My pre-teen grandson is into off-road motorcycles. He’s learning to work on them, and one of the lessons he’s learned has been about “bolt-on parts.” He ordered on the internet a bunch of ignition, carburetor and exhaust parts guaranteed to make his dirt bike go faster and leap farther. He installed all the parts (might have had a few parts left over) and the bike ran like crap. His dad, a trained mechanic, tore all the accessory parts off, got the bike to run correctly, and laid down the law: “If it ain’t stock, don’t put it on the bike.”
I learned the same lesson back in high school--adding a carburetor or cam may make more horsepower, but the extra horsepower can take a toll on the transmission or rear end, and definitely reduces the lifespan of rear tires.
Anyway, I see the same thing with aftermarket agricultural parts. Whether it’s “chipping” an engine for more power or adding extra wheels and extensions to deal with wet fields, there are risks. The aftermarket components may work as promised, but can have side effects on other parts of the machine. Many farmers learned the risks of humongous grain tank extensions on combines. There have been a notable number of drive train problems associated with chipped engines.
I don’t mean to sound like a shill for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), but any time aftermarket parts alter weight, horsepower or drivetrain design, there is risk that some original part elsewhere on the machine will be overloaded, or over-stressed, and go ‘boing,” “bang” or “boom.” In my experience, boing, bang and boom are expensive.
