Our buddy Mike just paid 7500 for a new front axle. He hit a tree stump and bent the front axle on his scout . PB had it back to him in a week. Just the base model with no blade or passenger cab is 138k new for a Scout or 156k for a Trooper. Could be a good buy for someone that has some time and money.
Holy*rap! $7,500, for an axle? Please tell me there was a lot more to the repair than an axle.
Looking at pictures the front axle on a Pisten Bully Scout is not a drive axle, meaning no differential, no gears, no drive mechanism, no sprockets. It's essentially like a trailer axle. These are often called "dead" axles. And replacing that cost seven thousand five hundred dollars? Do you happen to know the breakdown between parts and labor?
Sorry Aaron, but I'm in shock...
There's another recent thread about a Tucker with a "broken axle".
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=78490
As you know Tucker axles are drive axles, and the Dana 60 axles on that Tucker are full floating axles, so it's actually the axle housing that's broken and without looking at it I don't know if the axle shaft, hub, bearings, spindle, differential carrier ring and pinion, etc are damaged. Lubrication oil is contained within the axle housing, and with the housing being broken that oil may have leaked out. If so, and the machine was run with no lubrication for a period, that might mean replacing a bunch of parts.
The point being there's a lot more involved in a drive axle than a dead axle. My snowcat buddy and I did a lot of work to that machine and sold it six years ago (IIRC). On the one hand we don't feel responsible for the mechanical failure, which may have resulted from hitting an object (don't know the story) but we did a lot of work to the machine so "it's one of ours" and we want to help the owner out. Scott and I have offered to repair it for the cost of parts only. I just don't see, despite the increased complexity, it will cost anything like $7,500 to repair.
I'm very curious as to the details on the Pisten Bully axle repair bill, if you can share them.