L47TLB vs L4701

[RichM752]

Took delivery of new L47TLB the other day. Loaded her in 14' PJ low pro dump for the ride home. Other than lashing tractor in a very cramped space, I experienced no other problems. Once load was secured, I drove/towed at 10 -25 mph braking hard, no problems. Once on highway and up to speed, I changed lanes,swerving from side to side from 50-75 mph in 5 mph increments. She tracked perfectly, with no sway. Stopped after 10 miles, checked load and she was tight.
I did turn loader bucket up to gain another foot of clearance for turning. Wheel hard over while turning resulted in 12-15 inches clearance to shell/tailgate.
Although the dump is adequate to transport tractor, I will purchase 20' tilt equipment trailer. Narrowed down choices to Another PJ, Lamar, or Great Northern ( locally built).
Any and all comments welcome.

 

[Piston]

Looks good in the trailer, congrats! Looking forward to some action pics. Did you confirm if the rear remotes would interfere with the cab or not?

 

[FatTire]

Took delivery of new L47TLB the other day. Loaded her in 14' PJ low pro dump for the ride home. Other than lashing tractor in a very cramped space, I experienced no other problems. Once load was secured, I drove/towed at 10 -25 mph braking hard, no problems. Once on highway and up to speed, I changed lanes,swerving from side to side from 50-75 mph in 5 mph increments. She tracked perfectly, with no sway. Stopped after 10 miles, checked load and she was tight.
I did turn loader bucket up to gain another foot of clearance for turning. Wheel hard over while turning resulted in 12-15 inches clearance to shell/tailgate.
Although the dump is adequate to transport tractor, I will purchase 20' tilt equipment trailer. Narrowed down choices to Another PJ, Lamar, or Great Northern ( locally built).
Any and all comments welcome.
View attachment 500056
View attachment 500057

Looks great, you must be loving the new machine! We have a PJ deckover, and I have been happy with it. Just make sure you go long enough with the trailer to put your BH bucket down and still be able to take "something else" with you. (Like another attachment, a bundle of wooden posts, whatever your situation dictates).

 

[RichM752]

Looks good in the trailer, congrats! Looking forward to some action pics. Did you confirm if the rear remotes would interfere with the cab or not?

Curtis doesn't seem to be keen on answering the inquiry. You can see how the rear remotes are mounted. I can only speculate the hose routing will be a chore. Right now I'm too busy getting the new tractor dirty, and wearing some of that bright paint off the loader. One thing I discovered today was a good amount of water inside the hollow canopy. Looks like the mounting hardware for said canopy is not water tight. I do appreciate the extra ballast from whomever installed it, but drilled little holes to drain water.
Next on the list are chain hooks on loader, and some expanded metal welded on inside of grill guard.
Grapple being delivered tomorrow, and we can get to work soon.

 

[rScotty]

Curtis doesn't seem to be keen on answering the inquiry. You can see how the rear remotes are mounted. I can only speculate the hose routing will be a chore. Right now I'm too busy getting the new tractor dirty, and wearing some of that bright paint off the loader. One thing I discovered today was a good amount of water inside the hollow canopy. Looks like the mounting hardware for said canopy is not water tight. I do appreciate the extra ballast from whomever installed it, but drilled little holes to drain water.
Next on the list are chain hooks on loader, and some expanded metal welded on inside of grill guard.
Grapple being delivered tomorrow, and we can get to work soon.

I did wonder about the M59 canopy getting water in it. The way it is designed and bolted together is a sure fire formula for water intrusion if there are any leaks at all. It even has depressions to store water until it has a chance to leak in! So I was expecting leaks. But on ours it looks like the top of the canope was assembled with some sort of silicone sealer under the upper washers & bolt heads. After 10 years still no water. Might be worth doing that if yours is leaking.

You just can't have too many chain hooks. Our local 4wd auto wrecker has a 50 gallon drum filled with chain hooks taken off of the frames of old 4x4s. Five or ten bucks each. Here's a picture. I think he said the three on the middle part of the bucket were off some kind of Toyota. I made the two outer ones myself by bending and welding heavy rod to a base and then bolting it on.
rScotty

 

[RichM752]

Chain hooks gotta have em. I would like to have one in center of loader also, but two will do.

 

[mike69440]

I did wonder about the M59 canopy getting water in it. The way it is designed and bolted together is a sure fire formula for water intrusion if there are any leaks at all. It even has depressions to store water until it has a chance to leak in! So I was expecting leaks. But on ours it looks like the top of the canope was assembled with some sort of silicone sealer under the upper washers & bolt heads. After 10 years still no water. Might be worth doing that if yours is leaking.

You just can't have too many chain hooks. Our local 4wd auto wrecker has a 50 gallon drum filled with chain hooks taken off of the frames of old 4x4s. Five or ten bucks each. Here's a picture. I think he said the three on the middle part of the bucket were off some kind of Toyota. I made the two outer ones myself by bending and welding heavy rod to a base and then bolting it on.
rScottyView attachment 500778

Scooty, Nice paint on the bucket. Put a coat of wax on it to protect it!
I asked the shop where I used to work to weld up my bucket, They even put a real good coat of industrial epoxy primer and orange paint on the bucket, That primer lasted hundreds of hours, The photo is of the bucket at about 2,000 Hours
So much for paint.

 

[rScotty]

Scooty, Nice pint on the bucket. Put a coat of wax on it to protect it!
I asked the shop where I used to work to weld up my bucket, They even put a real good coat of industrial epoxy primer and orange paint on the bucket, That primer lasted hundreds of hours, The photo is of the bucket at about 2,000 Hours
So much for paint.

Maybe they ought to have stuck with Kubota paint. It's holding up real nice.

 

[mike69440]

Maybe they ought to have stuck with Kubota paint. It's holding up real nice.

No doubt about it, Kubota does put some effort into a decent paint job.

 

[art]

My big beef with the Kubota TLB's is that you are getting roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of a big construction TLB for about 70-85% of the cost. Yikes! This has to be profitable for Kubota, otherwise they would not be in this small niche market.

Unfortunately Kubota is the only game in town for this type of machine in a small size if buying new. An expensive little Swiss Army knife. So when a machine like this fits your needs better than any other piece of equipment, guess you just suck it up.

I've always had a beef with buying my grand children shoes for much the same reason! I can put three pairs of them in either boot and they sell for the same price!!! Sometimes its not so much the cost of materials as it is the technology to build it!