micdelbo
Member
I have been reading this thread for quite a while and thinking about posting. I have a 3350 that is 1 year old and has 180 hours on it. I have had regen issues since day 1.
I have a JD 4115 for 15 years so that is my baseline when comparing to the Kubota. Other than some minor issues and a transmission leak that was relatively easy to fix, the 4115 has run great for me. Excellent on fuel and can be run at low, mid to high rpm's without issue.
Not the case on the 3350. I discovered very early on to run the 3350 at full throttle or the regen will occur very frequently. With normal running, the tractor will regen at least every 10 hours or less. At times the regen light will be on for 20-30 minutes while running at full rpm. If I have to shut the tractor off for some reason, like parking it because I am done with it, it will stay in regen mode when it is started again. The light will stay lit for another 20-30 minutes at full throttle when started.
I have actually gotten to the point that I will let it run at full throttle while loading/unloading the bucket with firewood with the hope that it completes the regen.
Even with all this, it will randomly go into a parked regen where the regen light will flash and beep. The machine will literally be unusable for 30-45 minutes. It will progressively run up to full throttle and stay there. I realize this is the normal process for a parked regen, but this is after the machine has already been showing it is in regen mode for 20-30 minutes.
This is where it sometimes gets really crazy. The machine will randomly shut down or die while going through a parked regen. When I say shut down or die I mean shut down or die. The machine will not respond to anything. It won't start, it won't even turn over. It's like when a thermal cutout kicks in. The heat 'guage' shows 3 bars which is the same as normal but it is as if it has overheated. It is usually at least a 30 minute wait until it will start. When it starts it will go through another parked regen. This has happened at least 5 or 5 times with one occasion where it actually went through 3 parked regens. Do I need to say this is a huge time killer?
I had the dealer out for the 50 hour service (the machine had already had this occur once or twice) and the tech basically told me my machine had all updates and this is an issue kubota basically has no fix for.
Before I bought the 3350 I knew there were issues with the dpf, but knew of the updates and confirmed they were all done to the unit I bought.
I am well aware of the tier 4 diesel emissions as I run an Isuzu diesel in my business and have spent $9k on the filter and associated parts to repair it.
This was purchased as a business unit for maintaining a warehouse location near my residence and it is really not performing well. If I depended on this to make me money I think I would have driven it through the dealers showroom window at this point.
Since it was a commercial purchase, it only has a 1 year warranty which is due the end of January. I am going to be contacting the dealer about the issue and if need be will continue the warranty until this is resolved.
As of now, everyone that would use it refuses to do so. Coming from the 4115 that was basically start, let idle for a minute or two and drive, this unit with lights, beeps, can't operate at 1/2 throttle, etc I can understand why. They don't understand the entire dpf system and to be honest, it is a little confusing to me and I understand diesel exhaust systems fairly well. The kubota system is confusing when it works which makes it hard to know if it isn't working properly.
On top of this, the issue that occurs now is the machine will shut off when you move it forward or reverse. I think there is a safety interlock problem somewhere in the transmission. It is way worse in cold weather, but gets better as the machine or outside temperature increases.
I know this is a long post, but I figured I would post it now since I will be contacting the dealer in the next week or so.
Mike
