So why do you buy Kubota? Even though Roy says JD's best? :)

[Snapper Head]

Very nice! Post pics!

Taking delivery in about 2 weeks.

Barlow's rulz:thumbsup:


Big Al

 

[LBrown59]

I tried to buy a new Kubota B series back around 1982 but the deal went sour when the financing fell through .
It was 23 years later in 2004 before i was ever again in the financial position to afford A Kubota so i bought a new 2004 BX23.
After 23 years of lusting for a Kubota I wasn't about to let green or any other color rob me out of the moment.

 

[Carl Bert]

Ok, i had to say my 2 cents. I just bought a L3240 (GST) with a rotary cutter, no loader. I looked at JD, NH and Mih.. I first went to the JD guy and was settled on the green machine. Then I figured--ok take the emotions out and get down to smart buying. Dang then the fun started謔* spent weeks looking and crawling around asking absolutely the dumbest questions. In the end I settled on the Kubota- why it, for me was the best quality, small bells and whistles and the BEST price over all others. The mechanic at the Kubota dealer told me simply this: 豕･amm fine machines and those fellows (Japanese) really put their hearts in building these things! I walked in the Mih place and 2 were in the back with issues?

Same here. I have been a huge John Deere fan for as long as I can remember and was set on purchasing another. Now, up here in New York, Kubotas actually cost the same or even a few dollars more then Deere, but I really wasn't looking at the price tag, I just wanted the best all around compact TLB money could buy. What sold me is when I started comparing the specs. John Deere just doesn't come close in the backhoe department. Show me one JD tractor that compares to my B26. Now I am talking dollar for dollar and size for size. As much as I REALLY WANTED to find something GREEN that compared, I couldn't. If it even came close I would have settled. I am now very happy using the ORANGE for digging and GREEN for cutting. They are a great pair and both do, what they were designed to do, very well. :thumbsup:

 

[texasjohn]

When I started shopping, I had owned a Case and Massey Ferguson...each had had their issues. JD was the only other tractor I had any opinion about, and it was positive. Visited all 3 dealers then ran across a used low hours Kubota that I could get with lots of extra stuff, cab, etc. for same price as new JD without the extras. My impression at that time was that Kubota was not a top end player in tractors. However, I put my years of analysis experience to work, did my research, discovered that Kubota has an excellent reputation for quality and reliability. This made for brand name equality, then, and I made my decision on price and features.

So, I started off unbiased, IMHO, and made my decision based on features, price and availability. By the way, my favorite Massey dealer had also begun offering Kubotas. So, I got it all...dealer, reliability, price.

Now, I am biased.... at over 800 hours and no problems, I have to be sold on Kubota.... it's experience based bias:thumbsup:

 

[texasjohn]

Brain55, thanks for your perspective. So many years with so many vehicles in front of your eyes with repair needs...gotta ***** me with just one vehicle. Seems to be vast experience based factual information...something few of us have.

Good to know that your opinion is that Kubota is easiest to work on and very reliable. All I need to do now is to avoid operator/user error and my L5030 will continue to run with no problems.

 

[AHNC]

I'm in kind of a unique situation being on the east coast for another 11 months while the tractor is on the property in CA. I bought my first tractor last fall, a BX2660. My daughter is currently living on the property and she has no tractor experience either. I was almost ready to buy a Mahindra but the local dealers were rental shops or some such and the "real" dealer was over 100 mi away. I spoke extensively with the local Kubota dealer, Gold Country out of Grass Valley and I ended up buying my Kubota from them. I have had to draw on their expertise and suport a few times and they have been excellent! As it turns out, I bought a great piece of equipment from a great dealer. That's the way its supposed to work out, eh!:thumbsup:

 

[picker77]

6'-0" 210 and I have plenty of room on my 'little' B3030, and I don't usually even tilt the wheel... so I don't get it either. Maybe some folks haven't found the seat adjustment yet. :laughing:

Naw, DiezNutz. After searching for half an hour or so I was finally able to figure out how to adjust the seat. But anybody who thinks there's no difference in the operating position "feel" between a 6' person with the seat all the way back and a 6'4" person with size 14 boots with the seat in the same position wouldn't understand what I meant, I suppose--or maybe I didn't explain it well. With some compact Kubotas (the B2630, which I otherwise really liked, is a good example) the forward HST pedal fit my boot toe fine; but to go backwards required lifting the entire weight of my leg off the pedal and moving my boot toe to the rear end of the rocker pedal. Because of the combination of a fairly low seat height and limited rearward seat adjustment, it was impossible for me to stretch my 68 year old Achilles tendon far enough to press the rear HST pedal all the way down without shifting my entire leg/foot. I could only get about 1/3 to 1/2 travel on it. What's the point of paying for HST for loader work if I have go through gyrations like that? Heck, I might as well clutch and shift every time and save the HST expense.

I didn't try the L or M series, I'm sure they have more room, but I wasn't interested in those lines, only the mid size B's. All other things being more or less equal, JD's twin side-by-side HST pedals simply worked for me where other setups don't. The difference is meaningless to many, it meant a lot to me.

To make you feel better, I've since looked at small backhoe attachments from green and orange, and to my mind orange kicks butt in that category. So everybody does some things I like better than others, it appears. That's what makes the world go round!

 

[montelatici]

"but to go backwards required lifting the entire weight of my leg off the pedal and moving my boot toe to the rear end of the rocker pedal."

Why don't you just put your toe under the forward pedal and lift to go into reverse. That's what someone posted here years ago and I adopted that technique.

 

[crazyal]

I didn't even look hard at green. It's kind of funny because when I built my house a few years ago I painted one of the bedrooms green, everyone calls it JD green. I wanted a front mount snow blower driven off of a center PTO (so I could run a rear sander at the same time). JD's website either didn't list it or I couldn't easily find it so I wasn't able to do my homework before getting to a dealer.

Secondly a friend works for one of the town garages managing the fleet of trucks and equipment. He told me that he was moving them away from Deere because the parts were too expensive. He was talking about the usual maintenance stuff like filters and such. They have several small tractors for mowing and maintaining ball fields that he hhad replaced with Cub Cadet and Kubota as the older tractors came due to be replaced. They put out requests and dealers bid. He doesn't have to take the lowest bid if there's a reason. So he usually asks the dealer for a quote for the parts needed for the first 1000 hours before he makes his choice. Kubota won out.

When I asked about the Kubotas he said he didn't know much about them since the only time he ever sees them is to change the oil. Otherwise they never broke. That's saying something when several of them have over 5000 hours and are operated by a group of 8 to 10 different people.

 

[Dargo]

I am 5' 10" and I have plenty of room in my M8540!

I'm a bit bigger, but the difference to me came down to the cab. I had a 5030HSTC that I really liked except that **** rocker pedal. I literally had to drive the machine via it's cruise control lever. My lawn isn't all that smooth and the dampening and spring tension could never be set right to keep the tractor from constantly lurching while mowing. Besides, I needed a bit more tractor.

I compared the M8540 to the JD 5525 and there was a huge difference in the cab sizes. In the JD I was able to get the 2nd seat that allowed me to take my son with me while working. He really loves it and, that alone, would have been enough to make the difference. The power, ride, drive, ergonomics etc. of the tractors were both fine for me. Just the far larger cab on the JD sent me back to JD this time.

That annoyed the Kubota dealer because I'd probably spent over 150k with him over the past 6 or 8 years, but he understood my decision (which is why I'll certainly shop him again next time around). I wonder if Kubota ever caught on and increased the size of their cabs enough to offer a "companion" or "training" seat in their cabs? I honestly have no preference over either tractor otherwise.