HELP Please: advice on JD790 vs. Kubota L3400

daTeacha · Nov 26, 2005

7 to 10 cords is a lot of firewood. If you made just one pile, it would be 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and between 56 and 80 feet long. Did you cut that much wood in a day? Even as raw logs, that's a pretty goodly number of trees to drop, limb out, and move to wherever you put them. If you cut it to firewood length and split it, you are a firewood makin' machine, sir!

ruglad03835 · Nov 28, 2005

All we did this weekend was drop the trees before snow hit's . I'm going to go out back on the weekends and limb everything and start dragging it out of the woods. Most everything is red oak and beech. The smallest log is 12" in diameter. I used the 790 to move lopgs around and out of the way. Other than that it went well cutting all this lumber down. I have next years wood cut split and drying and this will be used in 2007.

daTeacha · Nov 28, 2005

Glad to hear you're drying it properly. How much do you burn, anyways? My 6 1/2 acres provide more than I need -- mixed oak, hickory, maple, red elm, locust, etc. just through natural attrition. I have a couple of years worth just waiting to be shortened and split, plus more still in the woods. I don't think I'll ever need to kill a tree for firewood. I have a Brunco woodburner that heats my 1500 sf. log home quite adequately. Last year, I got a gas bill for November for $0.44 since they charged us based on what they thought we should be using in October and read the meter in November. My January bill was all of $29, which includes cooking and hot water.

ruglad03835 · Nov 29, 2005

I run through 4 cords a year and 1 tank of oil. I unfortunately have an electric dryer and water heater. I'm going to change the dryer to gas this winter and the water heater when it fails. Electricity in New Hampshire isn't cheap!!!I have a stove insert in my fireplace and it heats my home fine. Once the temp drops below 0 I have to kick the furnace in just to get the heat to the back bedrooms. I have a little circulator fan to move the heat to the back when the stove is running and am going to try a larger fan this winter. I also am going to start replacing windows in the spring.

rk246 · Dec 3, 2005

In my area the Kubota dealer was much better to deal with, very knowledgeable and easy to talk to, the New Holland dealer acted like I was a big pain in his a.. So I left, I thought I am spending a lot of money and you are treating me like this, I Kind of wanted the New Holland too, I like blue. The JD dealer was okay, but didn't seem super knowledgeable, never offered to let me try the tractor or a real look at the different models, I then went into the Kubota dealer and He explained everything, found out about my needs, didn't try to sell me more than I needed, I had to sell him on selling me a bigger tractor, He let me drive several around and brought the one I thought I wanted out to my house to try out the same day.

I guess this was the long way of saying I think the dealer and customer service is the most important. It seems in today's world that is something we have lost. But I also really like the Kubota, the price was better than JD and the capacities were better, as well as being able to do a couple functions on the loader at once, Whereas the Deere has one issue I believe it can not raise and dump at the same time?

FordTruckGuy · Dec 3, 2005

All hail the 790!

Go with the 90 series. It won't let you down.

RoyJackson · Dec 3, 2005

"Whereas the Deere has one issue I believe it can not raise and dump at the same time? "

Mine does...won't raise and curl simultaneously though. I've never found this to be a problem, though.

daTeacha · Dec 4, 2005

Is that a valving characteristic or fluid flow? I can dump or roll the bucket on my Kubota 1630 loader while it is either moving up or down, and that little thing was made 25 years ago -- it moves slower, but it moves both ways at once. I have to think a Deere loader is set up like that for some logical, perhaps safety related reason. They take a lot of pride in their hydraulics.

Thinking it through a little, the angle of the bucket changes as it is lifted. If it's rolling back and lifting simultaneously, could a big load come back too quickly and dump on the tractor and/or operator?