Kubota RTV Facts/Fiction...

[timswi]

It is a 500. Transmission slows down when I need it the most. When I am in the mud hole. Is there a way to help this?

Ok, before we get into tuning...Are you running in deep mud in high range...if so, I really doubt there is much that can cure that. If this is low range, the RPM/servo adjustments might help. This also helps with general high rage cruising.

Let me know.

 

[deanj]

Thanks. My dealer, at my request and suggestion, is going to adjust the servo this week. I hunt in the Mississippi Delta along the river so it is a lot of deep mud. Adjusting the throttle cable did help the last time i had it in the mud. Hopefully, I will see and improvement from the adjustments.

 

[deanj]

I just returned from my dealer and I am not very happy. They refuse to adjust the servo. Said my problem was that I had too much mud on the axles. It is hard to get in the mud and not have it gather on the axles. This machine is hard to clean. All in all I think that I made a bad purchase for my use.

 

[timswi]

I just returned from my dealer and I am not very happy. They refuse to adjust the servo. Said my problem was that I had too much mud on the axles. It is hard to get in the mud and not have it gather on the axles. This machine is hard to clean. All in all I think that I made a bad purchase for my use.

Just mud on the axles slowing it down? If you're up over the axles in deep mud I'm not sure anything in the UTV camp is going to work all that well..RZR, maybe.
A quad sounds more in line with what you need.

Kubota US hasn't put this info out, Kubota Ca did. They are 2 searate companies selling the same machine. I verified Matt's information with someone else in Canada. He is correct.

The lack of dealer support for this machine is truly amazing. The purchase was painless..Everything after that, not so much.

 

[deanj]

I am going to pick up my 500 from the dealer today. Leaving for the woods tomorrow. Not looking forward to spending time with my winch cable in hand. I wish that we could do something. It is a good little machine, but I wish it would spend those tires a little more.

 

[timswi]

I am going to pick up my 500 from the dealer today. Leaving for the woods tomorrow. Not looking forward to spending time with my winch cable in hand. I wish that we could do something. It is a good little machine, but I wish it would spend those tires a little more.

Did they at least increase you max RPMs?...That helps quite a bit.

 

[deanj]

I met with my dealer and the Kubota Rep. They were very upset with this forum. The rep says this forum should not be listened to. They did increase my rpms by 250. Would not touch the servo. It seems to have a little more power. They did tell me that it did not seem to have the power that some others on their lot had. They also said they did something to help, but would not tell me what that was. I think they don't like this forum because it shows the problems that exists. This bothers me that we buy a product and it becomes our problem. I guess I will just have to live with it or sell it.

 

[timswi]

I met with my dealer and the Kubota Rep. They were very upset with this forum. The rep says this forum should not be listened to. They did increase my rpms by 250. Would not touch the servo. It seems to have a little more power. They did tell me that it did not seem to have the power that some others on their lot had. They also said they did something to help, but would not tell me what that was. I think they don't like this forum because it shows the problems that exists. This bothers me that we buy a product and it becomes our problem. I guess I will just have to live with it or sell it.

Let them be upset. if they and their dealers would address the issue instead of blowing us off, this thread wouldn't exist. I certainly don't have it in for Kubota, i bought a 20K BX23 5 years ago...That thing is everything promised and then some. This thing is another story. They probably don't want to admit that it wasn't ready for prime time, now it's getting a bad rap....All their fault.

I have complained to the dealer, regional and national management. No help, just told to live with it, or just plain ignored. They could fix the situation, but they just don't want to.

 

[deanj]

You are right about them letting this thing out before it was ready. If they are going to try to compete with the rest of the market they need to work on some problems with the 500. It could be a great little machine. I do own two BX2200s and have owned several G series lawn mowers. All are great machines. I just want Kubota to say they are not perfect. The response that I get is always operater problem.

 

[timswi]

You are right about them letting this thing out before it was ready. If they are going to try to compete with the rest of the market they need to work on some problems with the 500. It could be a great little machine. I do own two BX2200s and have owned several G series lawn mowers. All are great machines. I just want Kubota to say they are not perfect. The response that I get is always operater problem.

