Kioti 3510H Test Drive: Stalling In High Gear

[ransonjd]

Howdy,

I'm looking to buy a tractor for a 40 acres, about 25 of which is forest with mucky trails to maintain. Yesterday we went by our local Kubota, Kioti, John Deere and LS dealers. One thing surprised me:

The Kioti 3510H stalled with mid/low throttle whenever I pushed the pedal forward. It would start off making a nasty whine and jerk slowly forward, and if I fully pushed the pedal, it would straight-up stall. The LS and John Deere I drove didn't have this issue. I haven't gotten behind the seat of a Kubota yet. Is this stalling normal? The dealer acted as if I were asking too much of the tractor, but it really felt like the tractor simply didn't have enough strength to move its own unloaded weight.

Thanks for your help,

John

 

[s219]

If it was in high range with not enough throttle it would whine a lot and bog down. Pushing the pedal all the way would make the gear ratio even higher, so yes, it could conceivably stall.

The HST pedal needs to be treated like a gear ratio control, not a throttle. A common mistake with new tractor owners is to mash the pedal down, but that just makes the situation worse. If you plan to really use high ratios, then you need a lot of throttle.

Another common mistake is to leave the parking brake on. It will also lead to whine and bog down.

With an HST, when you hear a loud whine, it's a protest, suggesting you're doing something wrong.

 

[ransonjd]

Hmm. The dealer disengaged the parking brake, and middle gear moved fine, although it was the loudest and whiniest of the tractors (all HSTs) that I drove yesterday. I did the same routine on all three tractors: Drive around a bit in low or middle gear, stop, switch to high gear, up the throttle a bit, and then slowly push in the pedal. The Deere and the LS were fine, and the Kioti stalled. Sounds like maybe the dealer didn't quite fully disengage the brake?

--John

 

[ransonjd]

Oh, sorry, I meant to say in the first post that this only happened in high gear.

--John

 

[Tigershark]

I have a Kioti 4010 HST and love it, it will flat out move, my only guess would be you didn't have the throttle up high enough, it will whine if you are mashing the pedal all the way down before it is really going. I haven't had any issues with mine, I can pull a bush hog in high gear if I am going straight. My only regret is not getting more HP. I have around 30 acres tillable and 15 wooded.

 

[davrow]

I'd suggest there was something wrong with that tractor. If dealer couldn't identify an issue, why would he correct it? Kiotis are no less capable than others. If it behaved differently than the others, it wasn't a brand issue.

 

[GManBart]

For comparison's sake, what were the other models you tried?

High range is really only a transport gear for covering a lot of ground quickly...like on a road, or smooth trail, so low/mid throttle and high range isn't normally a combo you would use. Lots of tractors will bog a little bit, and give a whine from the HST when starting out in high range if you get on the pedal too quickly, or the throttle is set too low.

 

[ransonjd]

I went back to the dealer today and hopped on the same tractor. I made sure that the parking brake was properly disengaged, and took it for a spin, including digging in the dirt. It was less whiny, and didn't stall. All in all, it was actually pretty nice to drive. I'm guessing the issue was the parking brake wasn't properly disengaged yesterday.

Then I hopped on a shuttle-shift DK4510HS and liked it even more.

--John

 

[ransonjd]

I've got another thread going about picking tractors, but for comparison's sake, this is what I've driven now:

John Deere 3032E
John Deere 2032R
LS XR3135H (I think.)
Mahindra 1538 Shuttle
Kioti CK2510H
Kioti DK4510HS
Kubota L3560HSTC (No ROPS version on lot)

--John