Kubota tractor with tracks

[radman1]

For you Kubota guys, there may be a new tractor in your future. Was at my dealer the other day and he showed me a flyer for an 85 hp Kubota with rear tracks and MFWD. The rear tracks looked like an oversized mattrack. Large sprocket on the axle with bottom of track about 3-3.5' long. Sort of like a skid steer CTL but the drive sprocket on the top was centered toward the middle rather than farther back like a CTL. He was at a dealer meeting recently and kubota was showing new products and doing demonstrations. He said this tractor came flying around the corner of a building and headed for 4x4" posts laying on the ground. The front of the tractor bounced somewhat over the posts as expected, but the rear glided smoothly over each post with almost no bump. He said it was really amazing. He said the limitation with bumps and holes is really the front end and not the rear. It seems these have been sold in Japan for the past few years. Used in the rice fields. Suppose to have incredible traction. It will be marketed as the "power crawler". Top speed on the brochure said 13.2 mph. The brochure showed a cab version with styling just like the current models. The width was 54" which seemed very narrow for that size of tractor, especially with cab. It seems as though this will be marketed in the US. If I remember correctly, the weight was about 6500 lbs. I don't know if there will be various sizes in hp. On the brochure it mentioned uses such as vineyards. He thought the market here maybe the landscape industry due to the steepness of hills. It just seems way to narrow for hills IMHO. List price was around 48K with cab. I expected it to be closer to 60K with cab and tracks.

 

[radman1]

I did find a picture of it at Dorr's Equipment Co.
It is model M8540. Maybe it is already available? Scroll down toward the bottom of the page.

 

[JoeinTX]

There is already a wheeled 8540 model........this is a half-track version.


These are narrow-gauge, orchard models and not general use utility types. Looks like Kubby is working against the Landini, Fiat, MF, and Antonio Carraros of the world in hilly, specialty applications.

 

[slowzuki]

that would be a heck of a machine for pulling a forwarding trailer if the tracks could handle it. I suspect some cities will buy for sidewalk duty given the narrowness and them already using some tracked machines.

 

[RayCo]

Looks like they "just" put some Mattracks on. I've been thinking about getting some for my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme.