic unit, but that's the one and only thing Couch ever came through on for me; however, its installation was used as the excuse for why I didn't get my HMMH for four months after I bought it, nor does the SEE have those alternative tires Jay e-mailed me on and I said yeah, get it done and bill me for it, please (nope, no chains neither, so much for one-stop shopping). But you just can't pay some people any amount of money to follow through on anything, I have no clue how such folks stay in business.

Done ranting. But please, don't ask how that snowblower-SEE's working out for me this winter, really a sore subject.

 

[Go Go Gadget FLU 419]

My goodness, what have I missed here! If the FLU rats weren't bad enough, we got a **** thief on the prowl. That's something I don't take lightly, especially when it comes to Mogs.

Naa, I got the right dipstick to check the oil. Just think I'm getting fuel or hydraulic oil in it. It's way above the full line on the dipstick, and I didn't mark it when I changed it, so I don't know. To top it off, my neighbor who did all the hard work went on vacation for 4 months!

Well, good luck with all involved with the Mog thief, and Old Man Winter to boot!

 

[The FLU farm]

Having trouble picturing you cleaning out an irrigation ditch fast enough to break a backhoe! lol
Hopefully I'll have the SEE back soon, prolly the quickest way to get the lifting power I need to fix the leaky ram on the HMMH crane is the hoe... which I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish, CORE's been promising to ship me those cylinder rebuild kits "this week for sure" since the first week of August so I guess it's on to Plan B for that as well.

Hey, I can easily see myself screwing the backhoe up if running at 1,800 rpm. It took a few days, but once I realized that it works just fine at 1,100, or so, I found it much easier to operate at lower rpms with my limited skills.

I don't think you need any mechanical lifting power to deal with the leaky cylinder on the HMMH. Yes, removing and reinstalling it completely by hand is obviously harder, but fully doable. It took a while, but even I managed, despite a bad back, a hernia, and shot knees.
Once you have it removed, just take it to your local (everything is relative, that's 160 miles in my case) hydraulic shop and let them fix it. They most likely have the seals in stock.

 

[peakbagger]

Wow a olive drab Stanley hydraulic water pump. I get kick out of all the specialty tools that Stanley sells that will plug into the SEE, they are obviously tilted towards utility bucket trucks and servicing railroad tracks. They build a small hoe ram for bobcats, I wonder if they offer a big brother version for a SEE? The 3 KW generator is another one that I scratch my head with, why not just install a 24 volt inverter on the batteries and be done with it ? Watching Ebay, it looks like there is pretty steady batch of these tools taken out of service by utilities. Having looked at spare parts pricing a bit I can see why a utility would rather pick up new in the box unit than rebuild an old one. I expect more than a few "fall off a truck" when they are called in to support emergency services at another utility.

Bummer for Big Bison, I guess a flashy website does not make a reputable vendor. Best of luck sicking the law on them. Would be nice if you find a local bored reporter to do a story on it.

 

[BigBison]

Once you have it removed, just take it to your local (everything is relative, that's 160 miles in my case) hydraulic shop and let them fix it. They most likely have the seals in stock.

The sad thing here, is my attorney's take on the situation. Title never transferred, so if I'm also unhappy that Jay's truck I don't have title to broke the first day *he* had *his* truck (or was broken before and the telltales got pressure-washed before delivery) on my property after delivering it sans-title-as-agreed and not-working-as-agreed, I need to ship it back to him as a prerequisite of suing for my entire $35K back. Keeping it and trying to sue for part of my money back based on not having title is something any shyster will be happy to try, but if I want my attorney to put his reputation on the line, either I cut my losses and get a salvage title (no other option if I want a license plate / insurance etc. or to re-sell it and we all know what salvage titles do to resale value), which could make me the thief, or I send it back, whether he wants it or not. With a lien attached, so if he wants to sell it again he needs to refund my $35K stake in said HMMH or lose when I sue him for that amount if he sells it without making good on my lien. Or some such.

That's my best distillation of about $200 so far of legal advice, from not just a law firm that's been *my* client for the 1/4-century I've also been *theirs* but a particular attorney who used to be an assistant DA ages ago who prosecuted me for some long-past petty transgression, still the only time I've been prosecuted, so we go way back. He's a real pit-bull, I know from experience you don't want to take him on, hence the retainer for such contingencies as what I'm dealing with.

