My dealer experence (Kansas City area) Romans Outdoor Power A+

[Cherokee140]

Longish post...sorry.

First off let me say that I can 100% suggest that if anyone needs anything Kubota related and you happen to live in the KC area check out Romans in Louisberg KS. A better and more helpful group of guys I have not talked to and trust me I talked to EVERY tractor dealer within 60 miles of my house.....some a little farther. During my search for a machine I looked at machines from JD, M-F,Kubota, Mahendra, Case....and in about 3 different sizes. From a 1 series sub compact tractor size to 4 series high 30 hp machines to stay in the JD sizing chart. In the end I went with a BX25D with a belly mower. Is it too small...I really don't know yet only had it about 15 hours so far and most of that was spent asleep.

My land is ~13ac, mostly flat with an old barbed wire fence from 40 years or longer ago and all kinds of trees grown up along that fence line. The trees have been un-checked and have grown out 10-12 feet from the fence in many places. I have lived on this property for 17 years this july....seems like yesterday. I have had from day 1 (actually before day 1) an old 8n Ford with a pull behind brush cutter, 2 bottom plow, disc, blade, boom...and a few other odds and ends. Also a JD model 70, that gets really very little use (very gas hungry) and a JD 650 with a belly mower. Any time I had needed another machine I had borrowed one from a neighbor...be that a skid loader, backhoe, loader equipped tractor....whatever. And trailer I still need to borrow that trailer from time to time....perhaps I should sell my enclosed race trailer as I am no longer racing....

My kid is 17 now and I know the days of him helping me around the place are coming to an end....I am not getting around like I once was, I have quite a bit of metal still in me and I really think I need to take a drink of WD40 once and a while as I feel pretty darn rusty. So time for a new machine was decided.....or the wife gave in to my crying about it....not sure.

In looking at the machines we knew we wanted a loader and a backhoe...having it being able to mow was just an added nice thing....as I age I can see me actually mowing less and less and just giving the rest away for people to bail for hay. Another key for me was the ability to get on and off of the machine. I went to the Missouri Western farm show a few weeks ago and put my butt in the seat of everything I was looking at....and that was pretty much everything that you did not need a ladder to get on. Some I crossed off the list as being just too darn big, others as being too hard to get the stuff on and off....the JD 3 series machines I was looking at till last week. Everyone said that buying the machine would be a compromise and they are 100% correct. The difference between a BX and a B is not that much...not in size or in $$. So why not the larger machine.....I just really think I will not need it....time will tell if I made the correct choice or not.

Now back to my buying experience......I am not going to run down any other dealers, IMHO they all treated me with courtesy and respect....all the prices fell within a few hundred of each other. Some JD dealers where several thousand more for like priced machines, not sure what the deal is there, but that is not why I went with Kubota over Deere....more on that later.

Romans in Louisburg was/is a fantastic place to do business, both Randy and Dave answered all my stupid newbe questions, and spent so much time showing me the tractor both when I bought and when the machine was brought out to my house I am very impressed....he even showed me just about every grease fitting on the thing....we crawled under it, played with it, and I could not be a more happy customer. I can say that I am a person that supports a business that takes care of its customers...I don't care if it is farther away or even if something I might want down the road was a little more expensive I will make that extra drive to give them my business....in my book that says a great deal.

I am getting windy here and don't want the post to be too long, but a bit of a funny thing happened when Dave went to leave....his truck and trailer got stuck in the mud by my house....melting snow, and it was just real soupy. Forward or reverse it would not move an inch....just spinning the tires like in that movie My Cousin Vinny. Well on comes the little BX to the rescue, Hooked a tie strap to the tractor frame, and to the towing eye on the front of the pickup and pulled it out. Dave was so sorry about the damage to the "yard" and apologized about a million times....no big deal We ride dirt bikes and dune buggies in the field...don't worry about it at all. Anyway it pulled it out with out even a second thought. To say I am impressed with that little tractor is a huge understatement....it was a non effort that that little souped up lawn mower as some have called it.

Anyway I will be adding more things as I go with this machine....not really modifications of it 4shorts does that better then I ever could, but the actual jobs it will be called on to do. Really showing the machine doing things I wondered if it was going to be big enough to do. And we already started. I got the wife on it and she wanted to start on digging up a stump by my shop....we only got about 20 minutes of stick time, and 19 of that was trying to figure out how to make the backhoe move like we wanted it to move....I will post more videos of that if we don't get the snow and rain they are calling for this week.

Sorry for the long post but I hope it helps out some.....anyway here are two videos I have so far,

And yes I will talk to my wife about how to have the sun behind you next time....but then I am just as bad.

Only one video allowed per post...just dig in my youtube channel for the others I guess.

 

[4shorts]

Congratulations on you finally receiving your new tractor. I enjoyed the read and could actually hear the excitement in your write up. I can assure you that you'll soon be saying " I don't know how I got by without it". I know I have.

I don't know about you but I've taken a terrible disliking to a pick and shovel and the BX keeps me from picking those items up as well so thats a good thing. Even my wife have thought up work for the BX and we've accomplished a lot in the 70 hours that we've used ours so far.

We are fortunate to have two Kubota's. Our other tractor is a 5740 cabbed unit we use for the winter months but I have to say both my wife and I really like the BX.

