Buying Advice 1988 kubota L3350 on auction

[dos3885]

072 - YouTube

Does the engine sound alright? It has 2400 hrs on it. Any thing I should look out for?

 

[rbargeron]

This is one of the legendary L3 machines - very heavily constructed, much more tractor than the model number suggests. It looks to be in very nice original condition. Some points from the video - the engine sounds fine (they are louder than present day machines). There was a small smoke plume on revving up but nothing to worry about - they all do it until warmed up. Turf tires are nice for the lawn, but not much for traction - they tend to reduce tractor value because swapping for ags is spendy. From the video the hydraulic down force of the loader appears to possibly be weak, although it was hard to tell from the very brief time the loader was in contact with the ground. If you can inspect this before the auction, raise the bucket and roll it down pointing toward the ground - then try pushing down and see if it lifts the front of the tractor at low engine rpm. It should pop it up without effort. If it does not, the pump could be worn out - $$ to fix.

 

[dos3885]

Thank you rbargeron.

 

[Bluegill2]

Yes, this series is Heavy Duty! Our old L3750 is 5 cylinder, 45hp, 3900 lbs. It's built like an old school 50+hp tractor. My dealer told me this was the start of the Grand L series.

 

[k0ua]

The two things that stuck out to me were the turf tires on a loader and boxblade machine, and a very poor operator. He made no real attempt to lift the front end with the loader as he did not understand how to do so, and his clutch control was a bit lacking. I would bet the tractor is just fine.