Going tractor shopping.

[dianneS]

We're headed to the Kubota dealership next week to buy a compact tractor. My DH is looking at a L3800/DT/HST (I don't even know what that means?) Anyway, we need a tractor with a bucket and a good mower. We can't decide on what type of mower deck to get, a mid-mount or one you pull behind? Any insights on this?

I'd like to be able to mow the large open areas of our manicured, landscaped property, as well as pastures and fields and I would think a rear-mount mower would be harder to maneuver in tighter spots? (I know I'll have to use the small lawn tractor for around the garden/flower beds and landscaping but we still have a lot of lawn that could be mowed with a larger tractor, cutting down on the time) My husband is concerned that a mid-mount mower won't be able to cut as much tall grass and brush?

 

[DonnaBelle]

We just bought a new Kubota tractor this past fall. We got a large one, 120 HP, and we bought the rear pull brush hog and also a new box blade.

Prior to that, he had a 70 HP John Deere we bought new in 2000. Both tractors had a front end loader attachment.

He researched all the tractors and is really happy with the Kubota. It uses much less fuel than the John Deere, and is much heavier constructed.

As far as the pull behind mower, it is much better to have the cutting system separate from the tractor. Less problems mechanically and much better cutting of larger brush, and small trees. DH also has a seeder, a box blade for grading the road if it gets washed out and the gravel needs redoing.

I don't know how much acreage you have, but if you have a lot of small trees and brush growing up in pastures, you need a heavier mower.

Our Kubota dealer put together a package for us, and the service has been outstanding. Now I realize that depends on the dealer you purchase from, but we really do like our Kubota.

Disclaimer: we don't own Kubota, or the stock, although I wish we did...LOL

DonnaBelle

 

[dianneS]

Thanks for the information!

We don't have a lot of sapling trees and such to mow, or too much heavy brush. We've got that under control, we just need to maintain. Actually last year our pastures were mowed with small lawn tractors (a near fiasco!) I'm still pushing for the mid-mount mower, otherwise we just won't be able to use the mower for much more than pastures 2-3 times a year. We have at least two acres of manicured lawn that needs mowed weekly and our little lawn tractor takes about 3 hours to mow the whole thing.

Last year we had two guys come out and give us an estimate on our pasture mowing. I figured that they had big farm tractors. These guys show up with two little lawn tractors!! I thought for sure they were going to give up 5 minutes into the job. The grass was three feet high!! But they didn't. It took them seven hours and I'm sure their poor little mowers were beaten to a pulp. They probably spent more in blade sharpening, replacement parts and repairs than they earning mowing for us! I doubt they will be doing any more work for us, but hey, it was their call!

 

[goodhors]

We purchased a Kubota last spring, 2260 I think. It has a front loader, PTO for running various
equipment. Has the Roll Over Protection system and seatbelt, 4WD. This tractor is about 10 years old,
but only had 300 hours on it, tires are in great shape, still have sharp edges on the lugs! They are
filled with beet pulp juice for more weight. The local tire fixer folks no longer use chloride to fill tires,
it eats the tire rims, not nice to the ground when an old tire splits. We have had equally good
performance with the beet juice as the old chloride ever did. I would certainly recommend having
your tractor tires loaded with beet juice for better traction with your machine.

It has some things I find to be a PITA, but it might be that those things on the old Ford are just
easier to use. As a working machine, it does very well for it's size. You do have to learn how to
use the loader, it has MASSIVE power to get yourself into trouble with!! Not sure of the HP, but
it is less than the old Ford 8N. Does a good job though for our smaller acreage.

I use the brush hog on our fields, but found with the wide loader, I can't get as close to the fenceline
as I can with the Ford. Hoist for height, power to the mower in heavy grass is excellent. I tend
to cut my fields high, 5" is the minimum, so it has good grazing all the time. And I mow them when
the grass leaves get to the 8-10" height, or seed heads start showing. So that is lots more than a
couple times a year.

Newer machines have the "snap on" feature, so loader can be dropped and picked up quickly, easily.
You could also have a fork system to use on the loader arms, with the snap on feature. My loader
doesn't do that, so the width is always out ahead of the tractor.

