Who has the most hours on their Kioti?

[IslandTractor]

Dargo was not arguing that weight was bad, just that the weight of a tractor itself is not a sign of quality. We all know that weight improves tractor performance in certain important areas especially in field or ground engaging activities as you allude to. Adding weight is therefore important for many kinds of tractor work and heavier tractors require less weight to be added so they have some advantages. However, there are also tractor tasks that don't require ballast or where light weight is an advantage, finish lawn mowing is the prime example. In that situation a light tractor can shed its extra ballast while a heavy tractor is still heavy. Still, I think the issue Dargo was focused on was not so much whether ballast weight is good or bad but simply that weight itself is not a particularly good (or any good) as a predictor of tractor quality. The issue is often brought up in discussions of JD/Kubota versus other brands as the JD/Kubota CUTs tend to be lighter than tractors made in Korea, India or China. It gets contentious when "pot metal" arguments are made to explain why the heavier tractors are indeed heavy because they use inferior metal (a total BS argument when you consider that some of the world's most advanced metal refineries are in India and Korea by the way...more modern that what is left of US steel production facilities by and large). It also comes up as an equally BS argument the other direction whereby light tractors are deemed inferior for not having the weight needed for field work. That is wrong as ballast can easily be added as needed via front or rear weight and obviously by ballasting tires.

If Dargo was a diplomat, which he is not, he would have simply pointed out the weakness of the argument that heavy is better. He chose to be confrontational which again is no big deal so long as you know that is his style and don't take it personally. He also exaggerates the notion that Kioti owners are more sensitive than others today but he has a point if he limits his claim to what was going on a few years ago when a number of Kioti and non Kioti owners had color wars regarding quality and desirability of various tractor brands. I'd like to think that those days are over and done with (at the cost of losing some good TBN contributors on both sides of the question).

I think the error Dargo made in starting this thread was to assume that tractor forum participants had access to the sort of data that his dealer friend apparently wanted. That is very clearly Kioti Corporation's responsibility to provide when recruiting new dealerships. We can talk owner to owner or owner to potential owner about what we think of the various brands of tractors but frankly I think any potential dealer who made up his mind one way or the other on the basis of a web based tractor forum discussions would be out of their mind. If Kioti was unable to provide Dargo's friend with the appropriate information then his friend was right to pass on the dealership opportunity.

 

[steve0413]

Dargo was not arguing that weight was bad, just that the weight of a tractor itself is not a sign of quality. We all know that weight improves tractor performance in certain important areas especially in field or ground engaging activities as you allude to. Adding weight is therefore important for many kinds of tractor work and heavier tractors require less weight to be added so they have some advantages. However, there are also tractor tasks that don't require ballast or where light weight is an advantage, finish lawn mowing is the prime example. In that situation a light tractor can shed its extra ballast while a heavy tractor is still heavy. Still, I think the issue Dargo was focused on was not so much whether ballast weight is good or bad but simply that weight itself is not a particularly good (or any good) as a predictor of tractor quality. The issue is often brought up in discussions of JD/Kubota versus other brands as the JD/Kubota CUTs tend to be lighter than tractors made in Korea, India or China. It gets contentious when "pot metal" arguments are made to explain why the heavier tractors are indeed heavy because they use inferior metal (a total BS argument when you consider that some of the world's most advanced metal refineries are in India and Korea by the way...more modern that what is left of US steel production facilities by and large). It also comes up as an equally BS argument the other direction whereby light tractors are deemed inferior for not having the weight needed for field work. That is wrong as ballast can easily be added as needed via front or rear weight and obviously by ballasting tires.

If Dargo was a diplomat, which he is not, he would have simply pointed out the weakness of the argument that heavy is better. He chose to be confrontational which again is no big deal so long as you know that is his style and don't take it personally. He also exaggerates the notion that Kioti owners are more sensitive than others today but he has a point if he limits his claim to what was going on a few years ago when a number of Kioti and non Kioti owners had color wars regarding quality and desirability of various tractor brands. I'd like to think that those days are over and done with (at the cost of losing some good TBN contributors on both sides of the question).

I think the error Dargo made in starting this thread was to assume that tractor forum participants had access to the sort of data that his dealer friend apparently wanted. That is very clearly Kioti Corporation's responsibility to provide when recruiting new dealerships. We can talk owner to owner or owner to potential owner about what we think of the various brands of tractors but frankly I think any potential dealer who made up his mind one way or the other on the basis of a web based tractor forum discussions would be out of their mind. If Kioti was unable to provide Dargo's friend with the appropriate information then his friend was right to pass on the dealership opportunity.

Good post. Maybe you should be the diplomat.

 

[lakngulf]

I don't think weight of tractor was brought up on this thread as the sole reason to buy a tractor. It was suggested as one criteria, which I think can be important based on your planned use for the tractor. Price is another criteria, dependability, ease of use, dealer and parts availability, in my case what I thought was a good deal with several attachments and a trailer. As far as hours on the meter, I was glad it was below 300. I will keep it in a shed, will service it frequently, will try to operate only up to it's limits, and hopefully will have a friend for life, and for any of my descendants that want to use it. The only attitude I have about it is that I am glad to be a tractor owner as I have many jobs it can help me with.

