Rough riding tractor

A friend of mine does mowing for other, like I do. He was in a truck accident a week ago, and brused a few ribs, and was in considerable pain. He had one more mowing job to finish. He asked me if I would drive his tractor. I finished his job today. He had a fair size Kubota tractor, with a rotary mower. It was one rough ride, I had to stay in second most of the time, to keep from being bounced around. Maybe because it's a light tractor. My JD 401B Industrial has me spoiled. With the 14.9 X 24 rear tires, and 16 inch truck tires in the front, plus a spring seat. My JD in in a class above the Kubota as far as comfort. One good thing about the Kubota, you would have try real hard to hurt your self. Every thing has to be off, PTO, gear selector in natural. If not as soon as you leave the seat the motor shuts off. Stan

He might have the tires over inflated! Jim

Might want to check the seat adjustment. I had one of my retired cousins mow for me a few years ago. After a few hours, he said that was it for the day. The JD4700 was too rough and his back was starting to hurt. I told him that I forgot to mention that you can adjust the seat for your weight. The seat was set for my 250 lbs while he only weighed 170 lbs. Once we adjusted the seat for his weight, he said thats a nice tractor.

One of my part time jobs is I cut a very large lawn with a new 6010 Kioti pulling a 17 foot finish mower and it rides much rougher than the TN70 NH it replaced. The Kioti has 17.5x24 rears and 16 front. Lowering air pressure helped a little but adding fluid to the tires helped a lot. The seat on it doesn't compare to the Deere tractors I run either. None of this helps your temporary situation, just have to slow down I guess?

One of my part time jobs is I cut a very large lawn with a new 6010 Kioti pulling a 17 foot finish mower and it rides much rougher than the TN70 NH it replaced. The Kioti has 17.5x24 rears and 16 front. Lowering air pressure helped a little but adding fluid to the tires helped a lot. The seat on it doesn't compare to the Deere tractors I run either. None of this helps your temporary situation, just have to slow down I guess?

Your JD probably has a considerably longer wheelbase than the 'Bota.

tires to hard see that a lot

My old 1950 farmall rides like a Cadillac compared to my Kubota.
There is an adjustment on the Kubota seat. I think part of the Kubota's ride is because I'm sitting higher in the cab.

My back can't handle jarring. I have about a dozen of these seat cushions, one in my truck, every tractor, every lawn mower and one in my recliner. Adding this cushion to Kubota helps a ton.
I use velcro to keep the cushion in place.

I mow 1.25 acres.. I do my trimming with a 4 ft mower before using Kubota. It only takes me 30 minutes to mow the rest with Kubota going 5-6 mph. I've been working on the lawn to remove speed bumps.
Of course I don't mow the full 1.25 acres. Need to account for a garage, the house, 3 driveways, landscaping and pole barn

I bought an old 1845C Case skid loader and then went to Northern Tool and purchased a suspension seat that has 2 1/8 inch travel. I thought it was kind of high priced until I hopped in the other skid loader with out a suspension seat. I find it was well worth buying it for my Case.

This could very well be a case of one brand being a rough rider over another. I can see that happening. I got a tractor (not a Kubota) that has a short wheel base. It rides rougher than my others.

One thing I have learned to do when running other people's stuff (especially on newer stuff), is take a few seconds to make seat adjustments. This is kind of hard for me to remember to do, since basically all of my stuff is old enough, that there basically isn't much you can do for seat adjustments. Most times I don't remember to do it when I get into somebody else's tractor, until I'm about an hour or two into the job.

Or, how rough was the actual patch you were mowing? I've mowed other people's yards when they were down and couldn't do it. Found out that some people's yards are just rougher than heck.

Just a couple of other things to think about. Not sticking up for Kubota. Maybe it was just rough from just being a Kubota.

It was probably rough from gopher mounds, or previous work being done on the ground. It was probably 3-4 acres. I faced the same thing today with my JD. Very rough going. Some from gopher mounds, or from others driving on damp ground. On dry wild oats I can use 4 th gear, but this field I had to stay in third most of the time. Stan

Over rough ground, my Kubota M6800 was the roughest riding tractor I ever drove. The problem was the design of the seat. If I set it for my weight (180 lbs) it would be halfway between the top and bottom settings. It would bottom out and then top out. Terrible ride. I finally cranked the seat all the way up to the highest weight setting to keep it from moving up and down at all. That was better but still not good.

One reason the Kubotas might ride rougher is that Japanese soils are very mellow, mostly in level valleys with volcanic ash soils that they rototill. Their tractors have excellent PTO systems. They don't have to pay as much attention to operator comfort.

You hit on my pet peeve.....rough riding tractors. An example of total disregard for operator comfort, check out the rear tire load rating, 4 ply, of compact tractors, especially the smaller ones. I have/had a couple of different colored, 1800#, basic 25 HP tractors with 16.5x12 Industrial rears....common on dealer's lots. Rating on the 4 ply tire is about 2700# EACH, at rated pressure (recommended in owner's manuals) and a seat with no springs................... Ok so pacifists say.....that's because of tractors that may be equipped with Back Hoes......yeah 1 in 5 maybe if that many.

So I thought if I went with a turf, 4 ply, I'd help solve the problem and I installed seat springs off Cub Cadet ZT mowers (softer than most ZT seat springs). I got the Carlisles and mounted them and I could let all the air out of them and they would support the weight of the tractor....that was a $600 puke for nothing.

To add to that there aren't any wheel weights available (no holes in wheels to mount them if there were) and having tried filling the tires, forget that when you combine it with low air pressure....tire falls off the wheel.

Pfffffffft!