kubota tractor

New tractor!

Steve Hardin1 Comment

Well it was delivered! My new small Kubota tractor was delivered on Thursday with a new bigger 5’ brush hog and a 5’ land plane for the driveway, the total cost was a paltry $32k. Most people buy a new car, I would rather have a new tractor! I can drive a beater car forever as long as I can have two tractors. I am not going to get greedy, I don’t think I need three tractors, two is sufficient for one person. But if I had to get a third tractor I would get another Kubota. Honestly, they started out in the small tractor market and have just been making them bigger. I love the amount of metal and minimal amount of plastic.

Every size and make and model has its own quirks. You just have to get used to how they operate and then figure out what works for you. This new tractor is all hydraulic, no clutch just shove the appropriate lever in the correct direction at the correct time. That takes some getting used to when a clutch is what you normally use. I always forget about the little things that I add onto the tractor. It didn’t come with a speed handle so I ordered that over the weekend. It only has a small plastic tool box so I have these metal tool holders that clamp onto the roll bar so you have have a hammer, crescent wrench, pliers, screwdrivers etc hanging on the side of the tractor readily available. I did remember to have them install lights, weld on three chain hooks on the bucket and a rear set of hydraulic takeoffs. I happened to have an overhead canopy that had not yet been installed on the older tractor so on day three I installed it on the new tractor. I ordered the clamp onto the roll bar tool holders also. I have to add a heavy duty bag to hang from the roll bar so I can store food, drinks and a first aid kit (or blue rag to use as a bandaid). I had to order new caps for the hydraulic takeoffs to keep the dirt and grime out of them. As you can see there were many things still needed to dress up the new mistress.

Annmarie says I need to give it a name but now that I own two Kubota tractors they need different names. My very first tractor was called the “Mistress”. I have been tossing ideas around and think I have finally settled on a pair of names, Juicy and Clementine. Juicy is the new all hydraulic tractor and Clementine is the tried and true with a clutch. Both are Kubota so they are bright orange in color.

The first evening I put the brush hog on it and started to mow down the cheat grass. The seat is quite comfortable! It’s the small things that matter. There is a foot release for the steering column so you can just move the steering wheel up and out of the way as you get on and off the tractor. It also has a flexible screen that catches the dead weed debris to keep it out of the radiator. The screen is super easy to get on and off without having to lift the bucket arms first.

I would say the fuel gauge is par for the course on a small tractor. Which is basically you have fuel forever until it suddenly vanishes in thirty minutes. Of all the things this seems to be an elusive goal for small tractor manufacturers, at least Kubota and John Deere. I have learned to measure fuel consumption by run time and the type of job I am doing.

I am super thrilled and will be spending all weekend on the tractor.

Kubota Days!

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I have been trying to buy a new Kubota tractor. I need a replacement for my little John Deere. I had been working with the local dealer and he had wanted to display mine at their Kubota Day sale. If I went down and finalized the sale I got a discount. The tractor was in a crate the first time I saw it. They had welded on the three hooks to the bucket and the rear hydraulic takeoffs were installed. The takeoffs were too small. I had never seen any that small before. I also realized that I had not asked for overhead front/rear facing lights. So those will be added before I finalize the contract. It is easier to just get exactly what you want from the beginning. The dealer has been great to work with Farm Equipment Headquarters (FEH). I bought my other Kubota from them also.

This one has some nice features, since it is under 25Hp it does not have to have any emissions equipment on it. The engine is so simple, it is amazing. It has this luxury seat with springs that should remove most of the bumpy herky jerky movement that wears you out when you sit on it for a few hours. I do realize that most people do not sit on their mini tractors for hours at a time but it takes me 30+ hours to dig out the barn and I usually spend 80 hours haying. I don’t think I will use it for spraying as I would need to add a power switch and plug to the wiring. I already have it on the bigger Kubota and when you get that 50 gallon tank full of water it’s heavy!

There is no clutch! It is all hydraulic, even the pto. You just move the levers. It does have a cruise control, it is a manual lever but it’s there and that is what counts. Hell, it even has the bucket level cheater indicator. I have not had one of those on a tractor in years, they are usually the first casualty of any abuse or tight space kerfluffall.

