Yesterday I closed on a 08 Kubota 5040 with cab,hyd. shuttle and 675 hours.
What a long strange, but fun, trip it's been. Started when I built a cab for my 03 Kubota L3000DT last fall. Cab done just before the first big snow I fell in love with moving snow with a cab and heater, most fun I have had for some time.
You can read about the cab build here at my blog. Life on Highway 9
I began dreaming of more horsepower, more groundspeed, bigger buckets and nicer cabs.
Had a ball looking. Can't sleep? Come down stairs, fire up the puter and see what Fastline and Tractorhouse have new. Log in here and read up on diffrent makes and models.
It took a long time to get the diffrent models straight in my head and even longer to figure out just who was building what.
In northern Iowa some makes just plain lacked dealer support. I was drawn to the Kioti line , in particaluir the DK55 but not a single dealer in my state and a 3.5 hour drive into Mn. to reach one.
If I did have trouble what a pain to have to tote a 5000 lb. tractor to the Cities and back.
I seriously looked into the McCormick CT65, dealer only 25 miles to my south, nice fellow, new dealership. Built by LS, lot of gears, Mitsubshi motor and I assume gear train. In my job as a auto tech/ repair shop owner worked on a lot of Mitsbishi five speeds in the 80s and 90s.
Got home from looking at it to find a post here about McCormick switching to Kioti. Ended that quest as figured it would tend to make the LS version a morphidite in a few years.
Mahindras caught my attention as did TYM, seems some cross breeding going on there. Are dealers in my state though. Read some posts though about fellows having more trouble then they should with gears and radiaters.
Massey are nice, built by Iseki, a company I would have full faith in. New are spendy though and not a lot of used. Ditto for Agco.
John Deere I just could never get into the program with. Growing up Dad was a MM dealer and Green was always the enemy but would like to think I have outgrown that. Did not get along with their website and never mastered their model numbering system. Had trouble finding the size I wanted, utilty, with a cab.
Priced a new 5040 with cab and also a MX5100. Fresh off the cab build I felt confident of being able to build another and save some bucks albeit it with no AC.
Did I mention I was having a ball looking? I could walk by an acre of half naked woman, new Harleys and Suvs and never turn my head. Drive fifty miles to look at one fifty horse tractor and loader, no problem.
The Bobcats were going to save me, figured I could have my Kioti and a dealer network too. They stop short of carrying the DK55 equivlant though and could not come together on a price on the CT 450. In short, just a little more then I wanted to spend.
No matter I was still having a ball looking. By this point I had decided that above all I wanted a clean tractor. Wend. nite afterwork I spotted one, Kubota 5040, on Tractor House looked like it fit the bill. One call and I was talking to the dealer another call and I was talking to the original owner. Confirmed it was clean, had been kept in a shed and was not faded and that the shuttle shift was hyd.
Everything I wanted except would prefer R4 to the R1 tires and would like to have a quick attach bucket
Finalized the next day. Now just have to hold my breath till it gets here.
Going to miss looking. (-:
What a long strange, but fun, trip it's been. Started when I built a cab for my 03 Kubota L3000DT last fall. Cab done just before the first big snow I fell in love with moving snow with a cab and heater, most fun I have had for some time.
You can read about the cab build here at my blog. Life on Highway 9
I began dreaming of more horsepower, more groundspeed, bigger buckets and nicer cabs.
Had a ball looking. Can't sleep? Come down stairs, fire up the puter and see what Fastline and Tractorhouse have new. Log in here and read up on diffrent makes and models.
It took a long time to get the diffrent models straight in my head and even longer to figure out just who was building what.
In northern Iowa some makes just plain lacked dealer support. I was drawn to the Kioti line , in particaluir the DK55 but not a single dealer in my state and a 3.5 hour drive into Mn. to reach one.
If I did have trouble what a pain to have to tote a 5000 lb. tractor to the Cities and back.
I seriously looked into the McCormick CT65, dealer only 25 miles to my south, nice fellow, new dealership. Built by LS, lot of gears, Mitsubshi motor and I assume gear train. In my job as a auto tech/ repair shop owner worked on a lot of Mitsbishi five speeds in the 80s and 90s.
Got home from looking at it to find a post here about McCormick switching to Kioti. Ended that quest as figured it would tend to make the LS version a morphidite in a few years.
Mahindras caught my attention as did TYM, seems some cross breeding going on there. Are dealers in my state though. Read some posts though about fellows having more trouble then they should with gears and radiaters.
Massey are nice, built by Iseki, a company I would have full faith in. New are spendy though and not a lot of used. Ditto for Agco.
John Deere I just could never get into the program with. Growing up Dad was a MM dealer and Green was always the enemy but would like to think I have outgrown that. Did not get along with their website and never mastered their model numbering system. Had trouble finding the size I wanted, utilty, with a cab.
Priced a new 5040 with cab and also a MX5100. Fresh off the cab build I felt confident of being able to build another and save some bucks albeit it with no AC.
Did I mention I was having a ball looking? I could walk by an acre of half naked woman, new Harleys and Suvs and never turn my head. Drive fifty miles to look at one fifty horse tractor and loader, no problem.
The Bobcats were going to save me, figured I could have my Kioti and a dealer network too. They stop short of carrying the DK55 equivlant though and could not come together on a price on the CT 450. In short, just a little more then I wanted to spend.
No matter I was still having a ball looking. By this point I had decided that above all I wanted a clean tractor. Wend. nite afterwork I spotted one, Kubota 5040, on Tractor House looked like it fit the bill. One call and I was talking to the dealer another call and I was talking to the original owner. Confirmed it was clean, had been kept in a shed and was not faded and that the shuttle shift was hyd.
Everything I wanted except would prefer R4 to the R1 tires and would like to have a quick attach bucket
Finalized the next day. Now just have to hold my breath till it gets here.
Going to miss looking. (-:
:laughing: