Thought I would give all a update regarding my latest
tractor purchase.
Took about a week and a half to get a trucker lined up and
get the unit delivered from Tennesee. Couple websites the
dealer used to put the load up on, fellow coming up out of
Georgia hauling a Cat to Des Moines offered to pick it up
and lay it in for 900 cash,this for 730 miles.
Pretty nervous as doing all the buying and lining up of the
load by phone with stangers but all went well. Was
disappointed to see the hood was binged up pretty good from
rocks dropping out of the loader. None of the pictures
showed this and the dealer had told me it was a sharp unit.
Also disappointed at the amount of fading on the plastic or
fiberglass fenders and cab roof. Waxing did help some.
What bothered me more then the hood damage or fading was I
lost faith in the dealer, could not help but feel if he was
going to fudge on the hood he might be fudging on something
else also.
The 5040 is a, to me, larger tractor then I had thought it
would be, big 28 inch rear tires, 2 series three point
hitch. The cab is very well insulated from engine noise and
transmission. noise.
After spending two or three months snooping around for
tractors I felt a little let down now that I had actually
bought one. More then a little guilt also. Have felt this
before after a major purchase, sort of a, I don't deserve
this, feeling. Hard to explain.
Also very nervous about anymore problems cropping up,
Saturday morning I noted some oil under the transmission
area, dreaded looking as figured it would be from frt. of
trans or rear of engine and require splitting the case.
Finally getting up the courage to look I was relieved to
find it was only a torn o-ring on one of the hyd. filters.
Saturday afternoon we took it north of town to my sons place
to move gravel for his house project. Loader did a very good
job. Love the cab.
Over the next couple days it did some more work at my sons
place. Wonderful machine.
Now I never recieved a owners manual and that gets me to
thinking maybe that is cause it is not really a 08 model but
an earlier year and this is why they did not send the manual
along.
I called the Sioux Falls dealer, 100 miles away, and ordered
a manual and also asked if they could tell when it was sold,
turns out was not sold till Dec. 2008 which should mean I
still have some time left on the power train warranty if a
big problem does crop up.
At anyrate I am coming to terms with owning it and feeling a
little more confident the rest of it is OK. I will note the
transmision shifting is little clunky due to the linkage
involved but the hyd. shuttle is as everyone told me, really
a nice feature. Another bonus is I had thought it did not
have a quick attach bucket but on arrival found it did.
Hard to describe the feeling when Alan pulled out with it
couple days ago and headed down Central to his place. Pride,
guilt, what the heck, Dad would have wanted us to have it.
He loved nice low hour machines.
Yesterday I closed on a 08 Kubota 5040 with cab,hyd. shuttle and 675 hours.
What a long strange, but fun, trip it's been. Started when I built a cab for my 03 Kubota L3000DT last fall. Cab done just before the first big snow I fell in love with moving snow with a cab and heater, most fun I have had for some time.
You can read about the cab build here at my blog.
Life on Highway 9
I began dreaming of more horsepower, more groundspeed, bigger buckets and nicer cabs.
Had a ball looking. Can't sleep? Come down stairs, fire up the puter and see what Fastline and Tractorhouse have new. Log in here and read up on diffrent makes and models.
It took a long time to get the diffrent models straight in my head and even longer to figure out just who was building what.
In northern Iowa some makes just plain lacked dealer support. I was drawn to the Kioti line , in particaluir the DK55 but not a single dealer in my state and a 3.5 hour drive into Mn. to reach one.
If I did have trouble what a pain to have to tote a 5000 lb. tractor to the Cities and back.
I seriously looked into the McCormick CT65, dealer only 25 miles to my south, nice fellow, new dealership. Built by LS, lot of gears, Mitsubshi motor and I assume gear train. In my job as a auto tech/ repair shop owner worked on a lot of Mitsbishi five speeds in the 80s and 90s.
Got home from looking at it to find a post here about McCormick switching to Kioti. Ended that quest as figured it would tend to make the LS version a morphidite in a few years.
Mahindras caught my attention as did TYM, seems some cross breeding going on there. Are dealers in my state though. Read some posts though about fellows having more trouble then they should with gears and radiaters.
Massey are nice, built by Iseki, a company I would have full faith in. New are spendy though and not a lot of used. Ditto for Agco.
John Deere I just could never get into the program with. Growing up Dad was a MM dealer and Green was always the enemy but would like to think I have outgrown that. Did not get along with their website and never mastered their model numbering system. Had trouble finding the size I wanted, utilty, with a cab.
Priced a new 5040 with cab and also a MX5100. Fresh off the cab build I felt confident of being able to build another and save some bucks albeit it with no AC.
Did I mention I was having a ball looking? I could walk by an acre of half naked woman, new Harleys and Suvs and never turn my head. Drive fifty miles to look at one fifty horse tractor and loader, no problem.
The Bobcats were going to save me, figured I could have my Kioti and a dealer network too. They stop short of carrying the DK55 equivlant though and could not come together on a price on the CT 450. In short, just a little more then I wanted to spend.
No matter I was still having a ball looking. By this point I had decided that above all I wanted a clean tractor. Wend. nite afterwork I spotted one, Kubota 5040, on Tractor House looked like it fit the bill. One call and I was talking to the dealer another call and I was talking to the original owner. Confirmed it was clean, had been kept in a shed and was not faded and that the shuttle shift was hyd.
Everything I wanted except would prefer R4 to the R1 tires and would like to have a quick attach bucket
Finalized the next day. Now just have to hold my breath till it gets here.
Going to miss looking. (-:
