G1900 PTO shaft and other questions for new buy

[Spring1898]

Greetings all,
Thinking of picking up a G1900 with 1200 hours from an old retired guy. He has some nice old cars and a collection of motorized things, so I feel the tractor was reasonably taken care of. And it was garage kept.

Overall the tractor looks to be in good condition with some cosmetic wear as would be expected, but almost no corrosion aside from that within paint scuffs. Virtually nothing under the foot rests.
There is very minor play in the Drive shaft, hard to say if it is anything but normal linkage movement, and there appears to be grease around the U-joints. Can't really see with the deck on it.
Hydro fluid looks to be in great condition, reasonably new.
Deck appears to be in overall good condition considering it was primarily a mowing tractor. No visible bent spindles or blades. Tractor died a few times when I went to engage it (likely seat switch seems to me)
Needs an oil change.

Also has TG2742 Snowblower with mount. Not used too much in recent years, and looks to be in good shape. It had the bottom plate rebuilt by a very good welder, probably would have been hard to notice if it was not pointed out to me. I guess it had rotted out from a combination of scraping and salt, but the tractor shows little signs of rust.

Comes with spare PTO belts, some filters, chains, and wheel weight which may not be OEM Kubota.

***

Weather was about 38F, and tractor did kick over without glow plugs (this was an intentional test). Immediately tested with glow plugs and tractor started much easier, which tells me the glow plugs are good too.

Dash works, and all signs show the combination box is working okay.

My only real concern is that there appears to be a rhythmic off and on again vibration ____-_-_--_______-_-_--_____ when the deck is engaged. The PTO coupler on the shaft seems to be slightly loose (looser than the drive shaft) with some play that could be the source of the vibration which travels along the PTO shaft and by extension to the rest of the tractor. Raising the RPM reduces the noticeable vibration, lowering RPM makes it more apparent but doesn't seem to alter its persistence.
Could also be a bearing? Is this a normal wear item? Is the vibration normal? What would it cost to replace.

Anyone know of a good mulch kit or alternative?
About how much would this tractor be worth?
Anything else I should check the next time I go out?

Incidentally I actually used one of these tractors when I worked on the grounds of an elementary school in Ireland. (or was it a G1800?). Great workhorse, but the engine broke the mounts from vibration and had to be welded twice. Finally had to order the guys not to drop the idle all the way down.

 

[Spring1898]

Nobody?

Also need to find some hydraulic fluid locally besides the wal-mart brand.

 

[KYKub]

Hi Spring 1898. I have a G1900 and love it, but I don't have a lot of detailed information to offer. In good shape with 1200 hours I would guess the machine it is worth somewhere is the $2,500 range. Not sure what value is added by the snowblower. Maybe $500? If it's old enough to have rusted and needed repair it probably isn't worth much. Again, though, just a guess on my part.

Mine doesn't have a "rhythmic vibration," although these diesels do knock and rattle more than gassers. The shaft spline connection on my mower feels a little loose too but that's just the design. Unless it's obviously too loose i wouldn't worry too much about that.

I've never used a mulch kit and have always been happy with the cut quality. You might try using a baffle on the chute as I've heard of others doing. I don't have a manicured lawn so I never think about it. One thing I do like is that the deck really throws grass clippings over a wide area. Wide, even spreading as opposed to the "rows" my old Cub Cadet used to make.

If it started at 38 degrees with no glow plugs that's a pretty good sign. Not sure mine would do that, or at least not sure I would want to grind my starter long enough to see.

I always use Kubota SUDT hydraulic fluid so no ability to compare brands. Guys that know their stuff on here mostly seem to think

Not sure what year it is, but it's getting old. If you enjoy tinkering around on this kind of stuff you'll love it. The D722 engine likely has plenty of life left in it, but you'll probably have to address a series of maintenance issues. Drive shaft, bearings, battery, instrument cluster, etc.

I recently bought what I thought would be a parts mower and it ended up being a much nicer machine than I thought (bought sight unseen off CL and had it shipped). I then nursed it back to health so now I have TWO mowers, and a new to me BX. I had a recent thread where I talked about my wife not being thrilled with this arrangement. Here's a pic of the mower when I had it stripped down to replace the steering box. Another if it after some attention and paint.