 

[DirtHauler]

Here's my answer to the "original" question: On my " '06" Ck30....... 1020 hrs. as of today.

 

[ElDorado]

Well there is guy in town who has a Payeur Forester Kioti, I spoke with him the other day and he has 1200-1300 hours on his DK40. Well this got me interested in "The Forester" package offered by Payeur Distributors from Canada so I went to their site (payeur.com) and snooped around.

Well in their used equipment section they have machines with well over 2000 hours, some well over 3000 hours, and one with almost 4000 hours on them! Wow, and I was worried about 650 hours on a used DK45.

This gent also said that the Kioti transmission are very strong. This is one of the reasons he choose Kioti. Anybody have and comments on this compared to other brands (not wanting to start any feudin').

Matt

 

[Gil Case]

I went to the payeur.com site and looked around also- what do you guys do with Kioti's up there, use them as bulldozers?
I assume they are set up for logging operations, but I never imagined a Kioti so well armored.
I am not so sure that is what DaeDong had in mind for their cute little tractors, but very impressive.

 

[Hillbilly61]

Hi All!

I'm very new here, but have been a Kioti owner for over 10 years. Interesting thread and suprising how contentious it has become. To throw in a few cents, there are tractor types optimized by all general application intent. The last time I looked, Kioti had models in each application arena, excepting the big corporate farming (say over 100 hp), category. They don't sell riding lawn mowers either, if that is to be considered a category.

As others have said here, weight is an assest or a detriment, depending upon the use. Weight does improve traction, but will quickly compress truf to the point that lawn grass will not grow well or crush a septic leach field, etc. Adding ballast has its own limitations as well.

It all comes back to what you want your machine to do most of the time and how you want to extend its capabilities for those occasional tasks. For example, ballast helps for a light tractor to get traction and turf tires helps for a heavy tractor on weight sensitive soil. I've gone as far as to put chains on turf tires on a heavy tractor to find balance between the two. That approach works within limits....

My LK is over ten years old and I have done some amazing things with it - including a few things that might be considered abuse. (If you think you might break something major, but do it anyway cause the job needs to get done and the machine can possibly do it, then its probably abuse). I've never broken anything major on the LK. That tractor is great!

Also, Gil, I have heard that Kioti are being used in small time logging operations. Not sure why, but my brother tells me that they are to be found throughout the woods in WV bringing selected trees out.

 

[dfkrug]

The only ones missing from this discussion are KiotiJohn and Bob Skurka

Yeah, I sure remember those animated discussions....some of them went
back to years before I registered on TBN. Some of those TBN "old timers"
like KIOTIJOHN and DK35VINCE and others helped me to decide to buy my
first Kiotis.

It is barely related to this thread, but I convinced my local rental yard
to replace their JDs with the Bobcat equivalent of the DK35SE. I will be
watching them to see how they hold up to rental service. The first
2 units were delivered last month.....I expect them to buy about 8 total
by spring. This is a good test. No special pricing, but the 0% financing
was sure attractive to them.

Also just happened here: our county's only Kubota dealership has closed.

 

[ElDorado]

dfkrug-

I will be real interested to hear how the rental yard Bobotis hold up, what the maintenance department thinks of them, as well as what the rentors think of the machines capabilities. PLEASE keep us updated on this!

Matt

 

[Oleozz]

Hi All!

I'm very new here, but have been a Kioti owner for over 10 years. Interesting thread and suprising how contentious it has become. To throw in a few cents, there are tractor types optimized by all general application intent. The last time I looked, Kioti had models in each application arena, excepting the big corporate farming (say over 100 hp), category. They don't sell riding lawn mowers either, if that is to be considered a category.

As others have said here, weight is an assest or a detriment, depending upon the use. Weight does improve traction, but will quickly compress truf to the point that lawn grass will not grow well or crush a septic leach field, etc. Adding ballast has its own limitations as well.

It all comes back to what you want your machine to do most of the time and how you want to extend its capabilities for those occasional tasks. For example, ballast helps for a light tractor to get traction and turf tires helps for a heavy tractor on weight sensitive soil. I've gone as far as to put chains on turf tires on a heavy tractor to find balance between the two. That approach works within limits....

My LK is over ten years old and I have done some amazing things with it - including a few things that might be considered abuse. (If you think you might break something major, but do it anyway cause the job needs to get done and the machine can possibly do it, then its probably abuse). I've never broken anything major on the LK. That tractor is great!

Also, Gil, I have heard that Kioti are being used in small time logging operations. Not sure why, but my brother tells me that they are to be found throughout the woods in WV bringing selected trees out.

Well written and thought out post.
My 45 has been good to me, all the problems I've had were self inflicted, broken spot light on the front and rear window smashed out from raising a seed spreader.
We have a local fella here who uses his 20 in the woods and has had good luck with it.