On a scale of 0 to 5, it gets a 6. OK, OK, at least a 5. I sold my previous Kubota, an L48, a TLB with a loader that was so strong it could destroy itself if you did not watch out. After cutting and moving massive amounts of material, I realized the L48 made a lousy mowing machine. I looked at many tractors this time, sure to show my wife I won't make another mistake getting more tractor then I need and one more suitable to the tasks at hand (mowing). I was looking hard at the L3130, the new L30's baby from Kubota as well as every other tractor manufactuer I could find. All set to go for the L3130 HST, an excellent tractor, when the dealer that sold me the L48 said, "you know, if you did not have the L48 and experience it's power, you'd be happy with the L3130 HST, but I think the L3830 is going to be more in line with your expectations." OK, that was good enough for me, now to find a dealer with a L3830 HST in stock. I found one that would have it built in a week, tried it and wahlah, wow, maximum utmost, those were all the things going through my head. But hey, I'm no newbie to tractors, I already own 2, driven many brands for many years so why the excitement over another tractor. I've showed many folks the tractor ropes, but this one was special. The L3830 HST is SMOOOOOTH, its quiet, its everything I wanted. Plenty of power for my needs, great steering, great manuverability, super HST, and the 3 cylinder diesel, basically a 3 cylinder version of what was in my L48 is very nice because it is quiet.
I miss having a super strong loader with a very high lift height that was on my L48, but as far as loaders go, this one offers a very fast cycle time, super easy removal and reattachment, and for it's class, about the best specs offered from any manufactuer. The L30's have a electronic dash that at the time did not really register with me, I just did not care. Now that I have 70 hours on it, I have come to use 3 of its many functions. Trip time, a resetable time meter, PTO speed which gets set to about 480 to 500 RPM, a speed that works well with this unit in terms of power, cut, noise level etc, and the mph display. The total hours always comes on as the default setting unless you are over due on the maintenance, then your told to do some maintenance. The new HST pedal is great, I use a JD 510 twin pedal and find getting familiar with it after using the Kubota,easy. The pedal design is neither better or inferior then the twin pedal design, just different. One thing you won't do though is mix up which direction your about to go on the Kubota. Power on the 3 cylinder diesel is good. With HST, its easy to manipulate that power and utilize it to it's fullest, if you don't understand that, it's understandable. Using HST allows one to develop a "seat of the pants" understanding of whats going on. Whether its engine RPM or dips and bumps, your right foot quickly develops a feel that becomes second nature to deal with these situations. The cruise control works slick and easy, I never use it, but if you need it, its a piece of cake, nothing could be easier. It also allows you to utilize differential braking. It comes with a HD grille guard that could actually be used to push stuff. I have 3 rear remotes, not the factory edition so it's a bit more cluttered then the built in style Kubota offers. I highly recommend having at the very least, one, the one used to operate your top link. What else, lets see, big tires, nice loader, nice seat, nice electronics, good power, easy to use 4WD shift lever, straight design Low- Medium - High range lever, great HST pedal design, smooth operation, quiet diesel and HST, easy maintenance, well built, and, and, and, well, try it, you'll like it! Mark (aka Rat)

Date Purchased: 5/2002
Purchased: New
Price Paid: US$20000
Pros: #1 Smooth #2 Quiet #3 Manuverability
Cons: #1 Loader lift height #2 Loader lift capacity #3 Loader bucket capacity
Rating: