Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made

   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #51  
Your telling me Kubota doesn't outsource a single position? That is absolutely impossible in todays market. The product may be unique to Kubota, but every aspect of the tractor isn't built and designed by Kubota. It is just plain out right cheaper to outsource some things, if Kubota didn't do this it would make the tractor much more expensive. And in my experience these companies do better jobs as they are in more competition and they are doing their specialty. Auto and tractor companies outsource all types of products, whether it be the glass to cover their display, or an engine. I find the opposite of what you say.




I don't see where I said that at all!!!

Manufacturers all have different levels to which they build to. As with cars, some are built for 100,000 miles in ten years and some are built for 250,000 miles still about a ten year envelope. To do this they have a cost figure to what might fail and anticipated life. Lawn mowers are as well, some are built for a ten year life with 50 to 100 hours a year anticipated cycle.
There are people that get excited over long warrantee's although it means nothing and the manufactuer knows that and uses the average of 100 hours a year to know that to say 2500 or 5000 hours they probably won't get a call on even a 1,000 hour claim or if they do, it might only be one to get that many hours on it within the warrantee program.
Watching the commercial markets and knowing when they trade which is normally done by the machines life cycle for cost of down time and repairs is very interesting to compare from make to make. I'm not refering to a trade of options or abilities but because the precieved life cycle is over. We see this not only with the lawn industry but with the construction equipment as well as farm equipment.

To see the differences of the equipment returns and the shop work needed to keep different makes in service on a day to day basis gives a diffeerent perspective then someone getting a little seat time on the week end!
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #52  
which is exactly why I use only Stihl stuff.. Looked at some husqavarna stuff then seen the exact same thing in the poulan brand just a different color.. after seeing that I'll never own a husky product.. John deere does that with tractors..My 870 looks really similar to a cub cadet ex450 but the attachments are WAAAY better than the cub cadets.I think this is were the JD shines

Plus no one can deny that green paint looks way better than that ugly white and yellow... cub cadet owners start the hate mail

Hey man, don't be knockin Husky! :)

Both companies make cheap junk in the lowest price range. But both make great saws and trimmers in the higher range. Husqvarna owns Poulan and Poulan makes only the two lowest home owner saws for Husky, and maybe a couple lower trimmers. The better Husky saws are made in Sweden and 2nd to none, especially the XP models. Just stay away from the box store stuff!
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #53  
Double post, Sorry!
 
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   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #54  
BernellMcGehee said:
Just wanting to get in a "first time post"

Welcome aboard :)
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #55  
I don't see where I said that at all!!!

Manufacturers all have different levels to which they build to. As with cars, some are built for 100,000 miles in ten years and some are built for 250,000 miles still about a ten year envelope. To do this they have a cost figure to what might fail and anticipated life. Lawn mowers are as well, some are built for a ten year life with 50 to 100 hours a year anticipated cycle.
There are people that get excited over long warrantee's although it means nothing and the manufactuer knows that and uses the average of 100 hours a year to know that to say 2500 or 5000 hours they probably won't get a call on even a 1,000 hour claim or if they do, it might only be one to get that many hours on it within the warrantee program.
Watching the commercial markets and knowing when they trade which is normally done by the machines life cycle for cost of down time and repairs is very interesting to compare from make to make. I'm not refering to a trade of options or abilities but because the precieved life cycle is over. We see this not only with the lawn industry but with the construction equipment as well as farm equipment.

To see the differences of the equipment returns and the shop work needed to keep different makes in service on a day to day basis gives a diffeerent perspective then someone getting a little seat time on the week end!

I agree with what you said in the latter, but this is what I was talking about,

"What I often find is that those that are so proud of there product you won't find someone elses name on only the manufacturers are prouder of their work and often build a superior product."

I find this not true as outsourcing (99.9% of the time) means a better or equal quality product at a lower cost. Deere may outsource an entire engine, which in your mind may be wrong, but Kubota is outsourcing for all of the engine parts. What's the difference?
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #56  
Gary makes some good points and there isn't much made in the US anymore. I would definately prefer that the US as a whole would increase manufacturing and industry for our own self protection and defense.

