Well, I put a few more hours on it, probably around 10-12 hours now. I've used the tractor for snow removal, moving the manure pile, back blade some frozen ground in the pastures, light debris removal, and moving junk around in the bucket.
I believe I have the hydraulic leak resolved. The leak was coming from the yellow hose on the loader hydraulics where the loader block comes off the tractor equipped hydraulic outputs, which I believe may be the return for the loader up/down cylinder. Hence using the loader more caused it to leak more. I thought the leak was in the crimp, but after further looking at it over a period of a couple days I determined there was fluid around the flange nut. That led me to thinking it was likely not tightened. I got a 22mm crow foot socket adapter and was able to get a 3/8" wrench in there to tighten it about 1/4" with barely any effort. I'm not sure how tight those flange nuts should be so I basically snugged it and left it. I cleaned up the area under the tractor as much as possible and I haven't noticed any new leakage, although sometimes I spot something but I think it is old fluid that I didn't clean up before. I need to wash it but it has been way too cold.
This is where I was talking about regarding where the leak was:
In testing the loader, I had a pile of 3/4" gravel that I used to get a load, lift it, and let it down. In years of owning tractors, I have never managed to allow gravel or anything else to fall out of the loader onto the hood by accident. I was lifting the gravel extremely high to test the loader circuit and all was well with keeping the bucket level. But I let off the joystick too quickly and it bumped back and gravel went over the top (full bucket) and onto the hood and front frame. It looked like something out of one of the JD advertisements showing off their plastic hood that won't chip. Well, I think those JD guys were onto something, because the Kubota hood and frame did chip when the gravel hit it. Bummer. If anyone has any ideas of how to properly repair that let me know. I didn't notice any dents, just chips. I'm rather peeved at myself for this one as I have never done it before and should have taken smaller bites of the pile not being fully accustom to the loader controls yet. I will say the loader does smoothly curl in and out when raising/lowering as I would expect to keep things from spilling (I don't have the spill guard btw). I could definitely see how you could get yourself into trouble not having the spill guard and forgetting to roll the bucket forward. Honestly the only time I have ever lifted anything that high practically is when I was dumping trash into a dump truck with my last tractor. I was very surprised how high the LA1055 loader could go, let alone lift a full bucket of gravel without any issue.
Here's a picture of the hood:
The biggest accident was when I was clearing some light debris in a partially wooded area. I've been clearing back there with my last tractor and went back there yesterday to try to push some stuff aside to make room for a debris pile when my gravel arrives this week. I managed to push against a tree that was probably 6" in diameter and it was dead and frozen and snapped off near the ground. Unfortunately I was downhill, so I raised the loader as quick as I could while reversing about 10' before stopping realizing I could back into something and just had to let the inevitable happen. The tree came down, somewhat controlled pivoting on the loader, and then hit on the top of the cab and thankfully only damaged the front of the cab exterior. I'm not sure if I should consider turning it in to KTAC or just letting it ride for now in case I do something more severe. Honestly I was just thankful to have a cab because without the cab it likely would have missed the roll bar and hit me, likely causing extensive injury. I wasn't really upset it happened, as I definitely was not expecting the tree to move when I was pushing up against it. One thing I did realize though is with the cab you cannot see as far up as with a ROPS. I somewhat think had I noticed the top of the tree was gone I would have been more inclined to know it was dead and not have gotten around it. I've broken a lot of stuff in my years and gotten pretty upset with myself, but this one was definitely a "stuff happens" kind of moment. Honestly I'm surprised the cab held up as well as it did, and I almost wonder had it been warmer (it was about 10F when it happened) if it would have cracked at all.
This is what the front of the cab exterior looked like after it happened:
I managed to pry the plastic back and push the other piece back in place so it sealed up pretty nice by itself. I haven't tried to put anything on it. I do worry about the cracks long term though.
The hood latch still won't release back when closing the hood (without manually pushing the release rod back in). I tried some WD40 white lithium grease on it today but then determined I think the reason why it is sticking is the wire piece that goes to the release looks like it is bent/warped. I don't think the hood latch itself is sticking but I am fairly confident it is the wire piece that goes to it. I think it will likely need removed and bent back straight.
The traction on the R4s has been pretty good. I think the tractor goes better than my NH WM55 in the snow. On the flat on packed snow (basically ice, because we literally cannot walk on it without falling) it goes just fine. My driveway is still a mix of rock and snow, and I haven't had any issues with it. We are supposed to get wet snow tomorrow so I am a bit nervous about that, but we'll see. I did notice when pushing debris in the woods that it felt like I did not have as much push power as I did with the R1s. I found myself spinning the tires in the woods (2-3" of snow on the ground) pushing some of that debris I was clearing. The R1s on my last tractor would have likely either pushed on or tore the ground up.
