Comparison Kubota vs Branson?

[Helitech]

Around here there are no Kioti dealers, only 1 LS dealer, 3 Branson dealers. More Kubota dealers than John Deere dealers! I'm currently in the middle of the Branson VS Kubota debate myself. In the 50-55 horsepower range the Branson wins in my book. It's heavier, has a much simpler engine, has a fully synchronized transmission and is $5000 cheaper than a similarly equiped MX5200. The Kubota would have better dealer and manufacturer support in my opinion. I'll be doing all of my own maintenance. Anything larger than those tractors Kubota wins! Drove a M5660 SUHD and a M7060, both Hydraulic Shuttle shift. Sweet! $35,000 for one and $38,000 for the other.

 

[Ron50]

corvuslanding I bought 4020R from the dealer in North Plains. Excellent to deal with. As far as service I haven't required any, but I only have 200 hours. Oil changes done myself. The dealer has a mechanic in Tillamook with a service truck because they sell other brands and do work for the farmers. Tractor was more comfortable than some of the others I looked at and castings seemed to be large and well done. I also saw the video with the green tractors on the assembly line in Korea. The engine is a Cummins clone as they also build engines for Cummins. No complaints sofar.

 

[mike69440]

Yes, the GST is sweet, especially if you do not want hydrostatic.

Sold my 32 year old B7200 for what I paid for it, so I owned for Loss of interest in the bank, fuel, oil, and maintenance. The Max28, shuttle I replaced it with has a nice shuttle transmission, stronger loader an thank God for power steering, but the new owner of my old Kubota is very happy. Says a lot about Kubota.

 

[Garandman]

Thanks for the feedback, all. I've looked into LS and Kioti as well, and there's a good, long-term LS dealer in my region but still fairly far away. They seem like a safer bet than the branson dealer for long term reliability, but that's a lot further to go. This may be an obvious question, but why is it so important to have a dealer nearby? Is it difficult to find people to work on your tractor if they aren't a licensed dealer for the brand?

Where I live, the closest dealer for anything is a little under an hour away. The LS and Kioti dealer is more like 3 hours.

My concern was a catastrophic failure. Rare for any brand but you can find plenty of expensive horror stories on here. I just wanted to get on with the work, with no hassles, so a surprisingly small price difference wasn't an obstacle.

I went by first-person references. Had two references for Kioti, one good, one bad. Had a couple good references for the Mitsubishi/Mahindra but they did not have stock nearby. Deere separates their "big" and "small" tractor dealers and the dealer for compacts was very weak and references lukewarm (farm tractors and the "big" dealer were positive). No one I knew locally had an LS or Branson.

Have three co-workers with Kubotas and there were four more on our five mile road (and three Deeres). They ranged in age from five to fifteen years old and up to 1,800 hours, and out of all of those, all they'd done was routine maintenance. As I was able to get a leftover at a good price and 0% from a relatively local dealer, Kubota was the lowest investment risk.

 

[Helitech]

Got a great price on a Branson 5220r today. $23,995. But with 6.5% financing. At 0% with Kubota I can pick up a $30,500 unit for the same payment!

 

[prichard]

Got a great price on a Branson 5220r today. $23,995. But with 6.5% financing. At 0% with Kubota I can pick up a $30,500 unit for the same payment!

So if the length of loan is the same and you do 0 down and only pay payment with no extra, they cost exactly the same.

 

[Helitech]

Actually, 28,174 would be about the same.

 

[prichard]

So not the same terms. Is orange worth the extra? My choice was easier I paid more for orange but not that much more. Of course I was looking at smaller tractors.

Edit: I mis-read your post. I thought you had quote on similar Kubota and payments were equal.
Your looking at MX in Kubota? I can't imagine they could be had for $28k.

 

[varmint]

Here's something to consider: look at Tractorhouse.com's listings for used tractors for sale, and you'll see that Kubota's and Deere's are almost ten times as available as Kiotis, and Bransons, LS's, etc. are scarcer, still. I bought a clean but old Kubota for our first tractor, because it seemed like the best available for our needs: clearing snow, and I needed it! I had great experience with it, so I got another Kubota when I knew more about our needs, and readily sold the first one, for almost what I had in it. The second was too large, as I learned, so I sold it, actually for more than I had paid, and bought the "Goldilocks" (just right) used Kubota. When I sell it, I expect to recover most of what I have in it.

Kubotas, by and large, are good machines that are well built, no doubt others are, as well, but it is in their re-sale value that Kubotas shine.

Others have posted survey results that indicate that Deere dealers aren't as happy with Deere as are Kubota dealers with their parent company.

Watching my neighbor, with his headaches with his new Deere, also reinforces my liking of Kubotas.

 

[EddieWalker]

At 0% with Kubota

When I was talking to the Kubota dealer about their 0% financing, he said that I had to pay insurance on the loan which was more then I liked. I forget the actual numbers, but it was definitely not a zero percent loan!!!