Thanks for the mention on my work and I'm sure you'll come up with ideas that will make your BX unique to you and I'll look forward to seeing it happen here on TBN.

 

[kcflhrc]

That dealer is about 10 miles east of me, I agree, a great bunch of guys. I probably should have bought from them since they were so close. But in the end it came down to dollars as usual. Congrats on your new tractor and a great story also.

 

[Cherokee140]

Dealer update....If you have been checking out my tire thread you know I have some cracking along both rear tires. The tires are new, still have the yellow line, and the little "whiskers" on them...so I know they are new. I had not noticed until I went to take off the MMM deck. It is just one of those things you just would not check on a new tractor....why would you...its new. I will not cross post the photos here as I know this site locally stores the photos and taking up space on a redundant photo is wasteful....so check out the tire thread for photos......
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kubota-owning-operating/305741-tires-black-round-hold-air.html


Now that is out of the way. Dropped my sales guy a note early last week and got no word back....oh no this is not a good sign. So Monday I did a mail delivery check (running your own exchange mail server has some advantages. Turns out the size of the attachments was just too big, and my sent mail was refused at the door....I just did not get a NDR (non delivery response). They don't host their own email so no point in taking that up with them. So Monday I shot off another email to my sales guy this time with a link to photos, and within about 10 minutes I got an answer back....stating he would start looking into the issue and get back with me.

Later that night...around 5-530, I got another email from another guy at the dealers....I had not talked to this guy before....His message was short and to the point.

I would be getting new tires, and he has started the ball rolling and would keep me updated.

WOW....something I was all ready to do battle over and poof it is taken care of. What a place to do business with. Not only did these guys have the best price on the machine and attachments, they know what customer service is.

IMHO I was not asking for anything crazy, or special. This really is a problem with the tires and I think it should be fixed....perhaps all my years at GM showed me the wrong way to do this....but I am a super happy customer.

I can tell you guys this if you need anything orange, or even an attachment for another color tractor give these guys a shot at your business. I really don't usually do this...If they are bad I don't go back...if they are good, I just go on my way. With this tractor buy I just decided to keep a running log on the machine and the dealer experience.....so far both have been so much more then I had expected.

If you are in the area check these guys out.

 

[Cherokee140]

Tire update...I will post this in the tire thread as well. I have not posted an update....we have been in constant communications it has just taken us a while to get everything lined up. Communication is good....even if it is going to take a while to get everything in order that is fine...I just want to know I have not fallen off the map. These guys have been good.

They are scheduled to come out tomorrow afternoon and do the swap....new rims and new tires.

I am ashamed to admit that I waxed the tractor....yea a fricken tractor. I also waxed the front rims, I told you I had some **** traits. But I am ashamed to admit I did not wax the rear rims as I knew I was getting new ones. There are two things that drive me crazy....wheels being dirty and lights that don't work. Hope these new wheels are pretty and not scuffed up.

It is to be in the 50's tomorrow but winds like crazy...if it is not too bad I may not update till Thursday.....but I will update.

So far I am holding by my grade....if you need a tractor-ish thing of any kind give these guys a call.

 

[Cherokee140]

Tire update:

Yesterday at around 2'ish the dealer came out to take care of the tire issue. He was to be there at to and made it a little after....everyone seems to miss my house for some reason. The young man (more on that a little later) that came out was very polite, professional looking and seemed to be a good around good kid. He picked up the back of the tractor with the backhoe feet, buzzed the tires off with an electric impact gun, mounted the new tires and rims, then he got out a torque wrench set it and torqued the lug nuts and bolts. Yup torqued them....then reset the wrench (why is a torque wrench called a wrench when it is really a ratchet).....and put it away. We talked a little about the machine he asked how I was liking it, how I liked the grapple, and said it was the first one they had installed. Then he was on his way.

The young man (I fight calling him a kid....and when did I become sir?.....I figure about the same time my hair fell out and they started becoming kids) was an excellent representative of the dealer, very nice, personable...good outlook. I also asked for some paint, I want to make a tool box and want to paint it orange, and I had chipped some paint where you swing the seat around and wanted to touch up the gray. I told him to bring it out and I would pay for the paint....they brought it out and did not charge me for it. That was very nice.

I likely will not have another dealing with the dealership till the 50hr service comes up, so this thread might fall off the earth before then.

I am still very happy with them, and how they have taken care of me. They will be getting my business in the future, and I will be suggesting them to other people for machine needs.

 

[Cherokee140]

Dealer update:

Well I just had the Romans Outdoor service man here a few minutes ago and he did the 50hr service on my BX25D at about 68hours. He was very nice knew his stuff, and was just another new outstanding person I have talked to from this dealer. I read so many horror stories about bad dealers I am so lucky I have found a good one.

Thanks to yet another video from 4shorts I am going to now have to get that new floor mat from the 2014 model. I have also been looking at his powered thumb and been giving that some thought as well.
My skills are far short of his however, but I think I could work up something that might come out as something that might be useful.
I can only say that in every single dealing with Romans it has been a transaction where I could not be more happy.

I am going to be getting that mat here pretty quick, and next spring I am going to be buying a wood chipper of some kink...I know where they will be coming from.

Just want to keep the experience thread going here.