Kubota L3200 HST - Told not to drive in high range by dealer?

[krobertson]

If anyone has been told this please share. Ok so here goes the story. Bought the tractor brand new in Feb I think. After about 7 hours the tranny fluid was low so I added so SUDT2 fluid. At 40 hours I changed the oil, oil filter, and both HST filters. I again topped it off with SUDT2 fluid. Let it idle for about 5 minutes. Shut it down and then after a few minutes added a bit more SUDT2 fluid to top it off. Went out and mowed for about 5 hours at camp Friday night. Saturday completed mowing, mostly mid range a bit high range on long flats. RPM's were a PTO speed. I did run down a high way about 1 mile to drop the mower and pick up the disc. I ran it in High at about 3000 rpms when driving down the high way and back. I then did some moving of dirt in low 4wd and plowed a food plot in low 4wd. Sunday I dug a drain field about 40ft l X 5ft w X 4ft d. Then covered it and smoothed it all out. I did the digging in low 4wd and the back fill in mid 4wd. At the start of every day I check my oil and my tranny fluid levels. EVERY TIME...no exceptions. I noticed picking up the dirt and back filling the FEL had some noise on the up direction at the joy stick or valve. The FEL seemed to need help digging so I would have to rock it a bit to get the full bucket to curl up. So the following week on an Monday I took it to the shop for a look-see. It was full of all fluids. When pulling it off the trailer the salesman who sold me the tractor asked me if the HST was always that loud and I said yes since the day I purchased it. I thought it was normal. (First tractor and first HST) The shop calls me that Thursday to tell me it was 1 gal low on tranny fluid. I told them there as no way. It is parked under an shelter on concrete. No leeks their nor on trailer. I told them this was inconceivable. Of coarse they pointed to the fact that I changed the filters. I told them I lost about 1-2 qts of fluid total and it was replenished by me. The only reason I did this was the mechanic told me to when I mentioned the FEL seemed to be a bit weaker on the pickup a few weeks back. SOoooo then I spoke to the mechanic. We discussed the events up to the issue. He said that the High Range is not to really be used and that if I ran it down the highway for that long 1 mile, idled while I changed implement's, then one mile back that I could have boiled the fluid out. To top it off they charged me $76 for 1/2 hr work and a gal of SUDT2 fluid.

My question is to the group has any one ever been told this crap before? You cannot run your tractor in high? If I am in high and it ever bogs I up the throttle. If it doesn't clean up I back off the HST or go to Mid range. I never try to over work the HST at all. Anything calling for a lot of power I do in Low Range 4wd with plenty or PRM's. He tried to convince me High range is just there for small runs like maybe a few minutes. I have a really hard time believing this and I am not sure where to turn. Do I call Kubota and ask them? Do I never use high range? At camp most of the time I have to run form plot to plot and covering 2200 acres in Mid Range would take all day. **** the main road is 2 miles long and after I mow to the front gate the drive back to camp in Mid Range would take twice as long. So this is my dilemma. Anyone's help or input would be awesome. I just do not see a reason I cannot make trips in High Range when the tractor is not under a load. Other than that this L3200 has been a beast and anything I have put in front of it...well it makes very short work of.

 

[johnrex62]

I am not an expert by any stretch, but I would call BS on that info. If the high range was a danger to the fluid levels I have to believe there would be a warning in the manual.

 

[mikehaugen]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but the different ranges are actually different gear ratios after the hst, right? If that it's the case then the hst doesn't care which range you are in, especially under light load. Full throttle, foot to the floor is going to be the same to the hst whether you are in hi or low range, at least once you are up to speed and it is relatively flat ground. Of course getting to speed will put more load on it, or if you were on an incline.

 

[chim]

I use high all the time for travelling, and most of the time when running the 6' RFM. For heavier work I do use the mid range or low. I seldom go above the PTO RPM marking on the tach. There's little to be gained from running at a higher RPM.

 

[redman135]

Someone is bull shitting you. High range is for traveling between jobs. If it(high range) was that dangerous to the tractors health the factory would have only given you low and mid range. Get the manual out and look through it and then write down some questions and ask the dealer. nb leave space to write down answers .

 

[Bird]

Sounds a little ridiculous to me. I used high range, wide open throttle, lots of times driving my little Kubotas 8 miles to my brother's place and back, and of course, never had a problem.

 

[k0ua]

Yes, like all the others, you are being fed a line. Yes the 3 ranges are just gears behind the hydrostat. I have never heard of "boiling off the fluid".. Now that is a pure line of "stuff". Now that said, of course if the tractor bogs down, you need to be downshifting to a lower range, which is what you said you are doing. High range is pretty much just for transport on flat ground for most smaller CUT tractors as they will run out of horsepower otherwise. But I don't see you did anything wrong, in fact it seems you did everything right. It might be time to think about another dealer. By the way I ran my Kioti 5 miles the other day in High range on the road as fast as it would go, and I did not boil off any fluid.

 

[Deere Dude]

Sounds like they were pulling your leg. I always run in high gear when needed, miles and miles.
But, I did just change my tranny fluid, ran it for 30 hours or so and noticed it wouldn't have the zip it should have, even in any gear. After questioning various people they suggested sticking brakes, forgot brake on, low fluid, wrong viscosity etc.
For the fun of it I went and rechecked the oil when it was cold as the dipstick said, and it was at the low part of the hash marks on the dip-stick. It took a whole gallon. That surprised me. Everything is slowly getting back to normal.
I never heard of not being able to drive in any gear. Any tractor company would be out of business in a year if that was the case.

 

[nappytn]

You are absolutely correct, I was thinking about one of these have a m105 and think it is a great tractor, but these little ones must be junk..

 

[Wakey]

I'm calling B$ on that.. You need to call Kubota corporate because I think they are trying to hide something..