Cruised past the 50 hour mark this past weekend, and in giving the tractor a good once over I did notice a few things I did not like. It's more with the loader than the tractor, but there is one part of the tractor I don't care for.
It's equipped with the LA534 loader with the 2-lever skid steer quick attach.
A hose on the LH side that operates the loader up down ram has chaffed through to the steel braids due to a weld slag left behind out of sight in the channel of the arm.
A fitting on the RH side (don't remember where it leads, didn't pay attention) leaks and doesn't seem to want to stop even after tightening a bit.
The 4 hoses that plug into the tractor to run the loader have a protective fabric wrap around them where they curve up the loader mount - and they pass through a wire hoop on the loader frame - one is chaffed through to steel braids due to the wrap sliding down and not protecting the hoses. There is only 1 cable tie holding the wrap on, I feel there should be 2 or 3 doing this job. It's a tight fit through there and I'd imagine a decent amount of friction working on that wrap. I don't think the wire loop is very well thought out, either.
Those issues I feel should be covered by the warranty, and will make arrangements to bring the tractor in and have it looked at. I hope Kubota doesn't think I'm going to wait until there's a failure before this is taken care of, as I know some manufacturers won't make a repair until something has completely failed.
I will try to take some pictures tonight, but don't hold me to it as I will most likely forget.
And the last thing which is on the tractor - but isn't a failure - is the location of the transmission dipstick. Right next to the PTO shaft. Metal elbow up, rubber hose, metal tube for dipstick. Inside the protective shield area, right next to the PTO shaft. This prevents a direct mount of a hydraulic pump or something to run a custom wood splitter, I now have to find an extension that is really short to accomplish this. I didn't even notice it when I bought the tractor. Anyone else think that's a poor design? What if something happens with a driveshaft failure? Liable to rip the line right off the transmission leaving you pretty well stuck.
