Hello everybody, Ill introduce myself here as the actual owner of this tractor, the 2018 ck4010 HST with 5.5 hours on it which I picked up august 15th. 3 days later I hook up to a 72" caroni finish mower and mow 3.5 acres. Definitely not a hot supper for a new tractor by any means. This is where the troubles begin.
after about 75% completion of this task i turn off the PTO and dismount the tractor to move a small tree stump which i had previously ripped out of the ground with a skid steer months ago and never moved. So i tossed it in the bucket and remounted the tractor, engaged the PTO and went on my merry way for about 10 seconds before the PTO disengages. OK that's a little strange but no big deal hit the clutch and push the lever. No dice. let off clutch, hit clutch again push lever. No dice. for the sake of saving me typing I tried everything i could think of to get this thing to engage, yes I disconnected the PTO shaft from the mower and spun it by hand. Everything spins freely and lever isn't seized linkage wise but it WILL NOT engage.
Monday i call the dealer. they say they've never hear of this situation before and they needed to contact Kioti and they would be in touch. I didn't hear from them for 2 days so of course i'm as impatient as it gets so I call them. They explain the PTO shift fork did not get "buffed" properly and that kioti would send a kit and i would hear something from them as soon as they had shipping information. Thursday rolls around and I'm tired of looking at the pathetic orange lump of metal i just spent a large chunk of change on so i deliver it to the dealer. They said they're still waiting on parts from kioti and mentioned the words "back-ordered" but they weren't for sure and would call me as soon as they hear anything. now its Tuesday of this week and haven't heard from them. I call Kioti corporate in Wendell NC and talk to a lady in customer service to figure out the actual situation with the parts. She DID call me back and explained that parts should be headed to my dealer tomorrow and I should contact my dealer for any farther questioning.
Regardless, the dealer has had this machine for as long as I have, any communication with the dealer has been from me making first contact, and I had to call corporate to find out any real information other than "sorry you just spent over 25k on this and it has a critical failure causing downtime and lost money not mentioning transportation expenses, but well fix it for ya". Maybe i'm out of line here but in the industry i'm from that's not how business is done, especially regarding low hour failures. IMO information should have been of utmost importance from dealer to corporate back to dealer to end user. Then when a solution has been found, it should of been expedited, talkin' red-freight air those parts to get customer up and going again.
First, welcome to TBN!
Second, you have a new tractor, and Kioti will fix it. You didn't say what biz you're in, but the tractor biz is not like most. Your dealer is aware of what the problem is and will likely, if I'm understanding the issue, have to take apart your tractor's rear end to replace the PTO stub. This is why you get a warranty for parts and labor for a certain amount of time. Its standard procedure to replace defective parts under the warranty with all brands of tractor, Kioti is no exception.
Kioti may be aware of a problem with some PTO stubs, possibly, and there maybe an issue with stock of known good replacement stubs; I'm just speculating here, I don't have any inside info on this issue.
Sorry about your issue; and you probably need to relax a bit, or its just going to be more aggravating for you as it will take the time it takes to fix the tractor. Its not as if you have a huge harvester worth a hundred K sitting idle. Things take time, no one today stocks anything, its all 'just in time' ordering and processing, which I will say is totally bogus, but its reality.
In general Kioti corporate customer service does not seem to want to talk to consumers directly; they want them to go through the channels provided- go to selling dealer- let dealer deal with corporate. This is SOP for many many corporate structures, and though the end consumer may want to reach the top guy at corporate, that is not how the corporate thinking goes. If one thinks about it, if every customer with a tractor issue called corporate, they would get nothing done and be tied up fielding calls from people across the country, instead of their dealers doing so- which is what the dealers get paid to do - warranty work.
So I strongly suggest some patience and understanding. You have a broken part which needs to be replaced under warranty- which is part of what you paid for when you bought new. Be patient- it will get fixed.:thumbsup:
