What is Kubota doing about the broken plastic fenders?

[Mike_V]

Has anyone heard from Kubota on a fix to prevent broken plastic fenders? Today, there is yet another report of a broken fender in another thread. There have been enough incidents reported that I am concerned. I find myself gently stepping on the deck away from the fender. If you're over 200 lbs., you can be only so gentle...

Whether they are fixed under warranty or not, it would still be inconvenient, and possibly costly, to transport the BX24 back to the dealer for repair. And when the warranty period is over, things get much more expensive.

It seems that prevention would be far better than a repair.

Although I have an idea for a preventative remedy, I'd prefer that Kubota offer a kit, preferably one that can be installed by the customer.

I hope they don't just ignore the problem...

 

[GUMBO]

Mike V,
My dealer told me they weren't doing anything. Not sure if he even talked to his rep. or not. After I had told him of this site and there seemed to be alot of people in the same boat, he laughed and said there would have to be hundreds of problems before Kubota would even blink.
GUMBO

 

[FishAlaska]

I am not sure they are not doing anything. I asked my dealer and he said lose some weight....actually I looked at mine tonight and it does not appear to be real weak and I weigh 230. But it does not look to hard to cut some angle iron and attach it to the frame rail and use the floorboard bolt to make it stronger.

I agree though they should fix it. But when you tell the dealer about a discussion site they claim that represents less than 1% of al the Kubotas sold or on the market. They are not interested in hearing from a site.

 

[JTwillie]

My dealer did weld support brackets to the frame rails and also added some rubber between the top of the support and the floor board. The fender was replaced under warranty.

I was under the impression that Kubota knew of the problem but nothing has been done yet to offer a fix. Seems as if they left it up to my dealer. I was told that if Kubota did come up with a fix, he would let me know.

In the mean time, step on the forward part of the floor board when getting on and off the tractor.

Cheers JT

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

I just checked the Kubota support website,

"we are aware of this and are making a running change adding more support. Replace fender kit under warrenty."

This was posted about a month ago.

 

[FishAlaska]

Can you post a link to that support website?

 

[Mike_V]

I just checked the Kubota support website,

"we are aware of this and are making a running change adding more support. Replace fender kit under warrenty."


Does this mean the fix will only apply to new BX24's in production? Have they told you how to modify an existing BX24?

The most obvious remedy would be to add rigid support between the bottom of the deck and the frame. But if that dimension changes when the frame flexes, the "fix" could actually cause a failure.

That's why I like to see a Kubota-designed fix.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

Out of the 30-35 we've sold there has not been one back in with this issue, so we've not had to tackle it yet. I've not seen the fix for it.

 

[Mike_C]

Wow, it's hard to believe they are using plastic fenders now. I think I'm glad I have a bx-22 which has metal fenders, but I'm also very disappointed that Kubota would lower the quality like that just to save a few bucks. I would rather have them raise the price and get metal fenders.

 

[FishAlaska]

Japanese Sheetmetal = Foreign Plastic same same. If it were USA Steel 40 years ago it would be different. The plastic is just in a bad spot where it takes stress. I have had no problems but some have.