Aren't most Kubotas assembled here in the US, so isn't this cable tie issue a "local" issue and not Japanese? You just have to wonder if the Japanese craftsman who has been building these tractors for twenty years in Japan is going to leave a zip tie like that. Hey Bubba, clean up your act and your zip ties.
and to digress a bit:
before I owned my nice Kubota I owned a diesel boat with two 450hp Detroit Diesels. Big suckers, all iron, heavy as could be, and I had to maintain them. Which means I did what I could do, what I had confidence doing, and paid a tech to do the rest. And there lies the lesson, as some of those bozos who worked on my engines left zip ties positioned like punji stakes in the engine room. I would constantly come up with blood dripping off me and Nadene would look at me and merely say "again?". Luckily she is a nurse, so I kept getting patched up. :thumbsup:
Finally one rainy day I knew the time had come, and armed with name brand ties, mostly black, I cut off every zip tie I could find that had been mucked with, and almost every one was improperly installed. Cut the silly end off flush and spin it around to the back where it's out of harms way. Easy.
So when the time came to have my one engine rebuilt, for $20K, top quality job by Johnson & Towers in NJ, I casually asked one mechanic if they would leave the zip ties like the one I pointed to. He looked at me a bit funny, wondering if I was fooling with him or just nuts, but when I told him between the zip ties and the hose clamps I was losing a lot of blood, he laughed and said sure.
Not only was every zip tie put on beautifully, but they lined the bolts up, they lined the clamps in order, they made that engine look amazing. Likely better than the Cubans Bertram had put it in their boat.
But it was seriously nice workmanship, and they knew that's what I wanted. And paid for. A fully satisfied customer.
And of course at least a dozen guys told me I could have done it for five grand less. I'm sure I could have, really.
But then that cheaper job might not have been finished off by a valve train adjustment done by an older guy with thirty five years experience. And boy did that engine just purr when they were done. And zero smoke.
I'm not sure how the zip ties would have been put on if I hadn't said anything. But I'm guessing they probably remembered that request from then on.
You just have to cut yourself up enough to understand why leaving angled sharp ties is just plain ignorant. Maybe even stupid.
Boy will I look at my Kubota tomorrow and see "what's on it". I for one do not understand why name brand decent quality plastic ties should be as expensive as they are. There's not much product there... and there is a huge difference between an Ancor tie and a HF one. One is made to a spec I'm sure, the other is what gets squirted out of the extruder...
