WOW - I'm jealous that you have so much spare time. You'll be happy to know that the factory set up works beautifully; we have over 2 feet of heavy, wet, sticky snow accumulated here now. I've been out blowing daily, sometimes twice daily for the past 4 days. 1/3 mile gravel driveway, 1/2 mile gravel road around the pond, and 3 large driveways all with comfort and ease. Operation is smooth; after discovering that easing into the snow will prevent shear bolts from breaking I've broken no more. It looks so easy, my wife is now demanding that I teach her to use this thing.
Kubota B2650 and B3350 info and hints
- Thread starter bumperm
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OP
bumperm
Veteran Member
BadDog,
Free time??* Will freely admit that always looking for the hidden flaw or trying to improve things can be a sickness (but does make me happy on those rare occasions I meet with success!). However, in my younger days that failing held me in good stead w/ tool royalties from minor inventions.
*I prioritize my "to do list" in order of importance . . . but do things in the order of what I prefer to do. The disagreeable stuff at the top of the list magically fades in importance over time. Drives my wife nuts.
BTW, in one sticky snowfall the impeller paddles loaded up with solid "pancakes" of mostly translucent packed ice that refused to fling off (or even pry off easily) . . . as soon as that happened the throw distance and efficiency of the blower dropped precipitously. My fault as I didn't allow blower enough time to acclimatize before use after removing from warm garage, and didn't spray anything on the blades to prevent initial build up.
UHMW PE is amazing stuff as snow all but refuses to stick. Tough as nails and slicker than snake snot on a flat rock, it'll improve throw distance and efficiency.
bumper
Free time??* Will freely admit that always looking for the hidden flaw or trying to improve things can be a sickness (but does make me happy on those rare occasions I meet with success!). However, in my younger days that failing held me in good stead w/ tool royalties from minor inventions.
*I prioritize my "to do list" in order of importance . . . but do things in the order of what I prefer to do. The disagreeable stuff at the top of the list magically fades in importance over time. Drives my wife nuts.
BTW, in one sticky snowfall the impeller paddles loaded up with solid "pancakes" of mostly translucent packed ice that refused to fling off (or even pry off easily) . . . as soon as that happened the throw distance and efficiency of the blower dropped precipitously. My fault as I didn't allow blower enough time to acclimatize before use after removing from warm garage, and didn't spray anything on the blades to prevent initial build up.
UHMW PE is amazing stuff as snow all but refuses to stick. Tough as nails and slicker than snake snot on a flat rock, it'll improve throw distance and efficiency.
bumper
OP
bumperm
Veteran Member
I appreciate the telescoping sway links on the BXX50's, but that little 10mm pin with the clip underneath is fiddly to deal with - - forget it wearing leather gloves.
Here's a *much* better alternative, albeit a little more expensive, still for this quality of quick release ball pin it's a good deal . . . and more importantly, it'll make you smile every time you use it!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=251101669070&view=all&tid=1355027581015
EDIT, There may be some sort of anomaly with the above listing. The price I paid was even less than the listing asking price for some reason $10.04 for two of them with free shipping!! Unfortunately, the listing on ebay for this pin has been "updated" by the seller, and I can't find it listed now. It was shipped by Amazon, though this was not readily apparent (or I didn't notice) on the eBay listing. Shipping was only 2 days.
In any case it is a Jergens stainless steel pin, 10mm diameter, 25mm grip length.
bumper
Here's a *much* better alternative, albeit a little more expensive, still for this quality of quick release ball pin it's a good deal . . . and more importantly, it'll make you smile every time you use it!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemVersion&item=251101669070&view=all&tid=1355027581015
EDIT, There may be some sort of anomaly with the above listing. The price I paid was even less than the listing asking price for some reason $10.04 for two of them with free shipping!! Unfortunately, the listing on ebay for this pin has been "updated" by the seller, and I can't find it listed now. It was shipped by Amazon, though this was not readily apparent (or I didn't notice) on the eBay listing. Shipping was only 2 days.