The other $200 of legal advice was pertaining to the next FLU I buy. This is the attorney who came up with the short, sweet, & simple bill-of-sale language I had the seller agree to use on my SEE purchase so it would pass muster with the State of Colorado in terms of obtaining (as opposed to transferring) a title. But I didn't hold Couch to that wording because I was promised free & clear title, so I only thought that bill-of-sale language pertained to bill-of-sale-only transactions. I was so eager to take possession of the HMMH, when I should've refused delivery because no title (or even a bill-of-sale until two weeks later, and without the title, kinda worthless). Let alone exchanged it for my SEE!!! Which is why I shoulda oughta have known bettah, because if I'd done that, my attorney's advice wouldn't be to return the HMMH which broke down on my property but which I've never truly owned, in order to sue for the purchase price because fraud. What I did not receive, was a titled HMMH in full working order, so he can have it back, but given the animosity between us I'll have to suck up the shipping cost because I failed to refuse delivery in the first place.

Not sure I really, truly own any FLUs. All Jay has to do is get me the title as promised, but I have zero confidence that will ever happen. And let me reclaim my SEE. Until this is settled, I have no interest in fixing or using *his* HMMH at *my* expense. If I can't reclaim the SEE by sending a trucker there, RAC will charge me for the missed pickup, and send their driver back the next day escorted by the local Sheriff's Dept. after I've made contact with the proper detective to handle this, and faxed them my SEE documentation... this is turning into my full-time job at the expense of every other aspect of my life, this week.

 

[BigBison]

Once you have it removed, just take it to your local (everything is relative, that's 160 miles in my case) hydraulic shop and let them fix it. They most likely have the seals in stock.

Except I have a perfectly good hydraulic mechanic in my employ, so why drive (at least) that far to pay someone else to do the work? Seemed better to attempt to source the rebuild kit. Then we could just undo one end of the cylinder (provided there's something to support it from, like a backhoe or the service crane on my Dodge, all back problems aside) and loosen the other, so it can pivot a few inches, instead of removing it entirely. That cylinder isn't *easily* field-serviceable, but it is field-serviceable if someone would just be serious about selling me the rebuild kit instead of blowing smoke up my ass over that part, for months?

I hate when I'm wrong, despite my decision-making seemed sound.

 

[BigBison]

RAC's trucker showed up but couldn't load the SEE on the equipment he brought. Anyone know a trucker around Denver who can get a Mog from Couch to RAC's depot this week? That can be done behind a pickup truck, which can't haul it over two mtn passes through Eisenhower Tunnel this time of year. Like 30 miles, give me some piece of mind, wish my dually was running better I'd borrow my neighbor's trailer for this and do it myself.

 

[BigBison]

In Couch's defense, just to clarify, those battery-related billing items weren't for new batteries. They were for CHARGING the existing batteries.

"Service change batteries 135.00 67.50"

Typo. Thought it was a bit lowball for batteries, but then again, the ones on the HMMH weren't exactly new, but the last thing I ever expected from a used-car dealer (nine months down the road) was a $135.00 bill for having to charge the batteries so it would start on delivery? Seems rather high even if you don't agree it's deplorable to begin with, right?

Should I start an Internet poll on this one? Maybe I'm way off-base, but seriously, $135 to charge the dead batteries on the truck you sold me? Really?

Apparently I need to get into the battery-charging business, seems to be pretty d**n lucrative! At least for FLUs, no?

 

[The FLU farm]

either I cut my losses and get a salvage title (no other option if I want a license plate / insurance etc. or to re-sell it and we all know what salvage titles do to resale value), which could make me the thief, or I send it back, whether he wants it or not. With a lien attached, so if he wants to sell it again he needs to refund my $35K stake in said HMMH or lose when I sue him for that amount if he sells it without making good on my lien. Or some such.

I'm sure you have good reasons not to contact GP yourself and find out where in the system your paperwork is, as I've suggested in the past. I simply don't understand what those reasons are.
Besides, if not having any paperwork on a FLU makes you a non-owner, I don't own a single one. Not even the one I paid for getting the paperwork from GP for, which I still haven't received over a year later.
Maybe if someone, somehow, managed to steal one of mine I'd worry a bit about lacking absolute proof of ownership, but as it is I'm not losing any sleep over paperwork. I consider them mine, since I paid for them.

