I had a Kubota
L275 from 1980-2001 and it worked perfectly, though all I did was cut 10 cords of firewood each year and landscaped a bit. I hear the 5100 Kubota has numerous troubles, so you can't just depend on any brand. And any decent tractor will likely not lose value unless it's one of those 5100 type tractors.
I had a Kioti DS4500 and it had problems with the kill solenoid. I removed the solenoid and installed a pull cable to stop the engine. Then I upsized to the Kioti RX7320 to dig out stumps and build a mile of woods roads. I love the Kioti dealers (Kubota dealers are arrogant in Canada). The 7320 is a great tractor and it was $44K with no cab (similar Kubota was $54K).
I did take the front end gears out of both Kioti tractors, but I suspect this would have happened with any tractor when lifting 2 tons of force at the front end loader and pushing in low gear. This extreme force drives the front agriculture tires into the ground and something has to give with those deep treads. I work more patiently now and dig around the stump first. The Kioti just took out a 2' white pine stump with no problem. It also dug a 2' deep ditch 400 feet long through tough virgin ground with no effort.
If you do get the 7320 it comes stock with a self-leveling bucket. I would have preferred a standard bucket because I have 4' forks that attach to the bucket with one pin for each fork. This allows one to drop the forks in the woods, do some FEL work and then pop the fork tines back on to bring home a cord of 12' logs on the forks. However, the self-leveling bucket changes the angle of the forks as the bucket goes down. Start the forks down at a 60° angle and they tilt up as the bucket goes down. Also, the self-leveling bucket lip has more up/down movement than the standard bucket because the extra linkage for the self-level allows a little more movement, and when cutting off 3" of soil the bucket lead edge angle is critical. Don't get me wrong: it still works well, but I would prefer the standard bucket.
Two years ago I lowered a woods road 2' to flatten a thousand-foot section of road. With a 7' box drag and the front bucket both digging till full, this worked like a charm. Dump front the loader while driving forward and then raising the box drag to release its load while leveling both loads. The rear tires are loaded and the 7320 has unbelievable traction.
My tractor shed has an 8' high door, so I saved $10K by building a low height tractor cab ($1000) that drives right into the 8' shed (the factory cab is almost 9' high). I leave the side door off most of the time to allow easy in/out when cutting wood. It gets down below freezing most of the winter here, but you have to dress warm anyway so the door is not missed. Also, with the door off, the windows don't fog at all when pushing snow.
One thing that Kioti does is drive the front wheels (in 4WD) 7% faster than the rear wheels. This allows for easy steering when turning, but you can tell the Kioti is working a bit more in 4WD than a Kubota that run the front wheels only 3% faster. The 7320 has an electromagnet clutch, so it's a simple fix to only engage 4WD when on slippery ground, which really should be done with any 4WD tractor.
The 7320 rear ag tires are 18" wide, so they carry up well in snow. It will drive through 2' of snow and is barely pushing any snow with the front axle. There is a lot to love about this Kioti tractor, not least of which is the down-to-earth dealerships. The 7320 engine has a great pollution control system also. If you keep your RPM at 1500 or above you may never have to do a manual regen. It is fuel efficient and starts at any temperature above freezing without the glow-plug. It starts without a block heater at 0°F with no engine smoke.
Would I buy this tractor again - definitely!