On the backend, the PTO is covered with a guard, so hard to reach in for connecting to machinery. But
since this is a SAFETY device I would be reluctant to remove it. I have gotten better, faster, with
getting the PTO connected to machines, so maybe practice helps. I would like a longer tow/hitch bar, it is
way too short after our Ford. Puts the hitch connection almost at the axle, not out behind for better
turning radius and not hitting things with the wheels. The manure spreader is the worst, needing MUCH
larger circles to turn around without hitting parts on things.

I like having my mower and machinery changable, not permanently mounted. A belly mower would sure be in the
way a lot of the time. Those pull behind Swisher? mower decks are supposed to work on lawns. Not sure
what their height adjustments are, but we mow our lawn tall also, and I could cut it nicely with the brush hog.
The mower deck adjustment could work well for both the lawn and pastures. I have been keeping mine mowed
and have no brush inside or outside the fences now. I do get some very tall grasses in the wet spots, which
have to dry out to mow. I just raise the brush hog way up and shorten them, then get them down to the height I
want on the second pass. The one paddock always looks like lawn, is kept mowed with the brush hog. Horses
just don't get to use it much, so has better grass growth. Sheep and calves were on it all the time for the last
couple years. Their light weight didn't leave any cut marks or worn spots like the horses can do.

You want to mow and leave grass a bit long, according to the MSU grass experts, so the plants don't get stressed
by having no leaf length. Leaves provide shade to the plant roots, dirt is cool, prevents erosion in heavy rains.
Lawn and pasture is able to stay greener, be healthy, productive during the heat and summer droughts lasting several
weeks. Their motto is now "Mow tall and mow often" for the best results from all variety of lawn and pasture
grasses. I follow that idea and my lawn and pasture is the best it has ever been.

This machine is a diesel, gets a lot of time to the gallon. The 4WD is helpful moving dirt from piles, though
the smaller machine only will take an 800# load. And that means NO MORE than 800#!! Just no lift if you have
overloaded it. I LOVE the loader, use it often. Low range gears are VERY low slow forward, quite powerful when needed.
I mostly use the higher ranges, though the lower end of them is still nice and slow. Ours is a manual, shifting
is pretty easy.

Kabotas sell well because they give the customer what they want, build a good product. In our
shopping for a new tractor, Kabota owners only sold to get a bigger machine or were out of the business of farming,
horse or animal keeping. NEVER heard of one being sold because owner "didn't like it" as happened with other brands.

 

[dianneS]

Wow, that all sounds great! Thanks for all the info.

Looks like we might be getting the L3800 with a rear mount mower and loader of course. DH compromised with me and promised to get me a better lawn tractor for mowing the manicured areas of our landscaping!

I think we're headed to the dealership on Tuesday! I can't wait until this thing is delivered. We're doing a big pasture expansion, tree cutting, clean-up project right now so it will come in handy!

 

[sawfish99]

I have a L3200 that I got in May 2011. It is the same unit as the L3200 with a 32Hp engine instead of the 38Hp. If you use the tractor on your manicured, pretty lawn, it will destroy it. Small turns tear up grass. If the ground is even a little soft, the tractor will leave marks where it drove. It's a great tractor for tractor stuff. It's not a lawn mower.

My only disappointment in the tractor is the weight lifting capacity for the FEL. I will I had something that could easily lift 2000lbs to make moving full pallets easier (and firewood).

I would recommend getting a 3rd function hydraullic kit added to the front and back of the tractor prior to delivery. I wish I had a grapple bucket for the front to use when clearing new areas. I do have a set of pallet forks that get used every week.

 

[greybeard]

We're headed to the Kubota dealership next week to buy a compact tractor. My DH is looking at a L3800/DT/HST (I don't even know what that means?) Anyway, we need a tractor with a bucket and a good mower. We can't decide on what type of mower deck to get, a mid-mount or one you pull behind? Any insights on this?

I'd like to be able to mow the large open areas of our manicured, landscaped property, as well as pastures and fields and I would think a rear-mount mower would be harder to maneuver in tighter spots? (I know I'll have to use the small lawn tractor for around the garden/flower beds and landscaping but we still have a lot of lawn that could be mowed with a larger tractor, cutting down on the time) My husband is concerned that a mid-mount mower won't be able to cut as much tall grass and brush?