Operator expectations. That's what I hear too...That's unfortunate because once you pay $8,000 for the machine and add on accessories your expectations are high given the reputation of Kubota. They have failed on this one, and they really don't care. Welcome to the club.

 

[deanj]

Strange. You are in PA and I am in MS and we are hearing the same thing.

 

[jdjdjd]

I own a Kubota M9540 tractor and a Polaris Ranger. I was at the Kubota dealership getting parts for my baler and struck up a conversation with the manager about the RTVs. I have been looking for a second UTV. When the conversation turned to this forum and all the complaints he quickly dismissed all of them as trivial. When I mentioned some of the specifics he said that owners did not know how to drive the RTV and did not maintain them properly.

And speaking as the true salesman that he was, he said that his dealership has NEVER had a complaint about ANY of the RTVs that they have sold. ( yeah, I believed that )

I am still interested in the Kubota RTV but I think I will wait and see if these problems are corrected in newer models.

 

[timswi]

Strange. You are in PA and I am in MS and we are hearing the same thing.

They are ignoring us and hoping it goes away...You complained to your dealer, as did I, and they said it is what it is.

Did you fill out the surveys as well?...I did, and gave them every way possible to contact me about this...The silence is unbelievable.

I guess I'm an idiot for expecting more, but I learned on this machine. When I decide to replace the BX and the RTV, I'll look elsewhere. That pains me greatly to say.

I love everything about the 500, design, build, features etc. Kubota put a lawnmower engine in this thing. With 25-30 HP it would be a whole different story. My guess is that they tested this in Kansas...If you run pastures all day with no hills, life is good. As soon as you have to go up a long grade, the party is over.

How many of us were able to test drive this on anything but flat ground? Dealers tend not to be anywhere near hills. The power on hills was my main concern. The dealer said it's fantastic, even better than the 900...Wow! were they wrong.

One solution would be for Kubota to actually read and respond to surveys and complaints. I work for a Fortune500 company and we would never allow this to fester.

If they want to keep us as customers of discretionary income purchases in the future, they should contact us. Even give us a fair deal on a 900 to clear the deck. If that were to happen, no one would hear about this subject from me again.

 

[timswi]

I own a Kubota M9540 tractor and a Polaris Ranger. I was at the Kubota dealership getting parts for my baler and struck up a conversation with the manager about the RTVs. I have been looking for a second UTV. When the conversation turned to this forum and all the complaints he quickly dismissed all of them as trivial. When I mentioned some of the specifics he said that owners did not know how to drive the RTV and did not maintain them properly.

And speaking as the true salesman that he was, he said that his dealership has NEVER had a complaint about ANY of the RTVs that they have sold. ( yeah, I believed that )

I am still interested in the Kubota RTV but I think I will wait and see if these problems are corrected in newer models.

Here's why he's full of it...My stuff is maintained much better than recommended. In fact, I can sell anything with an engine that I own because of that fact.

Not know how to drive it? Let's see: I drive AG equipment, skidloaders, excevators, muscle cars, race cars and an SCUT. Never had a problem handling any of them to their maximum performance. But all of a sudden, I can't handle and RTV500, give me a break!!!

Nice policy, blame the moron that spent the $8,000+ accessories instead of the company that built it.

My future decisions are becoming clearer by the day.

Kubota, I know you are watching this board. What say you?

 

[deanj]

You are right about the dealer talking about all of the power that it had. They were bragging about that it pulled a small hill behind their business. They are not saying much right now. We should have all known something when they keep the 500 at o% for 60 months. That is the only incentive that they have going for it.

 

[mstordahl]

I met with my dealer and the Kubota Rep. They were very upset with this forum. The rep says this forum should not be listened to. They did increase my rpms by 250. Would not touch the servo. It seems to have a little more power. They did tell me that it did not seem to have the power that some others on their lot had. They also said they did something to help, but would not tell me what that was. I think they don't like this forum because it shows the problems that exists. This bothers me that we buy a product and it becomes our problem. I guess I will just have to live with it or sell it.

