Nope. ... Just a part that is not strong enuf to use in compression - a design error that is as likely to endanger other components.
SPYDERLK, I'm don't agree with that. But looking at your signature I also see that we both own similar horsepower JD tractors. Now I don't know what the lift arms and sway bars on your JD2010 look like, but if they are anything like the ones on my 30 hp JD530 then there is no way that hitting a rock or stump when plowing in any direction is going to hurt either of these Deere farm tractors. Oh, it may leap up into the air and shake it's head a few times, but when it lands and the dust settles all the parts will go on just as before. And it would be a rare day when anything would get bent or broken from stress and strain. So I assume we both know what adequate design looks like and the kind of dollars that it costs to build. But I think you just can't compare the two and say that Kubota has a design flaw. The two brands are being built for two completely different markets and prices. Not to mention compacts versus ag tractors. I don't see one design as being right and the other flawed; just different.
My point here is that is much as I like and use the Kubota, it is of good solid quality but it is still built to meet a price point with the compromises in design that implies. There's no doubt in my mind that the Kubota design engineer is perfectly capable of designing a more expensive steel sway bar that won't bend under any of the tractor loads. That's freshman engineering; not rocket science. He was probably told to solve as much of the problem as he could in some other way and spend his budget of design dollars where it counts the most. I think he did a good job - even a clever job - and personally I'm just as glad that they use the design dollars somewhere else that I can't fix so easily. Like maybe in making those wonderful smooth and sensitive hydraulic valves that Kubota has. Or those beefy & oversize FWD drive bearings.
Seems to me that if Kubota competes by spending manufacturing dollars where it counts the most, then JD simply spends it everywhere and charges the customer the extra. I'm glad for the choice.
SPYDERLK, I kind of think you might have some sympathy here. Those JD2010s can be nice machines.
I'll look forward to buying the next generation Kubota in ten or twenty years from now....I fully expect it to last that long & with minimal maintenance. On the other hand, I also like the fact that the sixty year old JD runs pretty much like it always has - also with minimal maintenance - in spite of over half a century of the hardest use and going on 20K hours. Completely different design philosophies, though.
Luck, rScotty
