Having a blast with our new M62

   / Having a blast with our new M62 #131  
Funny you should mention this. I used my M62 a lot this weekend moving dirt from a new pond we had built and I did notice that the range shifter was not as friendly as I would like. I thought to myself 'finally!... I found something this machine is not good at! :)". I spent a lot of time in a range that was not ideal just because shifting felt a little harder than I'd like. You really have to push hard on the lever and I just don't like forcing things like that. I did get better at shifting by just bumping the shifter with the palm of my hand instead of trying to push/pull it. Pushing the lever almost always ended up with me massively overshooting the range I was aiming for. It might be one of those things that gets easier as it gets loosened up.. don't know.

Hmm....sounds like the range shifter hasn't changed a bit. I agree that I dont like to push hard on the lever.....not that it does much good to do so anyway. I agree that the trick is in the "bump and jerk" you describe.

To downshift the range I do the downshift variation of the "Range Shift Shrug"....I do it like this: lean to the left, slightly straighten my right arm, and rock my body while bumping the lever repeatedly with my palm until it moves....first into neutral and then only one or two more bumps puts it into the next lower range. The "Upshifting Jerk" is a similar musical move. The difference being that I have my fingers wrapped around the lever and am rocking my body and arm to provide a kind of rapid light jerking motion. Using the clutch or not doesn't matter for a normal range shift.

All of this is done with the tractor completely stopped of course. .

Very rarely a different thing will happen - usually it is when I am parked on a hill or stopped in some situation with some stress on the drivetrain. And this is not a Kubota thing, it is common to any any manual transmission and specifically with non-syncronized transmissions. This is when the lever feels more stuck, but it's really just a matter of those non-syncro range gears needing to be rotated just a bit. There's a procedure in the owner's manual for getting it shifted then; a descrition that made me nostalgic because it is the same thing my grandad taught me to do with the old farm truck and tractor 60 years ago. Basically it is stop the tractor, rock it with the treadle (or clutch back then) , and try the foot clutch while doing the above. Eventually the gears will rotate just enough to engage. You can feel it happen. That's real rare though, and like I said, usually on a hill.

My guess is Kubota put that description into the ops manual because they felt they needed to say something, and had no idea of what to say or do about the real problem with the lever.

The good news is that after 1000 hours nothing has broken, loosened up, or changed in any way with the range shifter.
So although it is a minor hassle, but it's also a very durable one.

Hmmm.....Maybe we can figure out how to fix it on TBN. Wouldn't that be a coup! That range shift lever is really is the only downside I've found with the M59 going on 10 years now. Even the tires are holding up well.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#132  
M62 owners, are you using rear tire ballast? Please indicate if it depends on backhoe. I am close on one myself, trying to fine tune the offer. Thanks so much!

Edit adding this: Just found in the owners manual.

Rear Ballast
Add weight to rear wheels if needed to improve traction or for stability. The amount of rear ballast should be matched to job and the ballast should be removed when it is not needed.
The weight should be added to the tractor in the form of liquid ballast.
When the BT1000B(L47)orBT1400(M62)backhoe is
installed to the tractor, rear ballast should be removed.


Is everyone following this? Do they mean wheel weight ballast should be removed, or do they mean liquid in the tires?

I do not have any rear ballast and I can tell the difference between having the backhoe on and the shredder / rotary cutter. I think there is about a 1,000lbs difference between the two. I am seriously considering wheel weights and they will be on all the time. We live in the mesquite thorns and most of my customers are in the thorns so a liquid in the tires is not good for us at all. We do use a tire sealant though. You can see a brief little article I wrote on our website and the type of sealant we use here........ Tire Sealant - Better than the green and the blue stuff.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#133  
My 13 year old L39 is laughing really hard.

Wheel weights and the back hoe have been on machine for near ten years. Unless you need to keep the machine light weight, just ADD as much weight as you can.
I have 750 Lbs if inner and out wheel weights on my little tractor, plus around 500 Lbs of other stuff welded or bolted on. Just about the right weight to suit the machines capacity.

WOW !!! Great photos. How many hours do you have on that L39?
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#134  
I've not tried an M62; our tractor is the previous model - the M59. After a ten year model run for the M59 that culminated in the M62, most of the specs seem similar with the M62 probably as good or better everywhere. The M62 lost the rarely-used foot clutch but gained 2' on backhoe reach plus some dashboard changes and nicer pollution controls. Anything else of note?

