Considering Kubota

[MHarryE]

Having a 6230 Deere and a M135GX, the Deere cannot compare to the Kubota. We have the Power Quad transmission on the Deere, 16 power shift gears in 4 ranges with 4 power shift gears each. In the new models the 6D series which was comparable in price to a a Grand X Kubota it has no power shift. When buying my Kubota I had a 6M quoted against the Grand X so I could get power shift but only 16 gears in the Deere vs 24 in the Kubota. The quotes were $7,000 apart although the Deere dealer came 20% off list vs 15% off list for the Kubota. Oh, and the Deere was 110 engine HP that the dealer quoted vs 135 on the Kubota. So far no regrets. It's not that the 6230 isn't a nice tractor. Our 6230 and it's predecessor 6210 are the tractors getting the most hours on our farm because they are nice little tractors for feeding livestock and cleaning manure (drive the 7720 or M135GX in manure heaven forbid).

Now as to the M9960, no idea. Lacks a power shift which ended my interest.

As for the JD being able to handle a loader in 2WD while the Kubota can't, our 6230 never does any loader work without being in 4wd. It's just easier on the entire tractor. All I had to do to convince myself was to make one cycle with rwd only, then do the next cycle with the fronts engaged.

 

[F3506]

Tractor data lists the 6230 as 95 engine HP and 75 PTO HP. That's quite a bit smaller than the 135/118 listing for the M135GX. But oddly enough the listed weights for cab, 4wd seem very similar between the two.

I've also read in some places that the newer, import deere's seem to have more issues than they should?

 

[MHarryE]

The base weight of our 6230 is 2,000 pounds less than our M135GX. When you look at our 7720 JD vs the M135GX you realize immediately they are in two different classes and I believe they are about 6,000 pounds different. Everything on the rear end and front axle is heavier but then the M135 GX is the high horsepower model of its frame series and the 7720 is the low power model on its series.

The 6210 we traded for the 6230 had about 10,000 hours (our guess - the hour meter failed at 3,xxx hours but we are getting about 1,000 hours yearly on the 6230 and they are doing the same job). We only had one significant problem - a crack in the loader valve block one year before we traded it. The loader valve was an American made dealer add-on, built by Husco, the largest supplier of USA agricultural hydraulic valves. Other than that - well, it was an open platform due to a height clearance issue in our feeding building and the cattle ate the seat but I guess you can't blame that on German build. We liked its reliability so well that we traded it for the 6230 when it went over the 10,000 hour mark although it was still going strong.