What tractor to buy Kioti or Kabota

[hawkeye08]

How much maintenance work will you do or will the dealer need to do all the maintenance and repairs? If you need to take it to the dealer or have them come out, the closest dealer is going to save you some headaches over the long haul. If you are going to do routine maintenance yourself and only use the dealer for warranty work and more complex repairs, then either dealer would be fine...

 

[IndyIan]

The leveling areas type of work probably is best done with a dozer depending on the size of area. For example it took me maybe 4 hours to move enough dirt from 20 to 100' away to make a level pad of 15'x25' to put my shelter logic tarp garage on to park my tractor in. It was about 20 yards of dirt plus 3 or 4 yards of gravel from a pile 200' away. It wasn't ideal digging with the loader and I was on an awkward angle but I got it done. A small dozer could've had the pad done in under hour I'm sure, but it would be alot of money getting one in for an hours job.
Anyways, I've only got 33 hrs on my machine but I'm happy with it digging with the loader. Its got alot of lifting force and actually cuts into sod or even damp clay soil pretty well and the HST lets you move the whole tractor almost like the boom arm on a backhoe, or inch the bucket back and forth to tickle a bit rock out of the ground and into the bucket.
Islandtractor on here has a post where he shows that a DK40SE HST with a loader and backhoe matches or beats an L39 for most loader and hoe specs, and overall weight for something like $12k less. I don't know if you could compare the two equally for absolute toughness, ie the L39 might live longer as a rental machine, but for the reasonably patient landowner the Kioti might do everything an L39 will do but leave you lots of cash to hire out huge jobs that any small TLB is going to take forever at.
It's too bad the Kioti dealer is so far away as it makes it tough to use the warranty if needed. You can't assume the dealer is going to send someone out for free, although you could make that part of the deal I suppose.

 

[crazyal]

Being in Canada I think you really should get the advice of some of the members from Canada to help you out. The prices you pay are higher than here in the states. Plus I remember reading about tax advantage for larger tractors that you may want to look into.

I own a Kubota and love it. I can't say much about the Kioti tractors because I never got serious enough to try one out but they looked to be nice tractors and plenty here seam to like theirs. I'm handy so I just buy the supplies I need on-line and do the usual maintenance myself so a close dealer is not a big issue for me. But I don't know how easy it is to buy Kioti parts on line (never looked) but Kubota brand parts are easy to find.

 

[MikeD74T]

Quality of the dealer is paramount unless you plan to do all maintenance yourself. A dealer with no parts, few or poor mechanics isn't any better then a box store regardless of price. On the other hand you may never need the dealer, just a chance you take. I bought Kioti because of the dealer's reputation. I think every bit as much of Kubotas but wouldn't buy from local Kubota dealer. MikeD74T

 

[Lloyd_E]

Good Morning All:

I have a hilly, 15 acre property on two parcels. One 4 acre where my house and garage sit, which is mostly cleared but beginning to grow over in sections and an 11 acre bush portion which was clear cut 6 years ago. There is also a sandy beach at the far end which the bush is threatening to retake control.
I want to clear brush, pull stumps, level areas where possible to create pasture areas.
I am not sure which size tractor to go with. I know I will need 4X4, front end loader, back hoe with thumb, box scraper and either a brush cutter or possibly a flail mower. I want enough power to meet the challenge. Any thoughts? I live in an area where my nearest tractor dealer is a Kabota 20 km away. A Kioti Dealer is 182 km away. I am not very mechanical (but willing to learn), so my thought was to go with a local product that could be serviced quickly as opposed to a 2 hour road trip.
Thoughts as to the size and product choices would be appreciated.
Thanks, Brian

Brian,

Welcome... great to see another bluenoser here!
My property is similar to yours with similar intended work/jobs.

I do like my kioti. Have had some issues but most or all were covered by warranty.
On the maintenance side travel time can add up especially at shop rates of $60 per hour or more. I guess you have to look at the savings(if there is one) between the two makes and figure it out. When I bought mine 3+ years ago there was a huge difference in price and both dealers were 1.5 to 2 hours away. Kioti won out. With the closer dealer you could drive there... may take a bit but it would save you some money.

All of the previous posts offer sound advice. Shop around, test and go from there.