I know this is several months old, but I missed it when it was "current", so I will go ahead and add a little info. (I worked as a mechanic for a Kubota dealersahip for a couple years).

Some general guidelines that hold in most cases:

C refers to cab model
CS refers to creep speed
D or DT = four wheel drive
E or F =two wheel drive
HST refers to hydrostatic transmission
GST refers to glide shift transmission
N refers to narrow tread model

If memory serves me correctly DianeS, your tractor will have a hi/med/lo transmission range selct lever, and the HST means hydrostatic drive shuttle for forward or reverse.

I do not like belly mowers on anything except small lawn tractors. As others have said, they are cumbersome and always in the way. The best option for a nicely cut yard is a finish mower, which connects on the rear 3 pt lift, just like a big mower, but it has 4 wheels. 2 in the front of the mower deck--2 in the rear, and each is adjustable. You can't cut big stuff with them, but they give an exceptionally nice cut, as when you lower the mower down with the lift lever, the deck follows the contour of the ground and isn't subject to whatever the front wheels of the tractor does going up or down a hill.

The "fix" for the heacvier tractor gouging up the turf, is turf tires, instead of what we call R4 tires or Ag tires.

Yes, Kubota had some problems with their loaders for awhile and lift capacity, due to some piston seal problems in the cylinders, as well as the piston retaining nut backing off, but it's my understanding that they have taken care of that.

Hopefully by now, you and DH have become well acquainted with loader operation and safety. Be very careful using that (or any) FEL. Never travel at a high rate of speed with it up very high and for that matter, always keep the bucket as low as possible, I've used loaders for decades, and turned a Kubota L2600 over with a very small bucketload of dirt, and the bucket no more than 4 feet high. ALL the imports that I am aware of suffer from the same problem---they are too light for the loader and advertised HP. Another reason for wanting a rear attachment mower back there--it acts as a counterweight to offset the load in the bucket. With just a rear drawbar, when you fill the front bucket, all the weight is on the front, and you lose traction on the rear tires. Rear wheel weights can help, as can filling the rear tires with whatever fluid is applicable nowdays where you live, and depending on which wheels you have, for helping to make the platform more stable left to right, you can flip them over, making the stance a bit wider.

When it comes time to service the front wheel hubs, remove both the fill and drain plug on each side, and give it LOTS of time to drain. It will drain fast at first, but that is just the fluid in the immediate area of the drain plug. You will think it is drained, but it is not done till it stops completely. It takes a lot of time for all the fluid in the housings to work it's way down thru the gears and little spacings and out the drain.

Another problem you may encounter is the neutral start safety. It's a very narrow point, and any dirt or leaf/grass buildup can throw it off, and the pintle wears over time, but that is a simple linkage adjustment.

I also agree with the suggestion regarding the extra control valve for rear hydraulics utiizing either the stack-on type control or the 'power beyond' port.

Now, if all that sounds like a glowing unabashed endorsement for Kubota, it is not. They are not a bad tractor, and there is nothing inherently wrong with them other than the low weight to HP ratio that all the midsize imports have, but I don't own one and never will, tho both my older sisters have one, both my brother-in-laws have one and one of my nephews has one, and they are all very happy with them. For me, it's Ford-New Holland, maybe MF, tho my favorite bar none--is my Leyland 245. It's a HOSS! Heavy, wide, and tho only 2wd, it will out pull any tractor of comparable hp, including a 4wd. That weight makes all the difference. (Leyland is now out of business tho). I wil admit, it is a fuel hog, but not terribly so. I also have a Ford 3600 and an old gasoline Ford 9n, as well as a Case 480 backhoe/loader combination.

Again--sorry to drag up a 3 month old thread, just thought I could offer a bit of insight into this.

 

[dianneS]

Thanks for the info. We bought the L3800 with a 5' bucket and forks, plus a 4' bush hog rear mount mower (a real brand name Bush Hog), we didn't get turf tires or ag tires. Ag tires would have been a bit too much, turf tires not enough for our firewood projects in the woods. We went with the "industrial tires" as a good compromise. I do not drive the tractor in the lawn if its terribly wet or moist as it will tear up the grass, but so far it hasn't been much of an issue.

My husband got me a new Huskvarna lawn tractor with a 48" mowing deck that cuts an hour off of my lawn mowing time! We're both very pleased with our tractors.