I finally got the tractor yesterday. Pics down below. It was delayed for several days while waiting on backhoe parts from Kioti in Wendell, NC. They shipped the backhoe with 2 left braces, needed a L/R pair.
The dealer called me about 2pm, and with paperwork and orientation, plus the 1-hour drive each way, I didn't get her home until after 6.
I'm a tractor novice, so for my loader self-training, I threw around a junk refrigerator and tore off its doors, then I combined some dried brush piles. I quickly got a feel for the controls, especially sliding the bucket parallel to the ground without digging in (no grapple yet).
For my backhoe self-training, I dug out a 6x6x6 septic tank, hand built in the 1950s from concrete blocks, which had collapsed over the years. The backhoe thumb was absolutely key. By that time I was working by the glow of the tail lights, fishing concrete chunks out of the hole "by feel", so I called it a day.
I put 3 solid hours on her, parked her overnight on concrete, and in the morning, no wet spots!!
Today (Saturday) I went over to my neighbor's to put in some more seat time. They were running a Kubota MX5400 (50hp), so I just helped out by pushing a bunch of small piles of brush and roots to a large central pile off along the tree line. I was gentle at first, but as I gained confidence I really put my foot into it. 4-wheel medium for moving a bucket full across flat ground, 4 low to push it high up on the big pile, then high range to go get more. Ran her fairly hard for about 2 hours. Checked on her later in the day, still no wet spots.
I have named her "Kim", short for "Kim the Korean Kioti".
Kim (Korean surname) - Wikipedia
