Buying Advice Not for sale in Nebraska?

[Yankee]

At the bottom of every page in the footnotes in the Grand L specs is the line "Not for sale in Nebraska." What's up with that?

 

[kwswan]

kubota will not participate in the testing the university of nebraska does on the new tractor models to test hp,fuel consumption,etc., because of this the state of nebraska will not allow the company to sell them there.

 

[Sawdust Farmer]

Why would Kubota choose not to participate?

sf

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Why would Kubota choose not to participate?

sf

Have you ever dealt with the government (Retired State Government worker myself)? I do rentals and dealing with government crap and some personnel has me "just saying no". Doesn't mean I don't meet all health and safety standards because I have the newest, cleanest and safest rentals in the county but I don't have to deal with Gvmnt agencies so I no longer do, except for a few renters that have been there awhile. Waiting for their pmnt that comes if they haven't messed up, new staff, lost paperwork and no common sense. Don't want to get started, could take several pages of rambling and gets me upset thinking about it. So, that's probably why Kubota doesn't participate in a Government program.

 

[Kays Supply]

I am a plumber that uses Fernco couplings. In Illinois you can't use them on above ground piping. The only reason, is they won't send in a sample to be tested by the State. I asked them why they didn't. There response was that they sell all they can produce, so why bother with Illinois. Kubota may have the same outlook.

 

[RickB]

The Nebraska Tractor test program was begun in 1920 in an effort by that State and the University of Nebraska to eliminate the duping of farmers by false and misleading claims by tractor manufacturers; a rampant problem of the day. The testing program and requirement of certification as a sale condition in Nebraska was a direct result of the inability of Congress and the Dept of Agriculture to act on a national level. Over the years there have been manufacturers that have decided for various reasons not to participate in the testing, therefore forfeiting sales of those brands and or models in that State.

More info can be found here:

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

 

[kuboman]

Kubota did in the past send tractors to be tested. Strange they would quit but maybe the gov bureaucracy got to be too much or maybe they could not meet their claims.:ashamed::ashamed:

 

[CHDinCT]

Interesting.. So is this limitation just the L models, or all Kubotas? Can't imagine you can't buy a Kubota tractor of any size in Nebraska.

 

[RickB]

Kubota did in the past send tractors to be tested. Strange they would quit but maybe the gov bureaucracy got to be too much or maybe they could not meet their claims.:ashamed::ashamed:

It could be as simple as an inability on the lab's part to schedule those particular models for testing. Or Kubota has test data on non-cabbed tractors with identical drivelines and figured the loss of those cabbed tractor sales in NE are insignificant to their big picture. There are several possibilities not involving the perils of government bureaucracy or Kubota's reputation and ability to meet its claims.

 

[radman1]

The NE testing rules apply to tractors only above a certain hp. I think it is 50 hp. Not sure if it is engine or pto hp. For a tractor to be sold in NE, every model above that hp must be tested even if it is only a few hp difference. Therefore, my dealer in NE only sells the smaller tractors. My kubota dealer does sell the L series up to a certain model/hp. If I went out of state and bought a new 100 hp Kubota, my current kubota dealer cannot honor the warranty. Hence, in NE, there are very few larger kubotas. Don't quote me, but it costs tens of thousands of dollars to test a tractor. If a manufacture changes a model number every few years, the tractor has to be retested even if the changes are cosmetic and there is no change in the engine, drivetrain ect. My dealer says, it is not cost effective for Kubota to test the bigger models because the market share of ag tractors in the US is very small relative to JD, Case-IH, Newholland, ect.

Many other states require the NE ag tests for sales of tractors in their own state. By default, it has become the national testing center. The testing facility also test cab rollovers, noise, fuel efficency and other safety measures. They recently just built a new track and had to make another "large tractor/sled" for the pulling tests and new dyno since tractors continue to get larger and larger.