Man alive, you really need to find another dealer if you have that option. This is plain ridiculous. Some people are so far behind the present they think that they are first in line... This just proves, YET AGAIN, that these dealers do not know what the **** they are doing or talking about. The servo is there to fine tune the transmission. I can teach my wife about a hst in a rtv and she will understand why you would need to adjust the servo. It is not rocket science. Increasing the rpm is just half of the adjustment needed to make these things perform like they should. If you do not adjust the servo, you will NOT get a machine that performs to its maximum. It seems to be obvious to me that the adjustments I have spoken are working by the happy members that have tried them. No, the rtv will never be a rocket, but it can to a pretty good job. The rtv 500 that I just adjusted for a customer will do donuts all day long in our parking lot. THAT is how much difference it will make. The adjustments I made are proven and reliable. Machines with 10,000hours on them after my set up make that point obvious.

 

[737pilot]

Hey welcome back Matt!!!!!!!!! I did your 15 min tune up and it made 100% improvment in enjoyment. I have a little pep and unless its a really steep hill never have to shift to low. I like most of the good customers here have no motive to degrade Kubota or spread ill will. We just have dissapointment with the repeated complaints to common problems not gettting fixed. The rattle issue is my biggest gripe as you have corrected the low power issue and we all thank you for that fix. My local Kubota dealer still has no clue about the servo and rpm adjjustment. I explained it to them and the tech said he just got back from school on the RTV and there was no mention of any problems. I just shook my head and left.

 

[KeithC]

Man alive, you really need to find another dealer if you have that option. This is plain ridiculous. Some people are so far behind the present they think that they are first in line... This just proves, YET AGAIN, that these dealers do not know what the **** they are doing or talking about. The servo is there to fine tune the transmission. I can teach my wife about a hst in a rtv and she will understand why you would need to adjust the servo. It is not rocket science. Increasing the rpm is just half of the adjustment needed to make these things perform like they should. If you do not adjust the servo, you will NOT get a machine that performs to its maximum. It seems to be obvious to me that the adjustments I have spoken are working by the happy members that have tried them. No, the rtv will never be a rocket, but it can to a pretty good job. The rtv 500 that I just adjusted for a customer will do donuts all day long in our parking lot. THAT is how much difference it will make. The adjustments I made are proven and reliable. Machines with 10,000hours on them after my set up make that point obvious.

Hey Matt,

Thanks for your posts and understanding the issues we have with dealers.

I too have had an RTV 900 since 2004. It has been back to the dealer 6 times for these same issues, the last time in Feb 2009 at a cost of $450.00 for labor, fixing nothing. While I have learned to control (somewhat) the stopping issue and the shifting lock up, the problem of not being able get power to the ground or spin the tires, on flat wet grass I might add, while I pull my floating dock in is unresolved. The RTV just sits there and groans with a low moaning sound.

Could you give a detailed description, with pictures if possible, of the adjustments that are needed? Are the adjustments on the 900 the same as the 500 discussed here? I have good mechanical skills and am sure I can do this myself. If you can't do this, can you tell us where we can get this information?

Thanks Again,
Keith

 

[Wayne_H]

Hey Matt:

I found the servo on my 900 you talked about. I backed off the nut holding that adjusting scrwe, but what the heck I can't get that screw to turn! Is there some trick I am missing? There is no mud or anything on it, it looks like I should be able to turn it by hand.

thanks

Wayne

 

[timswi]

Hey Matt:

I found the servo on my 900 you talked about. I backed off the nut holding that adjusting scrwe, but what the heck I can't get that screw to turn! Is there some trick I am missing? There is no mud or anything on it, it looks like I should be able to turn it by hand.

thanks

Wayne

Wayne, that should move by hand, mine did...Got the right one?...is there a regular screwdriver slot in the end of the stud?