 

[The FLU farm]

Like 30 miles, give me some piece of mind, wish my dually was running better I'd borrow my neighbor's trailer for this and do it myself.

Since you'd way over CGVWR with your pickup and the SEE on a trailer that can legally support the 16,000 lbs., wouldn't it be safer and easier to drive the SEE those 30 miles?

 

[BigBison]

I'm sure you have good reasons not to contact GP yourself and find out where in the system your paperwork is, as I've suggested in the past. I simply don't understand what those reasons are.

Because that's *two* owners ago as I understand it, and a big part of why this deal's so sketchy -- if you were GP and I called you, would you seriously not just hang up on me? I need Couch to come through, afaic, before GP will even take my calls. If that title needs to pass through a third party to get from GP to me, then that third party is Couch, and if they're not forthcoming on the title, then how can anyone expect *me* to get it from GP based on hearsay? After promising title for 9 months, afaic they're the ones need to make good, not send me on a wild third-party goose chase to GP. Why I paid what I did for the HMMH I thought I bought, is that *I* wouldn't have to spend months on end chasing down the title, or I'd have never paid that much for the HMMH to begin with, couldn't be more unhappy about that deception on Jay's part, now, because rewind the calendar to last April and I was told the clear title was sitting on his desk, which was apparently never the case despite what I was told. Or certainly I'd have that title signed over to me by now, especially considering that was my clear expectation in exchange for my $35K.

Maybe if someone, somehow, managed to steal one of mine I'd worry a bit about lacking absolute proof of ownership, but as it is I'm not losing any sleep over paperwork. I consider them mine, since I paid for them.

Until a free & clear title's in your hand, you're subject to the seller coming back against you 9 months later and saying, amongst other BS, that you owe $135 for battery charging or some other such absurd bullcrap. Of all the other BS that I'm faced with for trusting Couch on this deal, refusing tens of thousands of dollars from me to do actual work, and petulantly insisting on $135 for battery charging when I'm upset that work didn't get done and just want my truck back, is totally worth losing sleep over even if I'm completely misguided that it'll help anyone else. It WILL make me feel better for passing along my personal experience of being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous, fraudulent operator in this niche market, even if I'm out both FLUs I mistakenly assumed I owned.

If you really think I'm in the wrong here, then please do make the effort to convince me before I re-dedicate my life to trashing Couch's reputation up and down the Internet from here to eternity, because (and this is the least of my issues w/ them) instead of a title all you get is a bill for $135 to charge a battery. Please don't try to justify anything else about this situation, until you've convinced me that $135 to charge a battery makes Jay anything but a charlatan, my attorney will defend me for saying that because he agrees it's "prima facie" or whatevs.

The latest promise I've been given, is I'll have the HMMH title tomorrow. I'd rather have my SEE. In the unlikely event either actually happens, then new year's champagne all around on me, OK? Even if you're buying, I'm still going to tell my story to anyone who'll listen, because I can't abide being treated like some sort of neophyte chump when this is hardly my first rodeo, but this is ridiculous beyond the point I really think I need to explain myself -- you sold me a used vehicle based on your promise of having title, nine months later I complain you haven't come through with that title, your response is a $135 bill for battery charging? Are you seriously taking Jay's side on this?

Maybe there's other solutions, but I'd rather the a-hole who cashed my check for $35K made good on his promise so I didn't have to pursue this further, let alone resort to Plan B and try getting title from GP whom I've never dealt with. Because it's frankly easier to be honest about my experience in a very public manner so the seller will do the right thing, than try to do an end-run around him w/ GP who doesn't know me from next Tuesday, and I won't believe there even *is* a title until I have it in my hand. Part of paying $35K for the HMMH was me not having to deal with anyone but the seller who promised me a title, to obtain said title. I don't understand how you think it falls to ME to get a title from GP whom I've never dealt with, when the seller assured me I wouldn't need to because he was on the level ???

 

[BigBison]

Besides, if not having any paperwork on a FLU makes you a non-owner, I don't own a single one. Not even the one I paid for getting the paperwork from GP for, which I still haven't received over a year later.