Fueling the tractor was pretty easy after I got one of the 5 gallon metal Eagle cans. My other Duramax Flo n' Go froze up on me and I've given up on it considering the easy of lifting a jerry can to the Kubota grand series fuel spout. I thought I read something in the manual about being able to turn the key on and it would beep as you put fuel in it and then solid tone when it was full. I had the key on with the tractor shut off but I never noticed it beeping so I just turned it off and filled it with 5 gallons since I knew I had used at least that much. If anyone knows anything about how that process of beeping works, if it does, thoughts would be appreciated.
I used the backhoe to take down a 3" cherry by getting up hill of it, digging down about 3-4" on both sides of the trunk, and pushing it over with the backhoe. I definitely would want to do that some more on smaller trees before attempting to do this on anything larger. I noticed that the tree would spring back pretty quick if the roots were not ready to give and I needed to take another swipe at them. The ground was frozen solid which made it much worse, and I had to take smaller swipes to even get through the top soil. It's crazy how cold it has been over the past two weeks. I played with the hoe above ground just to get a better feel for the controls and also push the cylinders in and out to their max to purge any air. I was hoping this would resolve the issue with the stabilizers continuing to come down overnight, but the stabilizers are unfortunately still falling down overnight.
I have left the auto hi/lo off, as it was driving me nuts. It shifts on me and makes me think the tractor is losing power. I definitely like the hi/lo on the steering column as it makes it easy to hit with your hand as you steer. I have the stall guard on but I'm not sure how well that works as I have the auto throttle on. I have turned the auto throttle off a couple times and found it sometimes more convenient to have it off.
I can see why people still use those knobs to turn the steering wheel. It seems I have to turn the steering wheel more on this tractor than my last tractor, but the Kubota definitely turns a much tighter circle. It was somewhat annoying when I was getting into my manure pile as I had to keep turning around after I got a bite of the pile. I dislocated my elbow years ago and it still bothers me so turning the wheeling that much I could feel it after a while. The tractor turns a nice tight circle and it makes it pretty easy to get into things and around stuff.
After doing the manure I was thinking I would like a lot more front light. That will definitely be in the works for the spring/summer. The back lights don't bother me as much but I'm obviously not back there as much. The cab light is also way too dim and will get replaced with an LED. I was very pleased with the loader response in relationship to steering and general forward movement and it just seemed like things flowed exactly how they should, allowing me to get the manure moving done quicker. I was dumping most of it atop a hill that was literally solid clay last year that I need more organic material on. We got grass growing on it by some miracle but it keeps washing out as the grass is not growing enough on it. I was dumping over our horse fence to the top of that hill and had no issues doing this or even doing it over the snow covered ground.
The only other comment is the interior cab lights. You have to have the front lights on to get the instrument/button lights to come on. Sometimes I don't want the front lights on, and I just want the inside lights on or maybe "parking lights" like a car. My NH used to have that setting on the light control, so you had an on setting before the front headlamps came on like you do in a vehicle. The Kubota doesn't have that and it's annoying because you have to have the front headlights on to get the button controls lit up. Sometimes I'd rather just use the top front cab lights because the front head lamps reflect back off the bucket and make it harder to see sometimes. Also, the hazard light control is very
bright red when the lights are on, and it is annoying because I keep thinking it is one of the regen buttons. I honestly wish the hazard control was somewhere away from the regen buttons to avoid confusion. I also wish the display mode buttons were lit up, as a couple times I have wanted to change something on the instrument panel and I have to turn the interior cab light on to see where the button is to press it. Minor things but nonetheless annoyances.
Overall still very impressed with the tractor for its size, and definitely enjoying the cab as otherwise I would have never had been outside over the past couple weeks. Honestly it has given me a reason to go outside and do something rather than staying inside most of the time. Once you warm up in the cab, you want out to cool down since I have my winter clothes on, and getting out in the cool is actually kind of nice for 5 minutes at a time to take care of something. I think it has been a good investment so I can get things done now during the winter months whereas typically that time would have been lost. Last year the winter was awesomely warm, and thankfully so, as my wife and I had to build our horse fence through last winter. This winter has been the coldest in about 3 years that I recall, as we normally have some cold days but not cold weeks.
Well, that's my thought dump for tonight. My EA wicked grapple is supposed to arrive Wednesday so I'll likely start getting some more work done after then, if it doesn't get too slick out with the expected snow and rain this week.
Edit: One more thought, despite it being less than 10F most times I have started it this week, I have not had any issues with cold weather starting or running after my debacle with the dealer's fuel gelling up. Since I have used the power service treatment that I always use, no issues at all. I let it warm up 5-10 mins depending on how cold it has been that day and haven't had any issues with slow hydraulic response or anything along those lines.
Matt
