In low range, any rtv should spin the tires with ease.
Matt
I was one of the first people to buy one of the very first RTV900 units that came out. I ended up really liking the unit, but it gave me fits for a while. If I needed to change gears after I'd stopped on a hill, the
only viable option was to shut off the engine and then change gears. Kubota was
never able to fix that. It got better over time, but clearly was still a defective design.
The other issue was running out of power in low range in 4X4. Without any doubt, any question, any debate, my RTV900 would
NOT spin the tires. Whether I was pulling a heavy trailer or just trying to go up a steep hill, the RTV900 would just flat run out of power. I had my dealer and even the Kubota regional manager come out and was able to cause both problems 100% of the time for them. They kept my RTV900 for about 3 weeks and said it was completely normal and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. They said that by adding the 25" Maxxis Bighorn tires on my RTV I was able to get so much traction that the RTV would not be able to spin those tires. The changed the hydro fluid and filter about 3 or 4 times but the jamming in gear on hills never was corrected. The only way to get it out of gear was to shut it off.
Perhaps it was dumb on my part, what they did was work out what I considered a fair deal to trade me up to an RTV1100 in camo. To be fair, the power, even with A/C on, is considerably more and it will always spin the tires in 4X4 low rather than just grunt like the RTV900 did. It still had the "launch everyone through the windshield when you let off the go pedal" problem that the RTV900 had. Basically, I was the only person who would drive it. My wife and kids wouldn't touch it due to it's jerky nature. A little over a year ago I bought a coast valve and it made the biggest difference in an RTV than any other single change ever made. Now my wife and kids love to drive it and it truly is a pleasure to drive. The "release lever" on the dash helps when it's stuck in gear. Kinda cheesy, but I can live with it. My biggest disappointment, by far, was the absolutely pathetic quality control in it's manufacture. Fortunately, it only affected the square tubing frame on the doors. The welds on those doors were the worst welds I've ever seen on any "professional" weld job that I've ever seen in my life. To make it worse, the tubing was a full 1/4" out of alignment where it was welded (very poorly) together.
I took pictures, posted pictures on here, called my dealer, called Kubota, talked to Kubota managers in GA, and even had a Kubota regional manager come by my dealer and look at the door frame on my RTV. Much to my dismay, they all said it was "normal".
I can teach a toddler how to weld better than that in about an hour. The bottom line was that Kubota did
NOTHING about the pathetic workmanship in the form of terrible welds. As expected, at about 15 months of ownership I noticed a terrible rattle by my door. Yup, you guessed it, that pathetic excuse of a weld had broken. Being that I gave up on Kubota doing anything, I took the door skin off the frame, took a grinder and ground all the bird doo doo looking weld off the door frame, lined it up properly, and welded it properly myself. While I was at it, I did the same thing to the passenger side door frame
before it broke. It's been fine since I made the corrections to the pathetic excuse of the welds from the factory.
Hopefully I don't run across other examples of plain poor workmanship on my Kubota RTV1100. Since Kubota offered me no help at all (and this was like my 5th Kubota product I'd purchased), when I decided to upgrade from my Kubota L5030HSTC I never considered an M class Kubota. I bought a new John Deere tractor and I really like it. I actually like it so much that I will seriously consider a John Deere Gator if they come with a factory cab on a diesel powered Gator. I strongly feel that Kubota kicked me to the curb as a customer and is not interested in keeping my business. Other manufacturer's seem more than happy to compete for my business. Although I really liked the Kubota mini excavator I demo'd, my bad experience with factory Kubota was the deciding factor when I bought a Takeuchi over the Kubota. I take delivery of it next Tuesday.
The only reason I posted this info about how factory Kubota treated me yet again is in hope that they start paying attention to their customer's rather than just blowing them off like they have in the past. Kubota has a great product, but when there are problems Kubota just flat doesn't stand behind their product. If you want to help Kubota, please pass that suggestion on to them. I understand that my local dealer couldn't afford to personally pay to fix my defective RTV1100 when the factory failed to stand behind their product. Unfortunately, I can't patronize that dealer knowing what I know about Kubota.
