Kubota BX2680 5-Hr Service SHOCKER

[dodge man]

Mine did not have that crap on it but it did have some surprisingly large shards of long corkscrew metal. I hate to say it is normal or a good thing but that seems to be the case.

 

[3Ts]

Well I am one that believes that there shouldn't be any 'crap' left behind by manufacture/assembly. It shows poor quality control.

Proper training at the factory would help. While it's not a tractor, my RV had weather stripping applied with the release paper left on so no sealing. Found that after the warranty period expired. Proper training is needed instead of assuming that people today know how to do things.

 

[diesel85]

What Kubota needs to do is setup a flush station in their manufacturing facilities. Have a filtered source of SUDT2 and fill up each tractor, then dump it back out. Then fill it proper with fresh SUDT2.

Only problem with is is cost of the specialized equipment and hiring 2 or 3 more people. Something like this could cost upwards of $250k+ to a company, which would then have to add to the cost of the machine. Plus since it will take 15 extra minutes or so to do this process, it adds to the time calculation for the build of each machine on the assembly line.

Might seem simple -- Hire a few people to man the flush system along with the engineering of the station (with all applicable OSHA regs/safety regs)... but in reality it costs lots and lots and lots of money.

They advert this by simply building the tractor, filling it up with SUDT2, and sending it off to let the dealer worry about the first 50 hour interval.

 

[tiktock]

In the end, there needs to be motivation to do anything that costs money. What is this "problem" causing, exactly, that motivates them to change? Someone upset at what their filter looked like at 50 hours even though it sounds like there was zero observed drop in performance? If its not broken, why would they fix it? If the state the machines are leaving the factory isnt causing any performance issues/satisfaction problems with the tractors and no increase in warranty work.

 

[SDT]

Well I am one that believes that there shouldn't be any 'crap' left behind by manufacture/assembly. It shows poor quality control. Maybe in this day and age its normal but it shouldn't be. Maybe a little negative feedback instead of a shoulder shrug would help Kubota do a better job.

Tracrtors, etc., could be machined and assembled in clean rooms but costs and prices would escalate rapidly were such the case.

Accepting a limited amount of manufacturing debris and designing both systems and service procedures to accommodate such is a business decision and is universally practiced.

It's not just Kubota.

SDT

 

[dodge man]

A clean room isn’t needed. When parts get made there is a lot of drilling, machining, and cutting going on. It’s a matter of getting all that crap cleaned out.

 

[MHarryE]

As a retired Cat person, my input is that you aren’t likely to find that in a $500k+ machine but don’t be surprised on the lower end. Yes, we have clean rooms for critical component assembly and in final test they need to meet a fluid cleanliness requirement that is very strict. However a mini-excavator does not go through the same processes as a 80 ton class. It’s economics. I haven’t liked finding the chips on the magnets of my 3 Kubota CUTs, but none had a contamination related failure. My much more expensive M7, however, has been a different animal. System cleanliness has been much different and first change intervals much longer. The Cat machine for which I was responsible when I retired - 4,000 hours to first hydraulic oil and filter change with a lot of validation to prove it was a conservative number, but the machine cost several hundred thousand dollars and I’ve seen usage over 6,000 hours yearly.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

In the end, there needs to be motivation to do anything that costs money. What is this "problem" causing, exactly, that motivates them to change? Someone upset at what their filter looked like at 50 hours even though it sounds like there was zero observed drop in performance? If its not broken, why would they fix it? If the state the machines are leaving the factory isnt causing any performance issues/satisfaction problems with the tractors and no increase in warranty work.

Tracrtors, etc., could be machined and assembled in clean rooms but costs and prices would escalate rapidly were such the case.

Accepting a limited amount of manufacturing debris and designing both systems and service procedures to accommodate such is a business decision and is universally practiced.

It's not just Kubota.

SDT

As a retired Cat person, my input is that you aren’t likely to find that in a $500k+ machine but don’t be surprised on the lower end. Yes, we have clean rooms for critical component assembly and in final test they need to meet a fluid cleanliness requirement that is very strict. However a mini-excavator does not go through the same processes as a 80 ton class. It’s economics. I haven’t liked finding the chips on the magnets of my 3 Kubota CUTs, but none had a contamination related failure. My much more expensive M7, however, has been a different animal. System cleanliness has been much different and first change intervals much longer. The Cat machine for which I was responsible when I retired - 4,000 hours to first hydraulic oil and filter change with a lot of validation to prove it was a conservative number, but the machine cost several hundred thousand dollars and I’ve seen usage over 6,000 hours yearly.

I've bought/owned over 20 Kubotas in the last 15 years. I thought the pre screen was a good idea to catch any loose particles (Metal or rubber) and some I've owned had some small pieces and some had none. I had no concern for either one because I have never had any type hydraulic issues on any of my Kubotas with many of them being the smaller less expensive BXs plus several Bs and some Ls plus a few Fs and a RTV. Seems some of them or members here would be telling of the problems if they exist but haven't seen any. I see here someone pointing out a system that is working and catching any missed particles of debris. To me this OP is showing how well Kubotas are designed and how Kubota has an extra hard filter before the regular filter and tells customers to clean it at 50 hours and see if it has caught nay thing. Great job Kubota......of course the no problems over the years of me and others backs up my opinion.

 

[ccsial]

This is interesting. My L3400 has two hydraulic filters, spin on type. I thought they didn't use strainers with spin on filters. I saw no mention of cleaning a strainer in my manual. Anyone know if an L3400 has a strainer?

 

[Hiptfarms]

Me too, ccsial. I just did the "first" service on an l4400 that I picked up. It had 305 hours on it and had not been serviced yet. Like yours, it had 2 filters but I saw no mention of a screen to clean. Did we miss something?