I cant decide if I should keep fixing this thing...

[BMXER10]

Not to play one up manship, but the center spindle on a toro groundsmaster cost $350 to be rebuilt...center shaft had stripped on pulley. Now have to install it on the mower!

I called the local tractor place and they quoted $294... Just for grins I checked a couple places on the internet, they wanted $612!

I cant complain too much about the price though, its a pretty decent size part thats all metal and heavy. If it was for a car they would probably charge $900.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Sometimes the best deals are not to be found on the 'net. Besides like to keep some of the local dealers in business. Never know when the net might go down and not available for parts and then go crawling back to a shop for a panic parts run.

Any ideas how many hours are on that unit of yours? The toro has about 1100 hours. Runs decent just some piddilly stuff falling off it as of late.

 

[BMXER10]

Sometimes the best deals are not to be found on the 'net. Besides like to keep some of the local dealers in business. Never know when the net might go down and not available for parts and then go crawling back to a shop for a panic parts run.

Any ideas how many hours are on that unit of yours? The toro has about 1100 hours. Runs decent just some piddilly stuff falling off it as of late.

I actually havent ordered anything off the Net for tractor stuff yet. Like you said, the net doesnt always have the best deals. Nowadays with the price of gas shipping is going up too. Typically higher than the price of local taxes.

Mine has about 1275 hours on it. Pretty close to yours. When its running good I love it. Its much bigger than I need so its never under powered which is nice.


I found this old picture of the tractor when I first bought it two years ago. If you look at the deck you can see the gear oil had been leaking out for some time. Hindsight is always 20/20...

 

[Volfandt]

FWIW, I just ordered a new mandrel for my BIL's Craftsman mower and along w/a new blade ran $100 plus S&H. It wasn't designed to be rebuilt.....

At the hrs you posted, that tractor is nowhere near the end of it's servicable life. You made a good decision to rebuild and go on with it.
To buy the equivalent of your model now will run at least $8K new, if not more.
You know it's not unusual to be able to buy a whole assembly over buying the individual parts to rebuild it, I recently ran into a similar situation concerning what to do with a defective starter, ends up a new "refurb'ed" unit was less than what I needed to refurb one, go figure....

Good luck, keep those fluids full and clean and you should get 1000's more hrs out of that machine.

 

[BMXER10]

Apparently I was quoted the wrong part @ $294. The whole gear box is $617.

Soooo, looks like im going to order individual parts and rebuild it. I can rebuilt it for about $350.

 

[EddieWalker]

Too bad about the wrong price. I'm one of those that's for the rebuild and keeping the Kubota over a box store mower, but also know the hassle and headache of keeping old stuff working.

No matter what you spend to fix it, you're still money ahead. You found a heck of a deal on it when you bought it for $600 and even if you add all your parts into the price, I think you should be able to get more for it if you decide to sell it once it's all back together. Not that you will, just that it will hold it's value and even increase some.

Eddie

 

[BMXER10]

Well, some good news. I ordered all the parts to rebuild the gear box and they only came to $250. Obviously im going to rebuild instead of paying $600 for a complete one. The guy at the parts place said the gears come in pairs for $138.

The steering components are only going to come to about $200. They were as expensive as I though they would be.

Kubotas prices on parts are pretty reasonable...at least for this model.

 

[art]

Selling all the brands we do I don't know that Kubota parts are high compared to what some makes are. We feel they are middle of the road for pricing and in the past couple of years they have improved the ability to get parts for the most part able to supply just like the big boys!!!!

Now about those 1300 hours on that tractor. I don't know where you live but, to mow 10 acres with a 48" deck covering 100%(which we don't do) at 4.5mph you would mow just under 2.4 acres an hour. That times four brings us to four hours to mow ten acres. That times thirty, an average for a normal mowing season brings us to 120 hours a year bare minimum. 1993 was the last year that tractor was built, which means it's 15 plus years old and should be at least 1800 hours just for mowing not pulling a trailer or doing any other type of work.

 

[BMXER10]

Selling all the brands we do I don't know that Kubota parts are high compared to what some makes are. We feel they are middle of the road for pricing and in the past couple of years they have improved the ability to get parts for the most part able to supply just like the big boys!!!!

Now about those 1300 hours on that tractor. I don't know where you live but, to mow 10 acres with a 48" deck covering 100%(which we don't do) at 4.5mph you would mow just under 2.4 acres an hour. That times four brings us to four hours to mow ten acres. That times thirty, an average for a normal mowing season brings us to 120 hours a year bare minimum. 1993 was the last year that tractor was built, which means it's 15 plus years old and should be at least 1800 hours just for mowing not pulling a trailer or doing any other type of work.

I actually found some notes that they 2nd owner bought it with 400 hours on the clock in 1998. I dont know who the first owner was, but the 2nd owner had 10 acres. Its possible he didnt mow all of it every year. But I know he mentioned it took a long time to mow it. Im in Oklahoma and I think the previous 2 owners were also.

Im waiting on parts to come in right now. I went ahead and used the grease gun everywhere it needed it. Its a good time with the deck removed to clean up and reoil everything. I took off the aftermarket headlights that never looked like they belonged and cleaned up the wiring mess. Never used em anyway.

 

[ihookem]

Nice tractor. I look at used tractors once in a while and amm always told it only has xxx amount of hours on it. The hours are the least of the used tractor equation. The parts like ball joints, steering, tires are huge. I talked to a horse boarding worker with a Kublota 4300? He liked it but he put 5,000 dollars into it after about 2000 hours on it. Ball joints and front end parts were the main problems.