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 | jrestill
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 28 Page County Virginia 
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2003-08-04 60947
I've been thinking about jumping into the Kuboda pool since buying my 14 hilly, wooded acres five years ago and have decided to go ahead and make the leap before the Aug. 31 financing deals expire.
Thought I had at least mastered the questions to ask at my first encounter with a dealer after spending quite a bit of time reading this board since I discovered it awhile back. I thought wrong. My dealer, highly recommended by a number of people in the area, was quite civil and helpful even though he had a couple of other potential customers waiting in line. Bottom line is I think I gave him the impression I knew more about what I was looking for than I really did.
To get to the point, I came away with a quote of $13,967 (plus tax) for a new L2600 with the LB402 loader, ag tires. Would be $900 more for L3000. Only as I was leaving did I realize they come only with the manual transmission. Didn't have time to wait and the dealer was with someone else, but I did butt in just long enough for him to tell me would have to go to the L3130 to get other xmission options. I said "so we're looking at a rough ballpark of $3,000 or $4,000 more for that" and he nodded. Having gotten home and done some more reading on the board, I'm guessing the L3130 might be a little pricer yet.
I will get back him to him later for something firm, and also have to check with another highly recommended dealer in the area.
Meanwhile, any of you vets have any helpful thoughts? I'm naturally not inclined to spend more than I need to, but fortunately am in a position right now, a rarity for me, to be able to swing the finances on the more expensive rig if I convince myself it's worth it. I'm already thinking it is.
I'll do a little mowing, about three acres with quite a few medium-sized trees I'll need to maneuver around, a considerable amount of moving mulch, topsoil and such around as I get to developing garden and orchard, quite a bit of snowplowing and other maintenance of my quarter-mile hillside driveway, and a LOT of snaking firewood logs around to feet my outdoor wood furnace, as well as getting oak logs to my neighbor's sawmill and getting the cut timbers back up to my housesite. (Incidentally, my dealer price for 6' blade is $469 and $849 for 60-inch Bush Hog. I'll probably get a box blade later after I see just how much I can't do with regular blade. Main thing I want right now is to be ready to push snow this winter.)
In short, I'm thinking I need something fairly hefty, in the 27-30 hp range, but am also thinking I'd probably get pretty tired of the manual shifting since a lot of my work will be on somewhat challenging terrain and often in tight quarters in amongst my trees. And since at age 60 I'm afraid my legs aren't going to get any stronger. Besides, I fully realize having a little fun makes the work medicine go down a lot easier. (I've used a Bobcat and rented Case wheeled loader and backhoe a little bit and am just not sure I have enough coordination left to run a FEL and backblace and remember to shift, too. All the while trying not to slide down the hill.)
Sorry to be so long-winded, but since it's my first time to spew here, though I would give a pretty good feel for what I'm up to.
Guess if I boil it down to one question, it would be: Do you guys think I would be wise to look at something smaller than an L?????, but with the luxury of hydro xmission or bite the bullet and shell out extra bucks even though I could sure put them to good use for other projects.
Thanks.
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 | Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee 
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2003-08-04 60950
I take that you are talking pto hp. That would put you in the L3430 to L3830 range or the corresponding John Deere 4310 to 4410. Best thing I can tell you is to demo each one of these models and see what you think. Weight out the pro's and con's and go with the best model for you. Both brands are real nice tractors. With a 60" brush hog or log dragging you are going to need some decent weight and at least 30 hp. I personally would look at the upper hp range as you can always get by with more hp. than you need. It's the American way! :-) With the special financing rates I would also get as much equipment as you can and finance it all at once. ....
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| Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee
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2003-08-04 60958
One other thing you may want to take into consideration is TORQUE vs HP. Kubota rates their engines at 2700 rpm; John Deere at 2600 rpm. The John Deere 4410 makes 81 ft./lbs torque at 2600 rpm. More than any or the other 4000 Ten Series tractors except the 4710. The 3430 has the same displacement, bore and stroke engine and makes 79.9 ft./lbs. torque at 2700 rpm. The L3830 makes 89 ft./lbs. torque at 2700 rpm. So by these figures the more accurate comparison would be the L3130 vs 4310 and the L3430 vs 4410. Both are real nice tractors. I got to looking up specs. and wanted to make sure I compared apples to apples. I would go for the L3830 if your sold on orange paint. ....
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 | Misenplace
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 875 Michigan 
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2003-08-05 60966
Based on your post I am assumeing that you are only shopping Kubota. The one thing I would say is that if you do not want to go back repeatidly to the same dealer with questions just find a few dealers spread out in a radius of your home and try them all. You will get a bit more/different/new info from each one. Secondly take your time and think out all those features. I definately would get the HST but thats just me. I am perfectly comfortable with all the others but I prefer the hydro and based on the info you gave it certainly seems the best choice. If a brush hog is on the list I think you are at the minimum hp in the models you are looking at. You should probably give the Grand L models a Look see and see if the features are worth the xtra $. If you can forgo the hog I would think a 2710 or a 2910 would do nicely. I especially like the 2910 with the 4 cyl engine. Art white has forgot more about theese than I could ever hope to know so you might email him. You will find him here on the forum. I think the most important thing is to test drive them. Once you start that process you will likely answer a lot of your own questions. Of course a lot of times it boils down to what I like Vs what I want to spend. Enjoy the test drives ! Jd as well as Kioti and Mahindra all have 3 year 0% financeing at the moment. ....
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 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
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2003-08-05 61002
Well, here I am! Thanks Doc, I try not to bring up my memory to much, I keep forgetting it! Now to the point of which Kubota. Kubota with the variety of designs and stlyes gives several types of tractors for me to recommend. Some just gets to common sense for what you need to get the job done and do it well, for me it comes to listening to the mistakes other owners have made while getting started. You might look at the L-4300 for a lot of tractor, it does have independent PTO and does give you a primitive type of shuttle with a hi-lo range. The other option is the Glide shift transmission on the grand L tractors. That will take a quick 500 off the hydro price and give you a powershift transmission and a hydraulic forward-reverser. That means almost never needing a clutch to shift only when filling the bucket and preventing a stall. The last choice is a hydro, it sounds like you might prefer it for mowing but it would give you the least performance for dragging logs. They are the easiest to learn how to drive to a degree but when pulling heavy loads the transmission slip will help keep from spinning the tires but more fuel will be burnt and slower ground speeds are a given. ....
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| Misenplace
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 875 Michigan
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2003-08-05 61013
lol, I was just telling my wife the other day when I get a little older she's likely to get a call from the state police in Maryland or someplace because her husband got lost going to get a tractor part ! I sure would like to be the son of a gun that thought of that reverser idea. less money more efficient. In the Kubota line up I do like the Grand L's. This is largely (pun intended) due to my physical size. Besides they look like a tractor should. ....
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