Kubota tractors

A guy asked me to look at his 1999 80 HP Kubota. It Has a pump issue, running on two. There has been a boat load of these tractors showing up in our area in the last 20 years. Not sure if this is happening everywhere or just around here? 2000+ hrs. tractor with some real troubles. The injection pump needs to come off and visit the DR. Water pump if VERY loose, the forward reverse linkage is very worn. It needs a screw driver on the starter to start. I will help the guy out with most of these issues before it leaves, but I have a question. This tractor has a very small looking 4 cylinder engine that is turbo-ed to make 80 HP. The rear end looks kinda light compared to any other vintage tractor I am used to seeing of this size. Will these tractors still have any life left in them when they are 40+ years old, or will most look like this one? The green, red, or blue ones I am used to seeing that are 20 years old and have been shed stored when not being used seem to be in mechanically better condition. Is this tractor the exception, or the rule? Al
 
Not sure the particular issues of the rest of the tractor but I will comment on the hp of these, in the old days 80hp went to the ground and took a very stout rear, nowadays it's often used for pto or hydraulic capabilities. Also with 4wd not all the power is going thru the back two wheels
 
At one time 80hp was a stout tillage tractor. Now days it is a loader/mowing tractor.

A lot of those bigger Kubotas spent time on dairy/livestock farms. Many of those are not known for their maintenance programs.
 
I don't necessarily think so, a lot of small kubotas are bought by hobby farms and estates, many get very incidental use and outlive their owners thus sold with low hours
 
Al the competition has used weight as (or lack of) as a selling point against KUBOTA for years. As to the answer to you question how a tractor has been treated or maintained is the life of the unit. I a commercial customer who has some vintage Kubota m 8950s which are around 30 years old with excess of 6,000 hours mowing gas line right-of-ways and they look rough but continue to run and work. How long any of these modern tractor will be around , any ones guess but again maintenance is of up most importance.
 
It all comes down to maintenance and care. I have light plants at work with kubota engines with over 12000 hours still going strong. They are serviced every 250 hours and i do use a fuel additive because the older Kubota engines don't seem to like the new low sulfer fuel.
 
In our area CIH consolidated dealerships into mega dealerships and several of the smaller CIH dealers switched to Kubota dealers. Neighbor used to be all CIH thru the dealer that is now Kubota and he has replaced all three of his CIH tractors with Kubotas, the largest being 80HP. He has some minor differences he does not like but he likes the better cold starting and the power shift transmission.
As someone else has said a lot of Kubotas in the hobby farm areas.
 
Is it an M8200? Lots of them in this area and they?re usually pretty rugged little tractors.
 

Al
Don't just single out Kubota for utilizing a small CID(L) engine with a turbo for higher HP. Look at later model JD,NH & CIH plus other brands that have followed suit with smaller engines with higher HP's.
 
My neighbor has an AC 185. He used it to plow a small hay field here a few years ago that had not been tilled in about 25 years and it did a good job in tough sod. He used a 4 bottom plow (don't know the size) and I watched him carry the front wheels in the tough clay spots. Caveat: I believe it was a 185. Neighbor is an AC guy and uses several vintage ACs including a couple of D-21s.

I'm not a real farmer and do no tillage but I do a lot of mowing. For my mowing projects, I own four Kubotas from 17 to 90 PTO HP. All, except the newest, which has a federale induced emissions issue, have been flawless.

I'm confident that my 90 PTO HP M9960 would mow circles around my neighbors 185 (and probably the D-21) and use less fuel doing so, but I would not want to put it in the same field with either with plows on the drawbar. As others have said, it's rather light and not well suited to tillage, but who tills these days with a 80-90 HP utility tractor.

FWIW: Though thoroughly converted to Kubota, I was raised an on a WC. When small, I thought that the first D-17 that I saw was the second coming.

Dean
 
Much better transmission, governor, brakes, ergonomics, etc. Nothing against the 185, but the M9960 is just more modern.

Dean
 
I've had my B1750 since I bought it new in May of 1993.

Best thing that I've ever bought.

Dean
 
I'll not be around after 6,000 hours so I do not care.

Tough to believe that mechanical governors can compare to electronic governors.

That said, after Kubota, I'm still an AC fan.

Dean
 
You will find that the JDs, etc., that compete in the same market segments as the Kubotas weigh about the same and cost about the same.

BTDT. Shopped both but bought Kubota due to the arrogance of the JD dealer.

Dean
 
(quoted from post at 13:47:48 09/21/19) Maybe let me know how the Kabota is working out at 6,000 hrs and really I don't think you'll find a better governor on any tractor than a 185.

What? No way! You cannot convince me that an Always Crummy has a decent part on it!

So you think AC (Always Crummy) hung a pile of garbage on a decent governor? :lol: :lol: :lol:

In all seriousness TF there are a lot of folks switching over to Kubota's. One guy here tried newer MF's in the 80 HP range for chores. He uses 2 of em. When those turned out to be junk he tried CaseIH. He traded those on Kubotas and is extremely happy with em. They get run every day feeding silage and round bales. I think he grinds feed with one too.

Rick



Rick
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top