284 International
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2010
- Messages
- 1,464
- Tractor
- International Harvester 284
(This post may be misplaced, but since I have put spent so much time on the Yanmar board, it feels like home. I apologize if this is too chatty post, and will delete it if asked.)
I made a journey to the dark side, and have gotten bit.
Since the school I work for is on spring break, I've had the week off. Since it's been rainy here, and I'm too much of a wimp to work outside in the rain, I dithered around inside, watching movies, surfing the web, and reading the paper. I happened onto a deal too tempting to pass up looking at, a Kubota B6000 4wd, with a loader, that had been sitting for "several years," but was otherwise described as in good shape, though dirty, running well, with new tires up front etc etc.
The price seemed right enough to not let pass, just on principle, really, so I told the older woman that I'd take it out of her horse barn. That involved about an hour's worth of crawling around in horse muck, trying to winch it out with a come-along around a 90 degree corner, with 2 flat tires and the loader down.
Eventually I got it to where I could reach it with a set of jumper cables, and used the starter motor to hobble it out enough to reach it with a chain. Then I drug it out, and, long story short, the little guy fired up with only a bit of fiddling! Here's my little trophy, after I got it home and rolled off the trailer, but before a bath:
About 20 years of straw, mice nests, horse urine and who knows what else had covered EVERYTHING with an 1/8 inch coat of grime. It smelled really, really bad. After a few minutes carefully pressure washing things, it.....STILL smelled really bad. But there wasn't as much grime on it, so that was nice. I went to fill up the tires, and discovered that the (otherwise brand new) front tire on the right side had a finger sized hole through it. The tire shop nearby was closed, so I got to change the tractor tire and patch it with a boot and inner tube....using my tire irons from my dirt bike's tool pouch. Ugh.
The worst part about that was I happened to put the tire on backwards. I said that was too bad, I'm not changing it for awhile!:laughing: Oops.
This thing is TINY. I had thought my 1401D was little. Then I got this thing. It's almost the size of a toy, literally. It makes the 1401D look massive and beastly. It's pretty funny. I'm pretty cramped on my 1401D, and it is hard to mount and dismount. The B6000 is easier to board, actually, since I can nearly stand up straddling the thing, and no more cramped except on the foot throttle.
It's a lot smaller in all dimensions, but the overall length is maybe the biggest difference. It's perhaps an entire foot shorter: In this picture the loader buckets are level with one another.
(Sharp eyes will catch the reversed front tire, and missing wheel weight.)
The machine has wheel weights on all 4 tires. I weighed the one I took off on my scale, and it's 42 lbs. I haven't pulled the rear one off yet, but it's got to weigh 3 times that, I would guess. It's none too much: Even with the weights, and tires filled with horse urine and some water, with the bucket lifted the rear is pretty light without an implement.
It came with a cute, 36 inch rollover Gannon-brand box scraper. I'd never used one before, but it's pretty nifty. I like the way the rippers can be used to loosen soil without scooping it or dragging it around.
The B6000 is kind of an oddball. It has a reverse rotating PTO, small diameter, many splined PTO. (I think this one used to have the reverser mounted, but it's missing now, though it's got the spline adapter to take the shaft to a 6 spline, conventional PTO shaft) Perplexingly to me, this one has an electric fuel pump, but an old-school oil bath air filter. It seems a bizarre combination of simplicity and complexity.
Based on this tractor alone, for the life of me I can't figure out why Kubota came to dominate the compact market. The oil dipstick is literally impossible for me to reach. I cannot do it without a pair of long needle nosed pliers, for instance. It's not a bad machine. The little 2 cylinder engine is a gem. It's smooth, quiet, and torquey. The glowplugs in conjunction with a compression release is better than my Yanmars with their non-operational Thermostarts and compression release. But the radiator cap is nearly inaccessible, and you can't see down into the radiator to check the fluid. The hood has to come off. Things like that, and the oil dipstick, seem foolishly engineered. These items will NOT be checked daily, since they are so difficult to access.
Now, the bad part, and where I got suckered for my money: There's something wrong with the right front knuckle. It is connected and doesn't grind. It will pull. But it has a lot of play and wobble in camber, much more than the other side. I need to do some research and investigate what the internals of the knuckle look like. I wish she had been honest with me about the issue. I couldn't see it when limping it out because of the flat and unseated beads on the tire. I kind of feel cheated, but I hope I can tune this little machine up a bit, and turn it over without taking too big a hit. Here's a final shot of my 1401D and this B6000.