There is still a company who makes tractors that 100% built in the US. They are tuff-built tractors.

Tuff-bilt Tractor System - Affordable and Innovative

tuffbilt02.jpg
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #57  
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #58  
I agree with what you said in the latter, but this is what I was talking about,

"What I often find is that those that are so proud of there product you won't find someone elses name on only the manufacturers are prouder of their work and often build a superior product."

I find this not true as outsourcing (99.9% of the time) means a better or equal quality product at a lower cost. Deere may outsource an entire engine, which in your mind may be wrong, but Kubota is outsourcing for all of the engine parts. What's the difference?

I'll relate to my retired store managers past experience! We had a sweater manufactuer in town and he ran the business till it closed about 21 years ago. When the order was for Eddie Bauer they inspected every fifth sweater, when it was for Sears it was every 25! Now you may pay a little more for eddie's sweater, but the chances of having one tat had bad yarn or stitches was a lot less then it was at Sears! I've been told by several wholesalers that I'd make more money selling their brand chain saw chain because it would wear out faster so I would have my customers back in the store faster, even with lawn mowers!!! I have listened to tractors of other makes that were traded in with low hours, they sounded like they had parts hitting each other in them although it was common with them and it was just injector noise! I'd want ear muffs on if I had to listen to them run all day even being with less then 100 hours!
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #59  
I'll relate to my retired store managers past experience! We had a sweater manufactuer in town and he ran the business till it closed about 21 years ago. When the order was for Eddie Bauer they inspected every fifth sweater, when it was for Sears it was every 25! Now you may pay a little more for eddie's sweater, but the chances of having one tat had bad yarn or stitches was a lot less then it was at Sears! I've been told by several wholesalers that I'd make more money selling their brand chain saw chain because it would wear out faster so I would have my customers back in the store faster, even with lawn mowers!!! I have listened to tractors of other makes that were traded in with low hours, they sounded like they had parts hitting each other in them although it was common with them and it was just injector noise! I'd want ear muffs on if I had to listen to them run all day even being with less then 100 hours!

Maybe I'm missing the correlation to the actual problem of outsourcing parts. There's good quality (Eddie Bauer) and worse quality (Sears) in every company. An L3800 is not nearly as high quality of a machine as an L3940. Both may be solid tractors, but there is no denying that the L3940 is more meticulously designed, refined and more money spent in building, correct? Which makes it a higher quality machine.

None of this has anything to do with your original problem of outsourcing though, you still have not addressed how outsourcing (whether it be a tractor or an engine) means worse quality. You don't deny that Kubota outsources, so I don't see what the problem is.

In the end the distributing company has their name on the product, whether they built it or not. So they still stand behind it as a quality product.

I again will ask the question again as you have avoided it, how is outsourcing an engine different than outsourcing the parts to the engine? If I can get a high quality product, at a cheaper price by outsourcing the WHOLE thing instead of just 90% of it, why in the heck would you not do it?? Believe it or not even when a company outsources, they still have control over the product as they are the customer! If the company builds a bad engine, they can switch providers to someone who wants to provide quality material. There is more incentive to keep building high quality products as the distributing company can quickly and easily pull the supplier and switch to a different one MUCH easier (and WAAAAY cheaper) than the distributing company can shut down one of it's own plants, rebuild or retrain the people at their own plant to build a higher quality product.
 
   / Going to buy a tractor....Between Kubota and JD....which one is more american made #60  
Can you order parts online? Are there detailed diagrams available with pricing? Does it show if the part is in stock at your nearest dealer or substitute dealers?

You can answer yes to all 3 for the deere. Shop the dealer. It will make your ownership experience better. Don't be afraid of the plastic hoods. They hold up well and actually can absorb a bit of a hit. You can bring it back to a shine with a wash and wax with Meguiars plastic polish.

Both are good tractors, shop the dealers. Like Bleedgreen has stated twice (and he should know), many are American assembled from world sourced parts. Yanmar diesel engines are utilized in a wide array of products. They are 2nd to none.
 
 
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