I'm particularly wondering about the range shifter. Did they fix the M59's difficult range shifter lever? The range shift feature itself is a really nice part of HST+, but the shift lever on the M59 is one difficult and inaccurate puppy to move. Apparently it's a feature they all shared; it's been mentioned on TBN lots of times. Not only is that lever hard to move, but it's situated in an awkward place to apply the force needed to shift it. Maybe it works better on the Grand L series machines.

Luckily M59ers can do a lot of work in a single range with the High/Low control. And the M59 itself is such a fine machine that we learned to put up with its single fault and compensated with the "M59 Range Shifter Shrug". The "Shrug" is a sort of seated dance move where you lean your body to get enough elbow room to pound or pull on the range shifter until it shifts.
No problem once you've learned the move.... and not quite enough of a hassle to make it worth tinkering with a fix - but still a mighty strange thing to find in a machine where all the other controls are fingertip type.

If they've fixed it in the M62, does anyone know if the fix is retrofittable to the M59?
rScotty

I found that on the M62 if you idle it up around a 1,000 rpms or so it went in and out of gear easier. Now after having it for almost a year and almost 600hrs it shifts pretty easy most of the time. I wouldnt say 100% smooth though.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#135  
Funny you should mention this. I used my M62 a lot this weekend moving dirt from a new pond we had built and I did notice that the range shifter was not as friendly as I would like. I thought to myself 'finally!... I found something this machine is not good at! :)". I spent a lot of time in a range that was not ideal just because shifting felt a little harder than I'd like. You really have to push hard on the lever and I just don't like forcing things like that. I did get better at shifting by just bumping the shifter with the palm of my hand instead of trying to push/pull it. Pushing the lever almost always ended up with me massively overshooting the range I was aiming for. It might be one of those things that gets easier as it gets loosened up.. don't know.

Took me a minute to get used to it. I did notice if you put it around a 1,000 rpms it seems to shift the ranges easier. Now after almost a year (1 month to go) and almost 600 hrs it is easeier at different rpms now. Also sometimes I pump the forward and back pedal it is easier...... or grinds.......lol.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#136  
Give this a try...use the clutch when shifting ranges.

I looked up the operators manual on the weekend again about range shifting



I started doing just that and it shifts way smoother.

Let us know if you find if that makes your shifting work better too.

M62 doesnt have a clutch pedal.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#137  
Hmm....sounds like the range shifter hasn't changed a bit. I agree that I dont like to push hard on the lever.....not that it does much good to do so anyway. I agree that the trick is in the "bump and jerk" you describe.

To downshift the range I do the downshift variation of the "Range Shift Shrug"....I do it like this: lean to the left, slightly straighten my right arm, and rock my body while bumping the lever repeatedly with my palm until it moves....first into neutral and then only one or two more bumps puts it into the next lower range. The "Upshifting Jerk" is a similar musical move. The difference being that I have my fingers wrapped around the lever and am rocking my body and arm to provide a kind of rapid light jerking motion. Using the clutch or not doesn't matter for a normal range shift.

All of this is done with the tractor completely stopped of course. .

Very rarely a different thing will happen - usually it is when I am parked on a hill or stopped in some situation with some stress on the drivetrain. And this is not a Kubota thing, it is common to any any manual transmission and specifically with non-syncronized transmissions. This is when the lever feels more stuck, but it's really just a matter of those non-syncro range gears needing to be rotated just a bit. There's a procedure in the owner's manual for getting it shifted then; a descrition that made me nostalgic because it is the same thing my grandad taught me to do with the old farm truck and tractor 60 years ago. Basically it is stop the tractor, rock it with the treadle (or clutch back then) , and try the foot clutch while doing the above. Eventually the gears will rotate just enough to engage. You can feel it happen. That's real rare though, and like I said, usually on a hill.

My guess is Kubota put that description into the ops manual because they felt they needed to say something, and had no idea of what to say or do about the real problem with the lever.

The good news is that after 1000 hours nothing has broken, loosened up, or changed in any way with the range shifter.
So although it is a minor hassle, but it's also a very durable one.

Hmmm.....Maybe we can figure out how to fix it on TBN. Wouldn't that be a coup! That range shift lever is really is the only downside I've found with the M59 going on 10 years now. Even the tires are holding up well.

10 years old and only a 1,000 hours? Mine will be a year old August 1st or 3rd or July 31st. I dont remember. Right there some where and I am at 600 hours. You for sure need more seat time.....lol.
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#138  
Doing some remodeling.

20180614_101219.jpg20180614_154533.jpg
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#139  
20180614_122128.jpg20180614_154702.jpg
 
   / Having a blast with our new M62
  • Thread Starter
#140  
Handing the roofer shingles with the M62. Dont want them having any reason to come off that roof.

20180616_103132.jpg
 

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