DK40SE Squeal When Moving in Reverse.

[duanekeys]

Have you gotten any customer service reps on the phone? I'd definitely mention the public nature of this issue (this thread).

I'm very curious to see how this is handled.

 

[kattywumpus]

With the warmer temperatures the reverse squeal issue has returned with vengeance. Nearing 200 hours on the tractor so the problem not working out of the tractor like Kioti hoped. Within 15 minutes it starts up. Not working the tractor hard at all. Kioti North East Territory Manager, Tom Martell, stated last fall they were going get this fixed, but no reply to my letters or emails to Kioti over the last two month.

I'm wondering if others who suffered with this issue are experiencing the same thing?

 

[dourobob]

Haven't been doing much tractoring yet but will be watching (and listening) as the warm weather comes on. Thanks for bumping this discussion back to the front page.

Bob

 

[IslandTractor]

This is starting to sound like the way Kioti handled the loader cracking problem several years ago. Virtually no communication from Kioti until after they finally solve the technical problem. You'd think they would have learned something about PR in the Internet era from the loader thing but maybe not. In that earlier example they had people waiting for nearly 18 months before they finally had a remediation program in place and they systematically avoided communication with customers until then. Dumb.

 

[grsthegreat]

hmm, i have no noises in my dk45se hst...i sure hope it stays that way.

 

[Coyote machine]

With the warmer temperatures the reverse squeal issue has returned with vengeance. Nearing 200 hours on the tractor so the problem not working out of the tractor like Kioti hoped. Within 15 minutes it starts up. Not working the tractor hard at all. Kioti North East Territory Manager, Tom Martell, stated last fall they were going get this fixed, but no reply to my letters or emails to Kioti over the last two month.

I'm wondering if others who suffered with this issue are experiencing the same thing?

YES to your question about the problem getting progressively more pronounced over time. Now every time I go down my driveway to go over to my flip house, next door, the squeal happens on the hill, in reverse, and when I come to a stop.

I too was finally able to listen to the you tube video- finally. Personally I don't think it does the noise justice due to it being muffled by the cab. I too have done a video but have not posted it anywhere- (I had my daughter do it to document the hours etc. when taken).

I've edited portions of this post because after speaking to my selling dealer today, he has agreed to step up the pressure on Kioti/ zone rep etc. to see what can be done to address this problem. Note he is NOT promising me any particular result- just a renewed effort to get some results toward resolution, hopefully...

As far as Kioti and how they've handled other problems in the past, I'm not really surprised- most companies try to hide whatever they can for as long as possible and when forced to take action may eventually get off their butts and do something.

Out for now....

 

[kattywumpus]

YES to your question about the problem getting progressively more pronounced over time. Now every time I go down my driveway to go over to my flip house, next door, the squeal happens on the hill, in reverse, and when I come to a stop.

I too was finally able to listen to the you tube video- finally. Personally I don't think it does the noise justice due to it being muffled by the cab. I too have done a video but have not posted it anywhere- (I had my daughter do it to document the hours etc. when taken).

I've edited portions of this post because after speaking to my selling dealer today, he has agreed to step up the pressure on Kioti/ zone rep etc. to see what can be done to address this problem. Note he is NOT promising me any particular result- just a renewed effort to get some results toward resolution, hopefully...

As far as Kioti and how they've handled other problems in the past, I'm not really surprised- most companies try to hide whatever they can for as long as possible and when forced to take action may eventually get off their butts and do something.

Out for now....

I agree on cab note, the cab does muffle the noise a lot. For my tractor it’s very temperatures dependent, during the winter I only heard the squeal after 3 or more hours of steady use (snow plowing) and then it only occurred when coming to a stop. But with warmer temperatures it’s much more noticeable and at about 68 degrees it starts to get annoying. Also the warmer it gets the short the interval between the tractor startup and when it occurs.

I very much appreciate Kioti resolving the other tractor issues that occurred when I first purchased my tractor with no expenses to me, but this good will can only goes so far if they keep ignoring their customers’ tractor issues.

PS: I’m very busy these days so I don’t get to post very often.

 

[Coyote machine]

KW,
I agree on the warmer temperatures affecting the time it takes to get the squeal started, and I have put my dealer on notice that he MUST keep on Kioti until they do something to bring about customer satisfaction. I'm going to see him tomorrow or the next day about setting up my new grapple. When I see him I will see what if anything he has heard from Kioti about the issue.
So far he's said that kioti is rotating zone reps around the various territories, and there seems to be a new one for New England; and he says that Kioti is in process of installing a new computer system in their head office so that too has screwed up parts and yadda, yadda. All of that is interesting but means nothing in getting our tractors fixed, at least not to me.

 

[kattywumpus]

I received a nice call from a Kioti rep today. Connie was going to send out the temporary fix until Terry informed her my tractor already had it. She indicated they had received my letters and that Tom Martell asked that customer support follow up with me. Unfortunately I also learned that their engineering department has not troubleshooted the issue any further since last year’s temporary fix development. I was told the issue has been resubmitted and escalated with engineering, but it would be at least couple months before any solution was available. Engineering had felt the issue would resolve itself over time. While this information is disappointing at least the issue is back on their radar screen.

I think it very important that those of us who have tractors with this issue keep reminding Kioti that we are still waiting for a permanent solution. I feel from my conversation with Kioti today that my letters were affective. The letters were sent to the Northeast Territory manager and customer support, and were simple reminders that I was waiting for a solution and what was the status. I really recommend others do the same. I didn’t get the impression that they were aware of many others owners with the issue.

Also it appears Kioti and Batchelder mended fences, since Batchelder is back on their dealer list.

 

[mtr1950]

Hi, I'm certainly going to keep an eye on your postings about this problem, My home is in SW Washington State on the coast, weather here is a good bit different than yours, pretty wet, not much snow, and medium cold. Going to keep my time table to buy the DK45SE HST, Monday get final price with attachments, go over it with wife just to make sure we are both happy with order, then hopefully place order by Friday.