The tires are not as aggressive, so they should be nicer to my field. It has 4WD because every tractor needs it! A 2WD tractor is worse than a 2WD pickup. I am really looking forward to having it on the farm!

Baling done, now real work begins

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Well, I did it, I managed to get all the hay baled. It was not a smooth process. I wish it would just happen but it just doesn’t seem like that is possible. I am sure that the key to being a farmer is to expect that stuff will break when you want to use it and stubbornness is a necessity to succeed. I was headed over on Saturday by 0715 to bale with some moisture on the hay so it would be “sticky” enough to bale. I was headed up the last little hill that has a horrible washboarded section when all of sudden I heard a loud clanging and the tractor shifted. I slammed on the brakes and looked behind me. The baler had jumped off the tractor pin hitch and was sideways in the road. I had bent half the pto shaft under the tractor and the hydraulic hose and pull rope had come disconnected.

I ended up using the broken pto shaft as a wheel stop and pushed the baler with the tractor to get it lined up with the road. I had used a small strap to tie the two 3 point arms together so I used those to lift the tongue of the baler so I could put the bent pin back in and limp home. Once I got home I ran to town and got a new PTO shaft. Unfortunately, I picked up a shaft for a 3 point hole auger. Those have one connection that is different so I ended up pulling apart a short one I had and using it on one end and the new one on the other end. It worked great. I got a new bigger pin and drove over to get some baling done at 1030. I was just pulling into the field when it dawned on me that I should check the hydraulic dump on the baler. I managed to shoot hydraulic fluid all over the tractor and myself. I had torn apart the hose and not noticed the connection broken at the baler. So I once again had to drive back to the house and unhook the hose and take the parts into town to see if a new end piece could be attached to old hose. For $25 they were able to repair the hose! I have lots of extra hose so I can break the end off a few more times before it becomes an issue. It was now 1430 and too hot to bale hay. The hay will have to wait till Sunday. I was able to get some of our front hillside weed eated. I also got the water hooked up for the hillside and the lavender and put on timers.

Sunday I was out the door by 0515 with water, breakfast sandwich (cheese, tortilla and precooked sausage patty) and coffee. I was able to finish the top field pretty quickly but when I went to the lower field I started snapping shear bolts. I ended up going back up to the top field and stacking bales to the outside and in a few piles then went over the entire field again picking up the sloppy edges. Once that was done I went back down to the lower field. I really should have turned the lower field a third time. I need to remember that it needs one more than the upper field. I ended up lifting the back half of the round baler and using it like a rower to fluff five rows so I could bale them. I think there are about five bales on the bottom that I will have to leave out of the barn and test for moisture content. It is not hard to tell which ones are wet as they weigh twice what every other bale weighs.

I ended up with a total of 170 bales made. We feed 6 bales/day in the winter so I have one month already done. Now the hard part starts. I have about 100 bales in the second hay area that are 2 years old. They need to be moved onto the overhead platform to be used as bedding. I will then clean out the hay room and get the new hay into this room. I alternate rooms every year and we always feed out of the previous year’s hay. So I will be moving hay most every evening until this gets done.

Who needs a new tractor?

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Well I want a new tractor but what I really need it for is to lift big bales full height. So it needs to bigger than the two I currently own. I went to the dealer and for that lift capability I need to get something with over 50 HP. Which is going to run somewhere in the $50k range without a cab. I cannot spend that much for a little convenience. I need the smaller tractors to run my hay equipment and I need the little John Deere as it is the only tractor small enough to get inside the barn. It takes almost 30 hours to dig the barn out with the tractor and move all of the poop. That is not a job I want to do by hand anymore. It would take me a month or better of back breaking labor. As it is I have to dig by hand for about 8 of those 30 hours. So that dream was crushed by reality, I need to win the lottery.

I got the John Deere loaded on the trailer so it could be dropped off at the shop. They told me that if I delivered it they could look at it same day. It was leaking so much hydraulic fluid that I had to toss a five gallon bucket and spout into the back of the pickup so I would be able to fill the fluid level up, allowing me to drive it off the trailer. It was pouring out by the time I got it off the trailer. They said they would call with an estimate. They called a few hours later, $9K to fix it! The hydrostatic casing had a hole worn in it and the casing and the pump need to be changed, $6k in parts, $3k in labor. I had a minor meltdown as the front left knuckle will need to be rebuilt in a couple of years also and it was $3500 for the left, it will be more this next time. I thought that was half a tractor.