I made a journey to the dark side, and have gotten bit.
Since the school I work for is on spring break, I've had the week off. Since it's been rainy here, and I'm too much of a wimp to work outside in the rain, I dithered around inside, watching movies, surfing the web, and reading the paper. I happened onto a deal too tempting to pass up looking at, a Kubota B6000 4wd, with a loader, that had been sitting for "several years," but was otherwise described as in good shape, though dirty, running well, with new tires up front etc etc.
The price seemed right enough to not let pass, just on principle, really, so I told the older woman that I'd take it out of her horse barn. That involved about an hour's worth of crawling around in horse muck, trying to winch it out with a come-along around a 90 degree corner, with 2 flat tires and the loader down.
Eventually I got it to where I could reach it with a set of jumper cables, and used the starter motor to hobble it out enough to reach it with a chain. Then I drug it out, and, long story short, the little guy fired up with only a bit of fiddling! Here's my little trophy, after I got it home and rolled off the trailer, but before a bath:
About 20 years of straw, mice nests, horse urine and who knows what else had covered EVERYTHING with an 1/8 inch coat of grime. It smelled really, really bad. After a few minutes carefully pressure washing things, it.....STILL smelled really bad. But there wasn't as much grime on it, so that was nice. I went to fill up the tires, and discovered that the (otherwise brand new) front tire on the right side had a finger sized hole through it. The tire shop nearby was closed, so I got to change the tractor tire and patch it with a boot and inner tube....using my tire irons from my dirt bike's tool pouch. Ugh.
The worst part about that was I happened to put the tire on backwards. I said that was too bad, I'm not changing it for awhile!:laughing: Oops.
This thing is TINY. I had thought my 1401D was little. Then I got this thing. It's almost the size of a toy, literally. It makes the 1401D look massive and beastly. It's pretty funny. I'm pretty cramped on my 1401D, and it is hard to mount and dismount. The B6000 is easier to board, actually, since I can nearly stand up straddling the thing, and no more cramped except on the foot throttle.
It's a lot smaller in all dimensions, but the overall length is maybe the biggest difference. It's perhaps an entire foot shorter: In this picture the loader buckets are level with one another.
(Sharp eyes will catch the reversed front tire, and missing wheel weight.)
The machine has wheel weights on all 4 tires. I weighed the one I took off on my scale, and it's 42 lbs. I haven't pulled the rear one off yet, but it's got to weigh 3 times that, I would guess. It's none too much: Even with the weights, and tires filled with horse urine and some water, with the bucket lifted the rear is pretty light without an implement.
It came with a cute, 36 inch rollover Gannon-brand box scraper. I'd never used one before, but it's pretty nifty. I like the way the rippers can be used to loosen soil without scooping it or dragging it around.
The B6000 is kind of an oddball. It has a reverse rotating PTO, small diameter, many splined PTO. (I think this one used to have the reverser mounted, but it's missing now, though it's got the spline adapter to take the shaft to a 6 spline, conventional PTO shaft) Perplexingly to me, this one has an electric fuel pump, but an old-school oil bath air filter. It seems a bizarre combination of simplicity and complexity.
Based on this tractor alone, for the life of me I can't figure out why Kubota came to dominate the compact market. The oil dipstick is literally impossible for me to reach. I cannot do it without a pair of long needle nosed pliers, for instance. It's not a bad machine. The little 2 cylinder engine is a gem. It's smooth, quiet, and torquey. The glowplugs in conjunction with a compression release is better than my Yanmars with their non-operational Thermostarts and compression release. But the radiator cap is nearly inaccessible, and you can't see down into the radiator to check the fluid. The hood has to come off. Things like that, and the oil dipstick, seem foolishly engineered. These items will NOT be checked daily, since they are so difficult to access.
Now, the bad part, and where I got suckered for my money: There's something wrong with the right front knuckle. It is connected and doesn't grind. It will pull. But it has a lot of play and wobble in camber, much more than the other side. I need to do some research and investigate what the internals of the knuckle look like. I wish she had been honest with me about the issue. I couldn't see it when limping it out because of the flat and unseated beads on the tire. I kind of feel cheated, but I hope I can tune this little machine up a bit, and turn it over without taking too big a hit. Here's a final shot of my 1401D and this B6000.
so dont feel so bad.