I'll take a look at the videos but cool stuff! I wondered how they got them to throw so far. Yes I've seen the airport/train type blowers in action.
You have a 90" inverted? Are you talking about a 3ph mounted unit where you "pull forward"? If so how do you like it? Always wondered how'd they fair in deep snow.
Well I finally got a response on my request to RadTech. However...it wasn't RadTech. They forwarded it to Kubota Canada who contacted me. Their initial response was they wanted to look into the matter further (sounds standard for we're not promising anything). However they now have to forward this to Kubota USA. More waiting.
To start this latest story I have to explain. I received an email from
CustomerService@Kubota.ca with the subject listed as shear bolt failures.
Having recently been hit by a virus I was cautious and did not reply but rather went to Kubota's web site and contacted them with the following email:
I received an email appearing to be from you.
Since I cannot click on reply without opening it I am suspicious.
If you are trying to contact me because of forum activity I suggest you become a member, identify who you are and who you represent.
There are a lot of upset owners in Canada and the USA who would like to have a real Kubota person to deal with their problem.
David
From Subject Received Size Categories
CustomerService@kubota.ca Kubota Snowblower Shear Bolt 3:20 PM 615 KB
Here is an email I received from:
From:
sjohnson@kubota.ca [mailto:sjohnson@kubota.ca] On Behalf Of
CustomerService@kubota.ca
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 12:15 PM
To: David Petepiece
Subject: Re: Your email to me re Kubota Snow Blower Shear Bolt
Good morning David,
I did send an email to you yesterday, in response to your message to our vendor - Radtech. It was an email from a 'real Kubota person' and I am the customer service representative for Kubota Canada, however, I cannot join an owner's forum to discuss issues that some owners may be having with their units. I was reaching out to discuss the concerns you raised with our vendor about shear bolts on your snowblower. If you'd like us to review further, we would just need the name of your dealer and some information on the unit if possible (serial number).
Thank you,
Scott Johnson
Customer Service Representative / Repr駸entant de Service la Client鑞e
Kubota Canada Ltd, 5900 14th Avenue, Markham, ON, L3S 4K4
NEW Toll Free Customer Service Line 1-800-405-6916
customerservice@kubota.ca
Kubota | Home
Here is my response:
Scott
It is not me with the blower problems it is many of your Kubota customers and John Deere Customers with RAD products!
I have an
M7040 with an inverted 90 blower made by Smyth Welding in Canada. My blower was new in 2006, originally powered by an old Nuffield 465 and in 2012, by the
M7040. I live on a farm and clear long trails through the farm and have never broken a shear bolt! Your front blower customers find my story of no broken shear bolts unbelievable as it is so foreign to their world.
I am an old professional mechanical engineer and enjoy participating in three tractor forums.
Your customers in Canada and the USA cannot get the same answer from Kubota or John Deere dealers concerning the products you both buy from RAD.
These customers are experiencing 5 or 6 shear bolt failures just clearing their paved short driveways.
To further illustrate what a mess this is, I have attached two photos. In one there is a Kubota package provided to a Canadian Kubota customer who had a new blower installed at Christmas.
I first draw your attention to the wording on the Kubota package which clearly says Grade 2 bolts only on the fan. Now look closely at the spare bolts the dealer provided with the purchase. The short bolts for the fan shear bolt have Grade 5 markings on the head. If you cannot see the markings trust me I had the customer, another engineer, physically verify that he was provided with Grade 5 bolts as spares. He had not noticed the incongruity between the Kubota package and what he was given but certainly was not happy with his dealer, i.e. your dealer, when he did!
One customer told me he was going to call RAD directly to get his problem solved. He wants to talk to RAD because his dealer is no help! My email to them(RAD) brings you not them responding.
Look at the long bolts in the second photo. The ones with the groves cut in the shank of the bolt. Apparently your dealers are offering a smorgasbord of alternatives. Two shallow grooves, two deep grooves, one groove. They don稚 know what will work and send the customer off to do field testing that should have been done before the blower was painted orange or green.
I have attached photos of a number of shear bolt designs in the fan area. The first is where the bolt passes thru the fan hub and shaft, the next photo has a black flange shear bolt assembly clearly installed on a shaft which was orange and new to begin with. This is a 吐ix by one of the few informed Kubota dealers. The fan has been replaced with one with a flange to match the black part. Is this a secret fix unknown to customers and even fewer dealers? The last photo has the flange in orange and a fan with a matching flange. Obviously a production change.
A neighbour, a dentist was totally frustrated with repeated and frequent shear bolt failures. He took it to his Kubota dealer and said he did not care what it cost but it had to be fixed. For $1,500 it was all his cost!
Both Kubota.ca and Kubota.com web sites have next to no technical information on the small blowers. Customers are too trusting the dealer knows all and will provide a durable reliable product that the Kubota tractors provide. It never dawns on them that the only part that is Kubota is the orange paint, until the shear bolt failures begin and then they get educated.
When asked for my advice on a front blower, I tell your customers to avoid at all costs the products where the gear box is between two halves of the auger. It is a glorified walk behind design!
Many years ago Kubota was doing the same practice of buying snow blowers and painting them orange. However, the products your paint was applied to made by McKee in Canada, were a much more traditional design with the gears behind the fan. A friend with a late 1970痴
B7100 HST has a 48 McKee/ Kubota blower. The gears are out in the open and only lubed by a bit of snow that gets to them. Excellent metallurgy.
I will be interested to your response to the facts and observation I and many others are making.
If you cannot join forums and discuss solutions, then you should as a company be monitoring them before issues grow to this size and negatively impact Kubota痴 image.
Other ag equipment manufacturers have come on forums offering to get involved in a customer痴 problems without continuing the dialogue in public.
David
Now my reply to your recent post.
Here is a picture of my tractor and inverted blower to save lots of explaining.
I love it. Yesterday I was blowing in High range second gear at 10 kph or 6-7 mph.
I now have Trygg studded chains and nothing stops it but sometimes I have to slow down because the fan cannot keep up. I rarely engage the front axle.
<a href="http://imgur.com/D1HbxaJ"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/D1HbxaJ.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
Re Kubota and RAD: I guess we will both see how serious Kubota will be in getting involved and having a public solution to the problems their customers are having.
Dave
M7040