Again, I go back to the Kubota tractor dealer and say I want another new tractor but I need something smaller than what I currently own. It turns out they had just gotten a subcompact in the day before and it was still crated up. So we looked at it in the crate and I said it had to have rear PTO hydraulic connections. I need them for my baler and my smaller sickle bar mower. I tossed in a new 5’ brush hog and 5’ land plane for my bigger tractor. I am going to have to name them now. The Mistress (my very first tractor, John Deere 2520) will have to be laid to rest. The Gingerman said he would take it and eventually do the work himself. He is super busy for the foreseeable future and will need to work it in. The repair price was not half of a new tractor. It was more like 30% of a new tractor! A new tractor was $28k, the two pieces were only another $4k.

They are now going to assemble my new ride but the hydraulic takeoffs have to be ordered in and then installed. So it may be a couple more weeks before I actually get to use it.

I discovered another repair project. The old lamb shed wall is pushing off its bottom supports. I will need to add a couple of new supports and then drill and concrete in a couple of pieces of steel pipe to prevent the wall from pushing out when we stack hay in the building. This is not a surprise but it will need to be fixed before the wind tears the building down.

I had another neighbor tell me that they have a wild honeybee hive that they want removed. I had them send me pictures and yes they are honeybees and yes it is going to be messy. You can see the honey coming out between the boards near the bottom of the wall. Luckily, they are going to tear the building down so we have permission to just tear into the building. That is on the list for the upcoming weekend. The Gingerman and I are going to attempt to find the queen.

Officially haying

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Well hay season has officially started. I took the arena groomer off of the Kubota and had the Gingerman help me get the sickle bar attached. It is a five minute job with two people, alone it takes me 20-30 minutes using a pry bar to get it in place. I was able to use the five foot blade instead of the little four foot one I usually use on the John Deere. I went over to the neighbor’s and started to cut grass hay. I spent a few hours cutting his upper and lower field. I had spotted a white peacock hen in his chicken coop the evening before so when he came out to talk I asked him where he got it. Turns out it roams around a few miles and the neighbors see it occasionally. It had snuck in the back door of his chicken coop and was having a free easy meal. It had already flown the coop! I managed to not shear a single upright pipe on the bottom pasture. He does have some poison oak growing in one corner so I am going to have to brush that out of the way and come back with some herbicide and clear the fence line. I don’t want that gaining any more pasture ground.

When I came back I noticed that there was a large hydraulic streak running down the driveway. That large rock I hit with the John Deere caused a hydraulic leak on the middle bottom side of the tractor. It is going to have to go in for repair. I am not qualified to do that type of work. My mechanic skills are basic to middling. So I took the Kubota up to field one to cut down some of the cheat grass. I want to hay the field but not the cheat grass. My plan was to cut the cheat grass out of field one and two then when I rake the cut hay I can come out and rake all of the cheatgrass into a single row so I can burn it or bury it into one pile. This helps remove the seeds from the field. I was going along great until I hooked the end onto the gate and broke a tooth. The tooth got jammed in place and bar froze. This was on Saturday.

So I came back to the house and put a panel on the side gate near the top. The Gingerman had finally spotted our Border Collie, Chance, climbing the gate and going through the top of the gate. We knew she was getting out but had not yet caught her doing it. We had isolated it to that side and that section of fencing but the exact location was still unclear. Since adding the panel she has not gotten out once.

On Sunday I tore apart the sickle bar, fixed the tooth. It was of course installed upside down the first time. I had to grind down the rivets and then beat them out, turn it over and do it again. I headed out and started mowing more cheat grass until the entire end of the sickle bar fell off. The bolt I had welded on last year broke and I lost a few pieces in the grass. I will need to order some replacement parts but the mower is out of commission until they come. Luckily, I had all of the actual hay cut and I will be able to bale it. I can wait 2-3 weeks before I cut any more fields.