Kuboat's warranty work has been great to me

[Chain Bender]

I bought a B3200 with an LA524 FEL on it about a week before I had a knee replacement back in April. Put a few hours on it, loved the HST. BUT I was having some problems getting it to turn over on cold starts. Checked everything I knew to look at. Called the service department of Sowell's Tractor in Panama City FL (the dealer) to talk to them about it. Said bring it back down and they'd take a look at it. Loaded it on the trailer, took it down there and they had a mechanic come out and look at it while I sat in the back parking lot with it still on the trailer. Made some adjustments to the HST pedal and I was headed home smiling.

About a months ago some how I broke (or it was a stress break??) the left tie rod. Don't know how cause I didn't remember hitting anything big enough or hard enough to break it. Left wheel was flopping around while I slowly backed it out to a spot I could get my generator and a small welder close enough to weld a piece of angle iron on it so I could load it on the trailer. Took it back to the dealer and they fixed it. Kubota covered it under warranty.

Last week I was pushin some tops around on a 53 acre clear cut. Had a pretty good pile bunched up. Then I noticed the left bucket cylinder leaking. I just backed out of the pile and came on home. Called Sowell in PC and explained the situation to them and asked could I just bring the cylinder down and not the tractor. Said yes, bring it on. Talked to them today and they said the ram was bent. Don't know how that happend. Since it sits on top of the main frame surely I would have seen anyting big enough to bend a 1" ram. They took it apart and took some pictures to send to Kubota. Today Kubota said fix it and bill it to warranty work.

I've pushed this little tractor for 59 hours, but I haven't ever run it over 2000 rpm and never have put the bucket in a bind that i think would bend a ram. I have no explination about the broken tie rod.

Anyway, Sowell Tractor in Panama City FL and Kubota in general have really been good to me. Just wanted to give a thumbs up to both businesses.

Thanks for listening.

Chain Bender

 

[timswi]

That's some good news, Kubota is a good company when it comes to that stuff and the dealer is the huge linch pin....I'd suggest an extended warranty...Sounds like you really use that thing:thumbsup:

I've had my BX for close to 8 years and haven't broken anything yet and I do run it pretty good, not as good as you though

 

[Verticaltrx]

Hopefully once these things are fixed it won't give you any more problems. Both the loader cylinder bending and the tie rod breaking are fairly uncommon problems. I've had two problems in 400hrs of commercial use on my B3200. First was a ruptured steel hydraulic line at 32hrs, just a defective part. Second was just a few weeks ago. I got some hay wrapped around a drive shaft which took out a seal on the back of the clutch housing. That one was partially my fault.

Regardless, Glad everything was taken care of. That's a lot of stuff to go wrong in 60hrs of use. :confused2:

 

[5030]

In 13 or so Kubota's I've had 2 warranty issues. One was a fel lift cylinder a few Kubota's ago and it was warrantee'd by Kubota, Kubota actually air freights in a complete new cylinder and a leaking right side saddle tank on my M9. That was warranty as well but I took the leaker off myself and installed the new one. I also got a new engine in the M9 from Kubota. They determined that someone at the factory had installed a pressure relief valve inside the engine, backward. The engine developed oil pressure slowly and it concerned me. Concerned them too.

I guess that's why I buy Kubotas

 

[crazyal]

Sounds like Kubota has treated you right. Just a little info on bending cylinders. When trying to extend a cylinder the relief valve will kick in to prevent damage. However once a cylinder is extended the loader valve will hold it in position. If you put too much load onto the cylinder, something has to give, one thing is the cylinder bending. Try avoiding things like ramming things with the front bucket.

 

[bigbull338]

you just cant beat great dealership service.

 

[5030]

you just cant beat great dealership service.

The dealership, any dealership is only as good as the parent company supplying the franchise with parts and knowledge.

You can have the best techinicians and the best customer repore but if the dealership can't get the parts or obtain the knowledge necessary to fix a problem, you get an unhappy customer.

 

[Chilly807]

It's easy enough to bend a bucket cylinder, one easy way is to back drag with the bucket tipped down too far. If the bucket can't ride up over an obstruction it puts tremendous strain on the rods as the tractor tries to compress the cylinders.

I've had a couple warranty jobs, one was the loader right side lift cylinder seal leaking. They replaced the seal. The other was the clutch spline sticking. They split the tractor for that one..

Sean