John Deere vs Kubote

Anonymous Poster · May 26, 2001

Is there anyone who has been able to compare a farm JD and a Kubote directly and if so which would you prefer and why?

Thanks

cowboydoc · May 26, 2001

Rancher,
What do you mean by a farm JD? Are you talking about the 5000 series in John Deere and the M series in Kubota?

Anonymous Poster · May 27, 2001

Yes I do mean the M series Kubota and the 5000 series John Deere. Thank you for the clarification.

cowboydoc · May 27, 2001

About a month ago I tryed to take advantage of a bogus program that john deere was offering on the 5010 I think and a round baler. I tryed out that one and a few others at the dealer and really liked it. I couldn't get them to do the deal for what was advertised though and walked away from it. I went over to the kubota dealer by the house and he had a couple M series there and I tryed those out as well. I was impressed by both of them and didn't really like one more or less than the other. I was over at Ben's house yesterday, the owner of Kubota store, and was trying out a 15' batwing that he had found for me on an M4800. It was really nice and handled the mower with no problems at all. Steering, hydro, and all was excellent. I'm not ready to part with around 30k on one though yet. The JD 4600 does most of my light work and the Massey super 90 is still plugging right along on the big jobs. If I was going to buy one though it would be who gave me the best deal on one because I honestly couldn't tell much difference between the two as far as driving, manuevering, features, comfort, etc. I'd love to replace my Massey with either one but not willing to part with the cash for my small operation.

TREEFARMER2 · May 29, 2001

I recently looked at both brands and both seem to be well made. The John Deere's seemed a little more user-friendly and heavier. One nice feature of the Kubota is on the M6800 you have a manually locking front differential as well as rear differential. If you have low traction situations this would make a big difference. I decided that this horsepower range (60+ I think?) was physically too big for what I wanted to do. I bought a JD4700 mainly because of the dealer. If he sold Kubota's I probably would have bought one of them. Good luck!

GaryK · May 30, 2001

I COMPARED TRACTORS BEFORE I BOUGHT AND WHAT FINALLY DID IT FOR ME WAS THE LOCATION OF THE FEL CONTROLS, ON A JD THEY COME ON THE TRACTOR AND ARE LOCATED IN A COMFORTABLE POSITION. ON THE KUBOTA, THE CONTROLS COME WITH THE FEL AND ARE LOCATED UP ON THE FEL AND ARE A LITTLE AWKWARD TO USE. CONTROLS ARE LESS EXPENSIVE WHEN BOUGHT INSTALLED ON JD THAN WHEN BUYING SEPERATELY AS ON THE KUBOTA. I GUESS IT JUST DEPENDS ON WHAT COLOR YOU LIKE AND COMFORT.

JATO_RaT · Jun 9, 2001

The Kubotas I tried all had the loader controls attached to the tractor, not the loader. The L 4610 definitely has them on the tractor and they stay with the tractor when you remove the loader. Rat...

toddler · Jun 13, 2001

Rat,
JD has the loader hydraulic valves on the tractor as well as the stick. My understanding was that Kubota had a stick you could mount to the tractor's fender that controlled the valves by cable. I thought the valves were on the loader sub frame, which is why they would come with the loader, not the tractor. Is that wrong?
You're clearly right about the kubota controls staying with the tractor. Even on my 2710 the control lever is mounted to the sub-frame, and the hydraulic lines hook up right in front of it. The sub frame is always on. On the 4610, if you can mount the control either to the sub frame to the right of the wheel, or on the fender, is there a difference in feel or precision between the two sites, because of cable slack or stretch?
Todd

patton · Jun 16, 2001

Regarding remoting valves via cables- I can't comment on "feel" in use with these, but JD switched to using cables for all of the rear SCV valves on the 5000 20 series. Since one of the two goals of the 20 series was improved hydraulics, I assume they have a good reputation.

Pat