In any case it is a Jergens stainless steel pin, 10mm diameter, 25mm grip length.
bumper
Last edited:
2010drive
Bronze Member
Hey, bumper sounds like you've gotten to use your blower...We're finally getting a good snowfall here and I will be using mine tomorrow morning for the first time! I put a heavy coat of fluid film on it so I expect no sticking. Are you using grease on the teeth of the chute rotator?
OP
bumperm
Veteran Member
Yes, I took the chute off and greased that puppy up every way but Sunday! Made it a lot quieter.
We've had two semi-decent snowfalls, first was 8" but the last was only about 3". Plus the last one was slushy underneath and tended to push up in a heap in front of the blower - - stop, back up a foot or two, drive into it and WOOOMF! Away it blows!. Still, a neighbor with a walk behind said it was plugging his blower chute up so it wouldn't work hardly at all, had to keep unclogging it. Mine, with the UHMW liner, had no clogging issues whatsoever. I did spray Pam cooking spray on the auger faces and on the impeller blades before heading out.
bumper
We've had two semi-decent snowfalls, first was 8" but the last was only about 3". Plus the last one was slushy underneath and tended to push up in a heap in front of the blower - - stop, back up a foot or two, drive into it and WOOOMF! Away it blows!. Still, a neighbor with a walk behind said it was plugging his blower chute up so it wouldn't work hardly at all, had to keep unclogging it. Mine, with the UHMW liner, had no clogging issues whatsoever. I did spray Pam cooking spray on the auger faces and on the impeller blades before heading out.
bumper
OP
bumperm
Veteran Member
The B50 series tractors have lower cab height that their bigger cousins and this puts the side mirrors right where you can bump them. As the adjustment ball is only about 5/8" in diameter, it doesn't offer enough resistance to keep the mirror in adjustment, so even a slight "bump" means having to re-adjust the mirror - - a pain.
To gain access to the mounting/adjustment screws, press hard inward on the middle of the plastic cover while prying out at the lower corner with a small screwdriver or awl. The ball clamp has an internal metal place cast into the plastic, so it is possible to tighten the screws to increase tension . . . however, this won't be enough to improve things enough.
I first tried inserting a piece of butyl rubber caulk on one mirror and a small square of 3M black self-vulcanizing tape on the other. Only a minor improvement was had with the 3M tape, which has a high coefficient of friction, being best. Next I used a small center punch to dimple the front side of the swivel ball along with the 3M tape - - only slightly better. Smoothed the dimples with a diamond file and gave up on that approach.
Next I cleaned all surfaces (again) and applied a coating of "Tacx carbon assembly compound" (available on Amazon*). Tacx is used for assembling carbon frame bicycles. It is a light grease with very fine plastic spheres in suspension - - you can't see them, but they feel like grit. The idea is the spheres flatten and fill microsopic voids in the material to be clamped with the plastic entering voids on each surface, locking them together in shear. This stuff worked well! ("Well" being a relative term in this case . . . but nonetheless a huge improvement in mirror stability.)
My goal was to have a minor bump on the mirror operate the "position latch" with the mirror swinging out of the way but not moving out of adjustment. To accomplish this I also greased the pivots and latch pins and reduced spring tension by backing off the lower pivot nuts (may need to Loctite the nuts to keep them from backing off).
With both the Tacx on the ball socket and greased pivots with reduced spring tension, I can now happily bonk my mirrors and they unlatch and swing out of the way while retaining mirror adjustment . . . only have to swing the pivot back to the latched position with no need to re-adjust the %$#@ mirror all over again.
To further "fix" the mirror head in position, after assembly and adjustment, I filled in the void where the shaft enters the top of the mirror with butyl rubber tape (caulk). The black butyl caulk does not harden, bonds to itself, seals out water from entering the mirror at the top, and is easy to remove. This step was probably not necessary, but couldn't hurt as the ball and socket mount is not sealed from weather at all.
Kubota really should redesign the mirror ball mount. Using a bigger ball would be a good start.
*Tacx is handy to have around I guess, but some will never use it again. If this be you, you can probably get a dab of this stuff for free if you visit your local bicycle shop and ask nicely (assuming they deal is high quality bikes, carbon frames and such), a dab the size of a peanut is all you'll need.
bumper
To gain access to the mounting/adjustment screws, press hard inward on the middle of the plastic cover while prying out at the lower corner with a small screwdriver or awl. The ball clamp has an internal metal place cast into the plastic, so it is possible to tighten the screws to increase tension . . . however, this won't be enough to improve things enough.
