New Kubota Corrosion

[kozal01]

I havent read all the responses so maybe its been motioned already but it may be possible that your machine was exposed to road salt during transportation to the dealer and never properly rinsed off. Ive seen that happen with vehicles and trailers that were transported on open trailers.

 

[mdhughes]

I haven't read every post, but it does look like salt damage. Do you happen to have a water softener and when you wash the tractor, does the water you use got thru the softener? If so, there might be a problem there. You could have been washing the tractor when the softener went thru a re-gen and you got salt water that way. Just a thought.

 

[MAarcher]

I don't think this is galvanic corrosion, or at least not yet.

Why not? You’ve washed off whatever may have been on it multiple times and you don’t have the same problem with any other equipment in the same conditions. I’d take apart, clean and reconnect all grounds. And think about installing a battery disconnect because finding the short can be hard. And even if all your connections are good, you could be picking up stray current through the ground, so maybe rest the loader on a wood block instead of directly on the ground if you have any buried lines nearby.

 

[Thereisagod]

Try parking indoors in a heated garage

Look at the condensation on your painted steel...this is an owner issue, not a K issue

Seriously, a heated garage for a tractor? Not many of those around.

 

[whitetiger]

Your dealer should file a case with Kubota under the tractor's corrosion warranty. They should be familiar with it.

 

[rburke65]

wow….I have a 31yo L3450 and it looks almost new!

 

[wawajake]

Seriously, a heated garage for a tractor? Not many of those around.

I spoil both my Kubotas in my garage and keep it 10 or more degrees above freezing all Canadian winter. ( it is my carpentry workshop too so is secondary reason to keep all my paints and tools above freezing )

 

[Dave5]

Thank you to everyone who has commented. We did submit a claim through Kubota corrosion warranty, they denied the claim. I’ll paste the response below. I have asked the dealer to make it right: if it’s not Kubota‘s issue, it has to be the storage or transportation of the dealer.. I have done nothing to this tractor but store it out of the weather. It looks like they stored it this winter while doing warranty work next to the highway and it was exposed to multiple rounds of road salt. That’s the best case I can come up with. The right side is significantly worse than the left. I want them to replace the hose coupling hardware and valve components. Those ones could have some serious consequence if they fail. We’ll see what happens. Total bummer after spending 80k and treating this thing like a baby.

“to summarize, the KubotaLimited Warranty is intended to cover defects in materials or manufacturing within the specific timeframe for a machine. Based on what we see here, this is not something that will be covered by the Kubota Limited Warranty. The components shown with corrosion are manufactured at different facilities, which would indicate that this is not a manufacturing problem that occured at a single facility. Rather, this seems to be something environmentally that caused the corrosion. We would recommend that you reach out to (my dealer) Tractor to discuss the situation and the next steps.”

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

That is a ton of corrosion. I'd be upset too. My little South Korean tractor sits in my barn, and after two years, has not a speck of corrosion.

 

[Dave5]

In case anyone was following this, I finally have a resolution. The dealer stepped up and made a solid effort to fix what they could, I am thankful. Hyd. fittings and rear remote was replaced, the rest of the corrosion was mostly cosmetic, they attempted to clean everything and then used fluid film to coat the zinc. I'm still unsure what the tractor was exposed to, but will be washing my equipment anytime someone else takes it on the road. Thank you to all who commented/troubleshot with me.

 

[dodge man]

It was nice of your dealer to do that. I’ve seen similar looking stuff on cars and trucks, often the brackets that hold accessories. It’s mostly cosmetic but at some point it could have caused problems.

 

[Zork]

That is a ton of corrosion. I'd be upset too. My little South Korean tractor sits in my barn, and after two years, has not a speck of corrosion.View attachment 882692

My 2004 Branson was stored outdoors at the dealership when it was new. The dealership was located in a hilly area where road salts were used AND, my tractor has been outdoors on my property since, with nothing more than a tarp covering it when snow/sleet was expected. My fittings have just a slight surface discoloration, if any at all. The worst surface rust would be located on the rigid hydraulic tubing that is fastened to the loader arms.

 

[tacticalturnip]

In case anyone was following this, I finally have a resolution. The dealer stepped up and made a solid effort to fix what they could, I am thankful. Hyd. fittings and rear remote was replaced, the rest of the corrosion was mostly cosmetic, they attempted to clean everything and then used fluid film to coat the zinc. I'm still unsure what the tractor was exposed to, but will be washing my equipment anytime someone else takes it on the road. Thank you to all who commented/troubleshot with me.

Wonderful to hear they've done what they can to make it right.

 

[ultrarunner]

Always good to see an update!

 

[hkbirdman]

In case anyone was following this, I finally have a resolution. The dealer stepped up and made a solid effort to fix what they could, I am thankful. Hyd. fittings and rear remote was replaced, the rest of the corrosion was mostly cosmetic, they attempted to clean everything and then used fluid film to coat the zinc. I'm still unsure what the tractor was exposed to, but will be washing my equipment anytime someone else takes it on the road. Thank you to all who commented/troubleshot with me.

It's great to hear that your dealer stepped up and made efforts to fix what they could. Just curious - was it the dealer in Plaistow - or the dealer in Milford?

 

[mike69440]

I was always amazed a the quality of the fitting, fasteners, hardware, and the electrical connections on my 1982 B7200D that was 34 years old when sold. Heavy yellow zinc cadmium on the hardware and long lasting connectors with flexible clear plastic sleeves on the electrical stuff.
Plating today must be more enviormentally freindly, but rust and deteriorate.