Obviously, I'm in the "it's worth the work" camp when it comes to these mowers. View attachment 444476View attachment 444477

 

[Spring1898]

Appreciate the reply,
I will probably take a look at it again, and make the guy an offer.

The snow blower was scraped along the bottom and the cutting edge was never replaced. But it looks to be in good condition after the repair, and the mechanical side of it seems to be fine. We get over 100" of snow during the season, and got our first dusting the other day, so it will definitely be used.

As far as a mulcher we get a lot of leaves too, so I will see whether one of those quick chute things will work. Wish it had the 54" mower, but the 48" should do fine for now.

I heard chevron all weather was a good synthetic hydraulic, and has better numbers than the SUDT but can't seem to locate any locally. How much is the SUDT down your way?

On another note, are those ag tires on backwards, or do you know something I don't?

 

[KYKub]

I don't remember how much SUDT was when I bought it last spring. I remember it was enough to make me notice how much cheaper the Tractor Supply/Rural King "equivalents" were. Anything I know about hydraulic fluid I've learned from this forum. Do a search for "SUDT" and you'll have an evening's worth of reading.

I don't know anything about the ag tires so maybe they're on backwards? Guys at the tire shop put them on another machine so I copied what they did. It can't be MY fault! Are they backwards?

I have 48" and 60" decks and probably prefer the 48". The 60" is nice in open flat areas, but I have little of that as I live on a wooded, sloped lot. It's also much heavier and more difficult to install/uninstall.

If you don't get the snowblower, they also make a front plow that works great for me. Then again, we get only a fraction of the snow you get. I'll probably use the BX loader bucket with a snow blade now, but the plow on the G1900 works surprisingly well. Hydraulic lift and lower, and manual side to side movement.

 

[Spring1898]

Typically the front of "V" is toward the front of the tractor where the wheel touches the ground.
Like a duck foot, walking forward. That way the wedge of the "V" bites into the ground. Switch around the rear wheels and that should take care of it.

Anytime the name brand is on anything it seems to be more expensive. Usually it is good, but more than what you might pay if you could find another equivalent oil. I will have to keep looking around.

 

[Spring1898]

Well i picked up the tractor. Paid $2000 for the tractor, deck, snowblower, chains, wheel weights, filters, belts, hydrauluc fluid, and a digital manual.
Did a basic service on the first day, greased everything and started cutting. A lot of power, it was nice to feel all that cutting torque again.

Halfway through the gauges all died. I kept cutting and parked the machine, and pushed in the fuel solenoid. Tractor was completely dead so it couldn't be the combination box. I knew the battery was good, sk i started tracing wires
Checked the fusible link and it had broken off at the neck of the connector. 1200 hours of physical vibration and a poorly applied heatshrink tube are the culprits as there was no evidence of it blowing. I forced open the crimp put the wire back in and sinched it all down with heatshrink plus electrical tape and she is back to life.

Now she just needs a wash, wax, and i need to figure how to stick the hood stop back onto the radiator since i don't have a tig welder.
Needless to say at this point i am satisfied

 

[Valley Viking]

The rubber hood stops were gone on my G1900 when I bought it used with close to 600 hours on it. I found some rubber stoppers in the section of the local hardware store that has the bins of nuts, bolts, and oddball little gizmos. From there I found a copper water line cap that the stopper fit tight into, 1" I think. I placed the stops on top of the radiator and found the best location for the hood to rest and then soldered the copper caps to the top of the radiator. Didn't cost much and worked great.

 

[deadhorse]

J&B Weld works great for the hood stops on the radiator.

 

[Freakingstang]

Keep an eye on that vibration, I had to replace the u joints in the main shaft (engine to hydro) around 1000 hours. sometimes my gauges work, sometimes they do not is the only issue I've had with mine since 2010. hour meter stopped working right at the 1k mark. it gets about 100 hours a year mowing 3 acres and the neighbors 2 acres. good little machine!