Well, that may work for you, but not me, so if you're selling me a FLU and I insist on a title and you tell me OK no problem, you'd better make good. Because if I was willing to settle for less than a title I'd have said so, instead of insisting on a title, and if the seller can't meet that requirement, I'd have been more than happy to move on instead of getting jerked around for the better part of a year based on a false promise... the details aren't as important as the square dealing, if you can't deal squarely with me, then it's not incumbent on me to tell you that will make me incredibly unhappy, all I require of a seller is honesty.

So I should just stop buying stuff, especially online. Me bad-mouting Couch up & down the Internet from here to freaking eternity unless & until he makes good on his end of the deal, is called caveat vendor, and I won't hardly feel guilty for having to invoke it, in this case or any other where a vendor could care less about customer satisfaction, let alone honesty.

 

[peakbagger]

If you really feel you have been wronged I would suggest posting on the Benz World forum. It has much large readership on all models of mogs. If the situation is as you represent, its highly unlikely that this is not the first incident. I find the Steel Soldiers participants are new to Mogs (as am I) while Benz World folks tend to have the obsession/sickness far longer. They may just commiserate but maybe someone has found leverage that has worked in the past.

By the way my SEE was sold on bill of sale and never needed or received a title. In my state, I can register it as construction equipment as its technically a tractor. I expect other states may be the same so at some point if you get possession you could probably sell it without taking major hit by selling it in one of those states with less title restrictions. The other issue is that some states reportedly don't require a title once the vehicle gets over a certain age. Given that some SEEs are mid eighties they may be getting to the point where a title isn't required.

 

[The FLU farm]

-- if you were GP and I called you, would you seriously not just hang up on me?

Why I paid what I did for the HMMH I thought I bought, is that *I* wouldn't have to spend months on end chasing down the title...

Are you seriously taking Jay's side on this?

Okay, I'm a slow learner so I'll try one more time.

If I were at GP and you called with an inquiry about a specific vehicle, I'd do my best to find out if it was sold through GP and if paperwork has been sent out, and if so, to who. At least I'd do my best if treated fairly.

I have found, on numerous occasions in life (actually more often than not) that things don't go as planned. That's when I change to plan B (or C,D,K, whatever) to try to achieve what I want, or something as close to it as possible. I don't have the time or energy to keep barking up the same tree for prolonged periods.
Plus, it'd be downright embarrassing if it turns out that I've been barking up the wrong one.

No, I'm not taking sides here. I can't since I've only heard one side of the story. It's obvious that you're frustrated, but it's frustrating to me to see you expand all that energy on what doesn't seem to accomplish anything positive.

 

[The FLU farm]

Today's lesson in hydraulics.
Had to play musical tires with the SEEs and naturally used the hydraulic impact wrench. Plugged it into the snow blower SEE and...nothing.
Okay, I forgot that there has to be sufficient air pressure for the hose reel circuit to kick on.
Once the rpm went up I tried loosening the lug nuts on the first wheel. The impact would barely remove them. At times it wouldn't turn at all. Tried a few things, but no difference.
I considered running it off the (formerly) parts SEE instead, but since it still has the govt. supplied 10W in it, I really didn't want to contaminate the fresh impact, and eventually also the SEE.
Partway through loosening the nuts on the third wheel the coin fell down. The loader lever was in Float. Put it in Neutral and the impact worked great.
For those who have had problems with getting their tools to work, it could be as simple as having the loader's lever in the wrong position. It makes perfect sense that the impact wouldn't run right with the loader in float. Too bad it took me over 20 minutes to think of it.

 

[911joeblow]

So I had an oopsie. I needed to move some pallets so I installed pallet forks to the loader and then fired up my SEE. I was warming up the truck and working the loader up and down to warm it up but it was really 'notchy' and noisy and slow. So I thought to check the fluid level and as I hopped out it looked like the Exxon valdez. The tank was totally aerated and spewing 10W all over the place. I basically lost all but the bottom of the tank out the breather and cap. So what the heck? Was it just too cold? I have now bought hydro oil for it but do I need to wait before exercising the loader in the future? It has all been working fine till now. The only real difference is is is 20 deg cooler now.

 

[The FLU farm]

No idea why that would happen, 911, but at least you won't have to worry about rust on the left side for a while.