Implements by Freight?

[HickoryDean]

Hurricane Katrina ruined my LB1914'S 4' KingKutter brushcutter and Kioti sunshade, plus strained a couple of hydraulic hoses for the KL-102 FEL. Insurance reps agreed. Brought it to former Kioti dealer in Mississippi. After 3 and a half months, dealer had not put any kind of an estimate in writing. A most unusual situation it was. Followup phone calls were never returned. Service Manager was always out, sometimes for 10 days, etc. Extremely frustrating situation. Finally, went there. Told them only that I was picking up my tractor. No conversation.
Next closest dealer is 85 miles away, but have not contacted this one to verify business is still in operation.
Would like to get estimates for delivered brushcutter, sunshade, and hoses from a dealer who would have a fair price as well as set up to handle drop shipments. Any help would be appreciated.
I need help also on where to start looking to fix engine hour meter and 4-way flashers that also quit working after falling tree did the other damage.
Thanks.

 

[cgraham]

Too bad about the loss and abysmal lack of service.

My approach would be to get on the web and find a co with a contact # you can call and ask them for drop delivery. I think larger companies do it all the time (i've been rooting around for equipment, but did not take note of any particular dealers). After all, that's how stuff gets to your local dealer usually.

You could probably take the hydraulic lines to a hydraulic or heavy equipment shop and have them make up duplicates, unless Kioti makes wierd connectors.

Do the 4-way flashers fail if one bulb goes out? Find another tractor, pull a bulb and see. If so, likely you have a bad bulb or broken/grounded/shorted wire and/or a blown fuse. If the flashers are independent of one another (unlikely IMO), the problem lies deeper.

It sounds as if the hour meter area was not struck directly. I assume it is electrically powered, and so I would put a voltmeter probe (meter on it's lowest setting) on the meter contacts in turn, if you can get at them, and the other probe on a good ground point on the frame. If you find a hot wire (while the engine is running) I would assume the meter is broken from the shock, and if there is no hot wire, you would have to trace the wiring back to the sensor, looking for a short or break. The non-hot (ground) wire could also be broken. To test, set the meter to ohms, and see if there is continuity (a positive resistance reading) between the neg contact and the frame, (with the wire in place) - there should be. If not, the neg wire is compromised.

That's the limit of my intuition: I have never examined these components.

I'm just in the shopping stage for the same model you have. They are about to be discontinued.

Good luck rebuilding your life after Katrina. I bet backhoes are in demand in N.O.

C

 

[HickoryDean]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have not investigated any yet as I thought a dealer would be putting things back right. I have probably put 50 hours on the tractor without an hour meter. I use 100% synthetic oil. I emailed Carver Equipment yesterday for an estimate. I have gotten filters in the past from out-of-state dealers but do not remember which ones.
This is a very good tractor. I like 8 forward and 8 reverse gears and use all of them (in forward anyway). It has been reported that the PTO has more power than the CK20.
A good friend purchased $250,000 worth of equipment in order to fulfill a FEMA contract. He spent a day on my 4 acres on a Bobcat hydraulic excavator. This machine is all hydraulic and runs on rubber tracks. One turn and it really tears up the yard, but this baby can really do a number. We lost 80 trees. The oaks fell over uprooted. The pines broke off 20 feet off the ground. The Bobcat was able to pick up the largest oak stumps and deposit them at the side of the road. When the FEMA crews came by to pick up stumps, only 3 would fit on a flat bed trailer. I'm sure each weighed over a ton. Even so, the Bobcat only got to about 10 stumps closest to the house. About half the property is now a jungle in this semi-tropical area. Should I happen to live 20 more years, I will never get the whole 4 acres cleared.
HickoryDean

 

[cgraham]

Hickory: I', glad to hear your endorsement of the BL1914.

is there a strong agument for switching to synthetic oil? Which oil? Car people go to and fro about its benefits - no consensus.

It's sad you lost all those beautiful oaks: although the word is that a large proportion are infested with Formosan termites and their days are numbered (especially in the historc area).

C

 

[HickoryDean]

C, I would not switch to synthetic oil on an older vehicle. My Fords come from the factory with a syn blend so I keep using Motorcraft Oil & Filters. I use Mobil 1 oil and filter in my Chevy that I purchased new because Corvettes come from the assembly line that way, even though my Chevy is not a Vette. In the case of my LB1914, the code numbers the owner's manual says to look for are hard to find. Some places told me that it had been replaced with a newer code. Then I picked up a bottle of a 100% synthetic oil and it had the code Kioti said to look for. No other oil in the store had that code. That's how I started using synthetic in the tractor. On the other hand, I am not particular about the brand of tractor fluid, which is about 24 quarts, and have used NAPA brand.
Sorry I don't have the oil brand in memory but it is recorded in the owner's manual. It is a purple bottle that starts out "Syn..." as I recall, maybe from Valvolene.
Dean

 

[HickoryDean]

Update on implements: Steve from Carver is having a quote worked up for all of the damage replacement parts. As soon as I receive it, I will send it to the Insurance company and see what happens from there.

 

[MotorSeven]

4 ac! Are you on the North Shore? I was raised in River Ridge before it had a name. I haven't been back since before Kat, but am heading to my sisters place off Magazine St for Turkey day. She was lucky, no flooding and minor damage. She says everyone is still "shell shocked" there and the rebuild is painfully slow with N.O. politics in play. Sorry to hear about your trees, that really changes the character of a place to loose them "wholesale". I remember Hilda, Betsy and Camille, and thought that they were big......... Get that tractor fixed and get some seat time!
RD

 

[HickoryDean]

MotorSeven, yes, we live in Hickory which is just past Pearl River. I work in downtown N.O. Flooding pretty much stopped a block or two before St. Charles Avenue. From there to the river was mostly high and dry. Your sister was in a good location. Too bad the streetcar barn that used to be on Magazine near Jefferson was no longer. All those vintage 1920's streetcars were parked on Canal Street, and all were lost. Canal line is back up using St. Charles line cars. Riverfront line and St. Charles line still down but they are going to open St. Charles just to Lee Circle soon.
I was in the Coast Guard in New Orleans from 63-66 so I also remember twelve ft of water in lower ninth ward back then, parts of St. Bernard as well.
Tchoupitoulas and Childrens Hospital were also spared, as well as the Quarter---but that's about it.
Very very slow recovery. One million gallons of water a day still leaking out of busted pipes throughout the city.

 

[MotorSeven]

Sheeeze, a million gal leak(s)....wow. Yep, i remember My Dad hooking up the boat & taking off right after Betsy...he was a volunteer for the NO Civil Defense, they spent a week boating up and down the 9th Ward streets picking up people. I still can't get over the lack of planning for a scenerio that i was taught about in grade school(60's) . I still think that they should bulldoze anything that got over 8' of water and make it back into the swamp it once was..........
Hang in there, it will get better!
RD

 

[LarryRB]

I've bought from Mark who advertises here as CCI.. Easy to deal with, great pricing, including shipping, and when implements come in, there are zero problems at delivery..