I first tried inserting a piece of butyl rubber caulk on one mirror and a small square of 3M black self-vulcanizing tape on the other. Only a minor improvement was had with the 3M tape, which has a high coefficient of friction, being best. Next I used a small center punch to dimple the front side of the swivel ball along with the 3M tape - - only slightly better. Smoothed the dimples with a diamond file and gave up on that approach.
Next I cleaned all surfaces (again) and applied a coating of "Tacx carbon assembly compound" (available on Amazon*). Tacx is used for assembling carbon frame bicycles. It is a light grease with very fine plastic spheres in suspension - - you can't see them, but they feel like grit. The idea is the spheres flatten and fill microsopic voids in the material to be clamped with the plastic entering voids on each surface, locking them together in shear. This stuff worked well! ("Well" being a relative term in this case . . . but nonetheless a huge improvement in mirror stability.)
My goal was to have a minor bump on the mirror operate the "position latch" with the mirror swinging out of the way but not moving out of adjustment. To accomplish this I also greased the pivots and latch pins and reduced spring tension by backing off the lower pivot nuts (may need to Loctite the nuts to keep them from backing off).
With both the Tacx on the ball socket and greased pivots with reduced spring tension, I can now happily bonk my mirrors and they unlatch and swing out of the way while retaining mirror adjustment . . . only have to swing the pivot back to the latched position with no need to re-adjust the %$#@ mirror all over again.
To further "fix" the mirror head in position, after assembly and adjustment, I filled in the void where the shaft enters the top of the mirror with butyl rubber tape (caulk). The black butyl caulk does not harden, bonds to itself, seals out water from entering the mirror at the top, and is easy to remove. This step was probably not necessary, but couldn't hurt as the ball and socket mount is not sealed from weather at all.
Kubota really should redesign the mirror ball mount. Using a bigger ball would be a good start.
*Tacx is handy to have around I guess, but some will never use it again. If this be you, you can probably get a dab of this stuff for free if you visit your local bicycle shop and ask nicely (assuming they deal is high quality bikes, carbon frames and such), a dab the size of a peanut is all you'll need.
bumper
OP
bumperm
Veteran Member
Referring back to post #19 in this thread, I finally got around to replacing the two stock 35 watt halogen work lights on my 3350. This photo is a comparison of the stock light on the left (right side of tractor) and the 36 watt LED on the right. Note that of the 4 LED work lamps I purchased, one was defective, having 3 weak LEDs AND the defective LED in the one shown on the right in this photo! Even defective, it puts out several times more light than the halogen, and a more even pattern too.
bumper
bumper
Bumper,
Great work with the pe lining.
I am waiting to see if you line the impeller housing...
How did you fasten the pe in the areas that you lined?
Also, do you have a link to the led lights and the Jergens pin?
I have a B3000 with a 2782, and the regen idiosyncracy exists in the B3000/LA403 FEL controls as well.
I was thinking about creating (drilling/milling) a hole into the chain cover plate so as to apply chain lube instead of removing the plate. Take a look at that and see what you think.
RFB
Great work with the pe lining.
I am waiting to see if you line the impeller housing...
How did you fasten the pe in the areas that you lined?
Also, do you have a link to the led lights and the Jergens pin?
I have a B3000 with a 2782, and the regen idiosyncracy exists in the B3000/LA403 FEL controls as well.
I was thinking about creating (drilling/milling) a hole into the chain cover plate so as to apply chain lube instead of removing the plate. Take a look at that and see what you think.
RFB
Dan W
Silver Member
Gents, very interesting read, thank you.
One item which contributes to engine
harder starting with the new EPA EGR engines, (DPFs and DOCs) is that engine injecting timing is retarded, which means the fuel injected late and therefore causes harder starts. This has been a constant source of grief in the highway truck industry as Mr. Paystar will attest to.
We can thank these government mandated changes for ever increasing levels of complicated engines, next will be SCR systems in addition to EGRs and DPFs, and DOCs.... But then again, we can all breath easier.
Dan
