almost canadian
Bronze Member
I apologise in advance for the rant but my blood is boiling somewhat.
Almost 5 years ago, I bought a L4600 with front end loader. We live on 20 acres in Alberta, Canada and we have horses so I needed something that would be able to lift 1,200 lbs round bales and assist with ploughing snow from our drive. With a blade attached to the 3 point hitch, a bale spear attached to the 3 point hitch and a bale spear attached to the FEL it worked a treat.
It doesn't get much usage and it only has 104 hrs on it.
At the 44 hour mark, we had an issue with the HST (the wheels didn't move) and it was fixed under warranty (around the 2 year old mark). On Saturday, I was clearing snow from our drive and just before the HST packed in again, it was working, but was going very slowly when the pedal was put right down. I am not a mechanic but I have driven enough manual cars to imagine that it was acting as if the clutch was slipping. It did this for about 2 minutes before coming to a halt.
The dealer that I purchased the tractor from lost their Kubota franchise about a year after I purchased it and it was given to another dealer. They were the ones that dealt with the previous issue. We paid one of their guys $150 to come out yesterday and look at it. He told us that this shouldn't have happened at this stage of the tractor's life but he couldn't tell us what was wrong with it. The dealer called us later to say that for the princely sum of $250 they would come to our place, take the tractor back to their shop on a flat bed and would then charge $150 to resolve the issue. When we asked them what their estimate to fix it would be, they told us "around $2,500 but we won't know until we look at it." When I asked them what their guy had been doing they had no real response.
The tractor cost me $35,000 and, in 3 months, I will finish paying for it. I had hoped to have an asset but it appears that I now have a very expensive pile of junk.
If I knew that the $2,500 would resolve the issue and I would get some good use out of the tractor, I would, grudgingly, pay it. However, I don't want to drop $2,500 simply to have this happen again in another 50 hours of use.
My gut is telling me to fix it, sell it and start again, steering well clear of Kubota.
Any advice would be greatly received.
Almost 5 years ago, I bought a L4600 with front end loader. We live on 20 acres in Alberta, Canada and we have horses so I needed something that would be able to lift 1,200 lbs round bales and assist with ploughing snow from our drive. With a blade attached to the 3 point hitch, a bale spear attached to the 3 point hitch and a bale spear attached to the FEL it worked a treat.
It doesn't get much usage and it only has 104 hrs on it.
At the 44 hour mark, we had an issue with the HST (the wheels didn't move) and it was fixed under warranty (around the 2 year old mark). On Saturday, I was clearing snow from our drive and just before the HST packed in again, it was working, but was going very slowly when the pedal was put right down. I am not a mechanic but I have driven enough manual cars to imagine that it was acting as if the clutch was slipping. It did this for about 2 minutes before coming to a halt.
The dealer that I purchased the tractor from lost their Kubota franchise about a year after I purchased it and it was given to another dealer. They were the ones that dealt with the previous issue. We paid one of their guys $150 to come out yesterday and look at it. He told us that this shouldn't have happened at this stage of the tractor's life but he couldn't tell us what was wrong with it. The dealer called us later to say that for the princely sum of $250 they would come to our place, take the tractor back to their shop on a flat bed and would then charge $150 to resolve the issue. When we asked them what their estimate to fix it would be, they told us "around $2,500 but we won't know until we look at it." When I asked them what their guy had been doing they had no real response.
The tractor cost me $35,000 and, in 3 months, I will finish paying for it. I had hoped to have an asset but it appears that I now have a very expensive pile of junk.
If I knew that the $2,500 would resolve the issue and I would get some good use out of the tractor, I would, grudgingly, pay it. However, I don't want to drop $2,500 simply to have this happen again in another 50 hours of use.
My gut is telling me to fix it, sell it and start again, steering well clear of Kubota.
Any advice would be greatly received.
