FEL repair kit

[rcrcomputing]

Amen, Don! Over in the buying forum, there is a guy considering Kioti. And the loader issue has raised its ugly head. I'm sure it has made him pause at the very least.

This loader debacle will haunt all of us who own Kiotis that may want to sell someday.

As some of you are already aware, I was going to sell my ck35 and get a dk40se. I had it listed for sell. I was out cleaning it up after I listed it and found the cracks. I quickly took it off craigslist. I'd already priced the dk40 and was in the middle of pulling the trigger. So, I went in "hold" mode.. That was about a year ago.. I'm still there.. Probably won't sell it now because I've been listening to David Ramsey since then. I'm within 2 years of a CASH position

 

[IslandTractor]

As some of you are already aware, I was going to sell my ck35 and get a dk40se.

Did you mean CK30? I thought all the CK35 tractors came in after the change over in FEL to KL130B where cracking is not an issue. Is that not the case?

 

[TBDonnelly]

Amen, Don! Over in the buying forum, there is a guy considering Kioti. And the loader issue has raised its ugly head. I'm sure it has made him pause at the very least.

This loader debacle will haunt all of us who own Kiotis that may want to sell someday.

........then the marketing wizards at Kioti opt to promote free KL120/130 front end loaders with the purchase of a CK20/30. Further alienating many of the core group. This total disregard for buyer loyalty certainly exhibits the head in the sand mentality that Kioti exhibited throughout the now infamous cracked loader debacle.

Has Kioti Korporate learned anything from this loader debacle? I hope so.

Don

 

[rcrcomputing]

Did you mean CK30? I thought all the CK35 tractors came in after the change over in FEL to KL130B where cracking is not an issue. Is that not the case?

Your right. Wishful thinking.. hehe

Be nice if they'd mail me the kit. Or offer a deal for the arms. Or tell me to go to @ell.

 

[Valorum]

Amen, Don! Over in the buying forum, there is a guy considering Kioti. And the loader issue has raised its ugly head. I'm sure it has made him pause at the very least.

This loader debacle will haunt all of us who own Kiotis that may want to sell someday.

I'm in the market for a tractor, and i like the DK45S. While not affected by the loader problem, the way Kioti handled this is giving me pause to re-evaluate whether i want to go ahead with a Kioti or maybe go with a Massey Ferguson instead.

 

[P.L.]

The real problem with Kioti is not the bad loader arms, but the way they resolved the problem. Kitois customer relations aren't very good because they don't seem to care if they have disappointed customers. I would buy the tractor that comes with good factory support.

 

[TBDonnelly]

I'm in the market for a tractor, and i like the DK45S. While not affected by the loader problem, the way Kioti handled this is giving me pause to re-evaluate whether i want to go ahead with a Kioti or maybe go with a Massey Ferguson instead.

Check with Rick Wallace. Rick carries both brands.

Don

 

[wallace]

I may get my head chopped off for saying this but if anyone knows me I speak what's on my mind!

In the little time being a Massey dealer I can tell you this...someone would have to twist my arm to get me to buy a Massey over a Kioti.
The reason being is Kioti offer so much more for the money however we still get people buying Massey because of the name.
Yes we all know that Kioti SUCKED at this perticular issue but over all they are a top notch company.
Massey's product has problems as do all makes and models but Massey does not offer anything more customer support wise than Kioti in my opinion.

One of the biggest things I hear when people come to my lot now is "Massey Ferguson? I thought they went out of business!"

 

[Dmace]

I must be one of the few that has no problem with the way Kioti handled this problem. Yeah the loader had a few small cracks but it NEVER BROKE, my tractor was used and used hard the entire time Kioti was planning on a fix. My tractor NEVER went to a dealer and NEVER stopped working. Would I like to have a new set of updated loader arms? Sure but only if it was necessary. After 100 hrs of hard loader work, I took off the reinforcement plate and the cracks were still the same small 1" cracks in each of the four corners. Obviously they designed and tested this fix and it worked.

Look around the other forums for plenty of ACTUAL problems where the tractor was unusable and down. These problems usually led to downtime on the tractor, trips to the dealer and fighting with out of warranty cost. If this was actually a REAL problem, I am sure they would have handled it better.

 

[IslandTractor]

I must be one of the few that has no problem with the way Kioti handled this problem.

Yep, I'd say you are one of the very few.

You are correct that there were no catastrophic loader failures though some of us documented clear progression of cracking over time. However, the potential safety issue is not minor when you consider the effect of a sudden loader failure (it will always occur at peak stress or load right?) on either dropping some heavy object or destabilizing the tractor so it tips over etc. Given the potential for harm there should have been a much better coordinated, faster and more open response from Kioti. As it is they still did not have this issue remotely close to resolution even two years after it was brought to their attention. Would you be happy driving around in a car that had known defects in it's braking system for two years even if no one had died in an accident yet?

I am a fan and advocate of Kioti tractors but I feel the company completely screwed the pooch on this loader issue. There was horrible communication, poor manufacturering records and engineering support (witness the many redo kits), handcuffing of the customer service staff so no useful information could be obtained by customers and finally there has been quite a rigid program for repair kit installation which puts the burden for transport of the tractor on to the customer even if the customer would be happy to install the kit themselves. In the end the solution they came up with met their needs and was accomplished in a time frame convenient for them and with their own self interest ranked considerably higher than that of their customers. Truly a business school case study in how not to manage a product defect. This thing was so poorly handled that if no one at Kioti was fired it is only because the CEO himself was primarily responsible for the whole fiasco.

New motto suggestion: Kioti, hard working tractors, dim witted management