Air ride seat. yes please

[Stichrunner]

Every week I finish cut about 11 acres. I have a Kubota L4740cab with a woods PRD 8400 finishing mower. I have never had back problems till I started cutting every week. When I was shopping for tractors I test drove the L series and M series and i really liked the seat in the M but my dealer said it was not possible to added this option. The L was not that bad i thought "I was driving on cement." We'll when I got home and started cutting I had the front end loader on the tractor and any bump I hit would really jar me. I took the front end loader off and it got better but still after 1hr and 1/2 I would be sore and the next day when I woke up it was all bad. I'm 29 so of course this should not be happening to me
I sent a letter to kubota to see if there was anything they could do for me. They got back pretty quick and said the seat I was looking for was a air ride suspension and they could not add it to my tractor. I google search it and came across this forum and thanks to you guys I found some really good info. 5 days later and 1187.00 poorer my seat came in and after some fabrications I no longer have back problems. If you were thinking about buying one then stop thinking and make the jump it will be the best thing you can add to your tractor. The seat I bought was Grammer 75 series.

 

[TripleR]

I have one of these ready to go into my L5740 thanks to 4shorts and mrmetalweld: Grammer MSG 93 - 721

 

[FTG-05]

So what's the process for getting this installed in an L series Kubota?

Thanks,

 

[Stichrunner]

So what's the process for getting this installed in an L series Kubota?

Thanks,

There are 4 bolts and 2 nuts that hold the seat and seat pan to the tractor.
You need to disconnect the two safety switches that go to the old seat.
Remove the old seat and suspension from the seat pan.
I cut out a piece of 1/4 alluiminum 17" by 15" to make the new seat pan.
Place old seat pan on top alluiminum pan and mark mounting holes. The ones that are in the rear of the seat need to be reamed out wide enough so that you can sink the mounting nuts and socket threw the alluiminum to original seat pan to secure it.
Mark new seat holes to new seat pan and then drill out. I added two washers between the seat and aluminum seat pan to give a little clearance for seat to slide back and forward with out snagging on anything.
I used the old seat mounting holes the ones that are in the rear to secure old seat pan to new Pan. I had to cut holes in old seat pan so that the new rear seat mounting bolts fit. After I new everything fit good I pulled it apart and painted new pan grey to look a little better.

In my tractor there happen to be a plug coming out behind the seat ( yellow and black) wires. My seat came with a pig tail plug. There was a red dot on wire harness that happen to be on the power wire but red wire was hot and black was ground not sure what other wires do. I hooked up the power and it works when key is on.

On old seat there is a safety switch that goes in to bottom of original seat. Take bottom off old seat and disconnect the wire from safety switch. My new seat came with a safety switch under cushion the wires are blue grey and black. I spliced the old safety wires red to blue, black to grey. And the kill switch worked.
The other safety switch is a plunger type and I had to jump this one out because i could not figure out how to mount this one. I believe this one is so you could lift old seat up to steering wheel and use back pto out of cab. Everything works well and if I get off the seat while its running it stays on but if I try to give it gas it shuts down. And if pto is engaged and you get off the seat then it will kill "takes about 2 seconds". Hopefully this helps. If you have any other questions just hit me up.

 

[4shorts]

I have one of these ready to go into my L5740 thanks to 4shorts and mrmetalweld: Grammer MSG 93 - 721

And your kindly welcome too

If you want to see a video on it and how it's done have a look

Kubota GL5740 with Custom Installed Grammer Seat..wmv - YouTube

 

[FTG-05]

Thanks Stich!

So I take it, you have to fab a new mount but *not* cut out any of the OEM/original metal or seat pan, correct?

If so, the obvious question would be: are there any vendors out there making this new seat pan out there? If not, why not - cost of the new air ride seat???

I broke my back in 2010 - for $1500 +/-, this mod might be well worth it!

Thanks again!

 

[The Fred]

A cheap option might be a rubber or urethane snubber so the stock seat doesn't bottom out hard.

I have a new L3940 with the same junky seat as others. It really is a cruel joke. I need the turbo first then the air ride seat.

Nice video nice job Mr. Short. Very clean install. Most of the air ride seats have a back and forth slider (about 1.5-2 inches) almost like a rocking chair. I would bet that really helps also.
Fred

 

[TripleR]

And your kindly welcome too

If you want to see a video on it and how it's done have a look

Kubota GL5740 with Custom Installed Grammer Seat..wmv - YouTube

Paul, thanks for the You Tube link, I sent it to my son. He is supposed to get with Ed tomorrow and work on it, so we should be riding in comfort pretty soon. I will email or PM you when it's done and thanks again for all your help.

 

[Stichrunner]

Yea I had to fab up a new mount. The 75 series seat mount is wider than the 95 seat mount. So it wont fit in the oem seat pan.i did have to drill out two spots in the oem pan so new bolts would sit flush. Shorts video is great but I lack the skills to cut and weld a new pan like he did.

 

[Stichrunner]