Let me add. It does slow down when the go pedal is released, it just doesn't stop. I go down a gravel drive way loaded and unloaded and of course keep it in 4wd now that I know better than leaving it in 2wd from experience. It will slow down and keep going at a very slow rate but not stop completely ever going down hill and I guess gravity will stop it when I let off going slow on level pavement but it still coasts some which is to far when doing close work and not knowing where it will stop without using the brake. A first time buyer will probably never complain since they don't know it is not supposed to work this way, like the BXxx50 series with the abrupt stop in reverse. I'd owned several BXs and Bs when I bought the BX2350 so I knew it was "wrong" and got compensated $500 because of it. A person having owned a HST tractor before will know this BX25D-1 is "wrong" but most people go with the flow or think it's them or just their machine and won't complain.
Greetings Johnthomas,
I think you're being too charitable to Kubota. I see "free coasting" as a real liability for injury or damage. Here's why:
1. The vast majority of riding lawnmowers today (lawn tractors, garden tractors, zero turns) are HST. And of course sub compacts are HST . . so the idea new bx25 owners may not notice if they are 1st time tractor buyers . . won't match their lawnmower experiences for hst.
2. Modest 10 degree and steeper 15 and 20 degree slopes are very common in urban areas and municipal rural areas today. The development I'm in is 90% property owners with such slopes.
3. The current buying base of tractors on a national basis is heavily percentaged to scut and smaller compact tractors.
4. So you add up 1, 2, and 3 and you have large quantities of buyers familiar with HST operation buying scuts to be used on properties with significant slopes on lawns and driveways and open land.
But the rub is . . . brakes are a rear axle item. So going down slopes in 2wd or 4wd depend on their HST drives to provide braking and speed control . . . especially on either damp or fel/blower/plow equipped situations.
In effect . . Bx25 owners are without braking ablity on slope angles fully approved for their operations. I think thats trouble . . big trouble. You had yours repaired twice and it still does something it is not supposed to do. In my case had I gotten a bx25 new this year . . I couldn't use it on most of my property.
Kubota better get a recall going before the personal injury lawsuits start flying. They can't claim they didn't know about this, and the slope angles involved are all fully and completely approved levels of pitch by kubota. Tip overs, injuries, crushed bodies and damaged tractors and damaged/destroyed personal property etc. are all obviously potentials.
Kubota has always been smart on customer issues . . but they are asleep at the switch on this. GM is just finding out what that means (900 million & 2.5 billion & up to a possible 4.5 billion more). Now Bx25s in this last year or two aren't millions of units like GM . . but my example is to show neither the govermnment or classaction attorneys are going to be charitable as you are if Kubota doesn't jump on this. It will cost kubota in lost sales, lost resale value, and legal results . . . all on their most popular product.
Just my opinion.
And lest a reader think I'm overstating it . . just tell your wife the sitution and see how they react. If my wife heard the story . . she'd be very direct . . they fix it or our money back or we call an attorney . . no ifs ands or buts. And why will wives want results luke that? Because they've been reading all the articles about death and injury to those driving tractors and whether they tell us or not . . they want us around longer and they know what we sometimes don't . . . we aren't invincible.
Unlike a sudden stopping problem in reverse etc.. this is a problem that is far more serious and fixable. Every other brand and model has working HST units. Kubota better get their BX25d s fixed before the injury/death toll starts to mount.
