Comparison Kioti vs Kubota vs John Deere

[DK35vince]

Like you Oldoak, my tractor has not been back to the dealer since I bought it. Getting close to 300 hours and no problems of any kind.

Same here.
I bought my 2001 tractor from a very small dealership 90 miles away.
Dealer was great.
Tractor has never been back to the dealer in those 16 years..

 

[gsganzer]

If you're looking for an economy tractor, an LS or Kioti would be my choice over an economy Kubota. But you're looking at a 50+ horse machine, so I'm assuming you have some tasks for it and you don't want an economy tractor. I'd go with the Kubota. Not sure about the JD model you're looking at, but JD lost me when they started using so much plastic.

 

[LD1]

Bought my first kubota new in 2006. Dealer was 45 min away. They had two stores. 45 min north of me, 45 min south of me.

Bout 5 years after I bought it, they opened up a store 10 min away. The guy that runs the new store was the delivery driver on my machine, and he remembered exactly who I was.

Early last year, I upgraded machines to a bigger kubota.

Neither have ever been back to the dealer, but I seem to find I call them about once a month. So being on a first name basis with the store manager of a good dealership is a nice thing.

While you may not need to ever take the tractor in, you need them for parts. Alot of the hydraulic filters are brand specific (dealer only or order online). I have had to replace a tie rod boot a few times, hydraulic oil if HST is a good thing to use your dealer for, I get replacement blades for my woods rotary cutter that I use for business, I had him e-mail me hydraulic diagrams out of the service manual when I installed my own remotes. Even though I wasnt buying any of the parts from them. When I made the deal to upgrade tractors last year, the machine was at one of their other stores. He had his delivery driver bring it down after closing, and he stayed well past closing time so I could load up that same day.

ETC ETC. The list goes on. A good dealer is a good thing to have in your back pocket.

Now if only kubota would make a ~60 PTO HP tractor, that has 20" front tires, AND is HST....I'd be all set for another upgrade.

 

[crazyal]

I ended up with a Kubota Grand L simply because of one feature that the others didn't have. The Kubota has a two speed HST motor. What this allows you to do is basically shift gears without having to do anything more than flick a lever. No letting off of the "go" pedal. I didn't understand why it mattered until one day test driving one and the dealer explained how to use it. For loader work you can leave the tractor in "M" and when you get to a pile of dirt you want to scoop you use a lever (like flashing your high beams) and it instantly shifts down. It may not seam like a big deal but when you are doing repetition work you would be amazed just how much time is saved. Think of it like power vs manual windows in a car. If you only had to open and close the window once during a trip it really wouldn't matter but if you had to open and close the window every 5 minutes for a couple hours you quickly come to like the option.

Like others have said, try them out and get a good feel for the options each one has. You are going to be spending a lot of money I would be a little less focused on price and more focused on which one you like the best (still could be the least expensive). You are going to have to live with what ever you buy for some time. After you do then ask more questions, you will have more.

 

[MiserableOldFart]

Within twenty miles of your property.

That's pretty much impossible in most areas. We used to have 2 tractor dealers in town. One was Deere. The other sold New Holland, Kubota, White and a few others. They are no longer in business. The companies want only high volume, big box type dealers. So Deere is now 50 miles. New Holland 25, Kubota 50, Massey Ferguson 25, Kioti 65, Case 30 miles away. Very hard to deal with this kind of distances, and lack of competition. Kioti interested me the most but contacting the dealers, the distance was too much and the numbers they were giving me were outrageous. One guy wanted to charge me $20,000 WITH my trade in for a tractor that is clearly advertised on line for the same price with no trade. I'm not going to do business with a dealer 600 miles away, but this is ridiculous.

Looking to trade a very nice tractor for something a little more powerful and getting a runaround from all except the New Holland dealer. Taking that path will result in a wider tractor than what I want, and make my five foot implements too narrow to cover the wheels. Looks like I'll be sticking with what I have. Oh, and the dealer I bought my New Holland from went out of biz, and resurrected as the Massey Ferguson dealer. Service is tough to get when the nearest dealer is a 45 minute drive away, and not the place you bought it.

It's really sad that everything now is based on the "big box" paradigm.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I have had my Kioti 7320 for approximately 1.5 years. I have about 300 hours on it now. I have been very satisfied.
I would recommend getting as much seat time as possible in each tractor you are considering. I was leaning toward Kubota and didn't like the way I had to lean forward while driving it. Another brand that I was considering was eliminated for me because of interaction with the dealer. Good luck making your choice.

 

[mopardude318]

I was looking at all the makes, and doing hours of reading of TBN. I kept going back and ended up with a Kubota M7060. However, the Grand L 60's are a very nice machine. I'd love to have one of those as well.

 

[Tractorable]

Thank you very much everyone, I truly appreciate your honest opinions.

Until yesterday, I never heard of Kioti. Anyone here owns a Kioti and having problems with it? or can tell me anything about Kioti that makes it stand out (other than price)?

I have seen JD and Kubota but more of industrial (like Deere 110, 310,...).

I will have to go test drive those tractors.

Best I can tell in the Compact Utility Tractor (CUT) segment, there are:

Two Japanese tractor manufacturers: Kubota and Yanmar

Six Korean tractor manufacturers: Kioti, LS, TYM, Branson, New Holland (rebranded LS), Massey Ferguson (rebranded Korean tractor)

One Indian tractor manufacturer: Mahindra

One quasi-American tractor manufacturer: John Deere (made in Mexico with Japanese Yanmar engines).

There's a lot more to it, but it would take several volumes to track who all makes what.

 

[ArlyA]

The compact JD 4052 is made in Georgia. I believe the 30 series from JD are built in Mexico. Just the same, parts come from all over the world. We're not looking for something built 100% here.