'07 B series rumor mill?

WayneW · Dec 8, 2006

Has anyone heard of an '07 (or '08?) replacement to the aging B7800. Perhaps a B7810? It would seem odd that the entire B series lineup has been changed withing recent yrs, with the 7800 still left unchanged. B1700/2100/2400 (not sure on the B2400/2410) are gone...upgraded. So is the B7500.....updated to the B7510/7610. And the B2710/B2910 have been dropped in favor of the B2630/3030. Then there's the 7800. Just curious about this......

lawn_king · Dec 9, 2006

Hello wayneW, i agree it would make sense for a B7800 upgrade, however, this is kubotas value packed, low cost, no frills workhorse. If they retool to upgade i'm sure the price will increase. The media says the economy is great, but every self employed person i know from maine to maryland has had a slow year, myself included!

Bob_Young · Dec 9, 2006

The only upgrade the B-series needs is Position Control on the 3 pt. hitch for all models. At least make it an option. "Quarter-inching" is long overdue for retirement. Of course that would steal some of the appeal of the Bxx30 models.

I'd retrofit to Position Control in a heartbeat if Kubota would offer an upgrade kit.
Bob

lawn_king · Dec 9, 2006

Agreed, position control on my 3030 is awesome as is hydraulic independent pto and hydrostatic power steering. These options are where that extra cash goes on the high end models. When you make your living with your tractor, they are worth every dime.

Taiser · Dec 9, 2006

Forgive my ignorance, but I was looking at the 7800 for a bit and everybody complains about this valve, what exactly is the problem with this set up? What does it do to be such a PITA???

Bob_Young · Dec 9, 2006

Taiser,
The issue with the quarter inching valve is that there are only two 3 pt. hitch positions you can reliably return to; full up and full down. Repeating any intermediate position is a an exercise in trial and error.

Position control gives you a whole range of hitch positions that can be repeated time after time. The control handle moves next to a graduated scale that represents hitch positions. The handle can be set opposite any 'value' on this scale and the hitch will return to a corresponding position time after time.

Say you have a rear blade and Position Control and, with the way you have the hitch adjusted, the blade is fully down on your driveway pavement at the '1' setting. Let's also say that at the '8' setting the blade is full up. You're using the blade to pull snow off the pavement onto a grassy overrun. You start your run on the pavement in the '1' position with blade fully down. As you reach the grass you want to pull the blade up a bit so you can continue to pull snow back from the edge of the pavement for a few feet....without tearing up the grass. By experimenting on the first pass, you found that position '3' brings the blade up just enough to pull snow over the grass without gouging. So every time you hit the edge of the pavement on subsequent passes, you just set the position control to '3' and the hitch raises the blade just enough to clear the grass. When you want to clear the blade you go to position '8' to raise it all the way and start back for another run.

With quarter-inching, there's no way to reliably repeat the intermediate position; you have to find it by trial and error on each pass. It is possible to reach an intermediate position, but just keeping it there any length of time is another problem. It requires that the hydraulic flow control valve be shut off (at least on my machine). So tasks requiring repeated raising and lowering of the 3 pt. hitch with use of intermediate settings are going to be imprecise and high workload.

My B7610 is so compact, responsive and precise in its handling that it seems made for careful precision detail work....except for the 3 pt. hitch. The clumsy hitch control is totally inconsistent with the rest of the tractor.
FWIW
Bob

Taiser · Dec 10, 2006

Thanks for clarifying that...

Hmmm so for grading my 350 foot gravel driveway this valve would actually suck. Now that I'm leaning back towards the BX24 what kind of valve does it have??

WayneW · Dec 10, 2006

Bob_Young said:
The only upgrade the B-series needs is Position Control on the 3 pt. hitch for all models. At least make it an option. "Quarter-inching" is long overdue for retirement. Of course that would steal some of the appeal of the Bxx30 models.

I'd retrofit to Position Control in a heartbeat if Kubota would offer an upgrade kit.
Bob

I guess I was referring mostly to the astetics of the tractor, more than upgrading it to a deluxe tractor. In particular, the older headlights on the 7800 opposed to the newer ones on the 7500/7610 or even the spaceship ones on the 2610/3030.

And whatever else was upgraded when Kubota dropped the 7500 in favor of the 7510.

And about the 3 pt hitch. My 7610 has the 1/4 inch control. Yes it is kind of a crapshoot to get it exact, but I'm sure I'm the "consumer" that Kubota had in mind when offering the "basic" 3 pt control over position control. I use my 3 pt hitch for 3 (maybe...soon to be 4)things.

1. Carry All
2. Brush Hog.
3. Box Blade
4. Log Splitter (soon the purchase in spring)

In my opinion (from my usage) 1, 2 & 4 do NOT need position control. All the way up, down or somewhere in the middle (give or take an inch or 2) is fine. And the brush hog has a gauge wheel to adjust height.

Yes, perhaps the box blade would be better with position control ...but I don't use it enough (and accurately enough) to warrant. Though living on a very hilly area I doubt it wouldn't help much because as the tractor front tires raise and fall with the terrain so does the box blade. Even if the 3pt is could be set to keep the blade 3" off the ground. The position control would allow the user to quickly and accurately set the height of the implement from the seat, but does not garrentee that the height remains consistant throught varying terrain. (though would be GREAT on a large flat field in the midwest) I think gauge wheels would be more helpful in my opinion for my box blade than postiion control. Then the blade could float with the terrain at a set height, to drag loom from a pile and spead it evenly across a bumpy area at say 2-3" thick.

Bob_Young · Dec 10, 2006

Mark:
BX24: Hydraulic Control System = Quarter Inching Valve

As WayneW points out, the Q-I valve can be made to work. But for me it is a big step down from Position Control. Of course, I'm used to P-C having used it on Ag tractors since the 60s. On a tractor as otherwise advanced and convenient to use as the B-series Kubotas, I'm surprised that something as limited as Q-I is still in use.

Of course Q-I is probably less expensive to produce and helps keep tractor costs down. For many it may be all that's needed. But then why not offer P-C as an option? It's standard on the B7510DTN which is the narrow vineyard tractor; I believe it was standard on the B2410, which preceded the B7610. I even saw on the forum where Kubota offered to upgrade someone's B7800 to P-C....so it must be possible.

I'm making a big deal of this because the difference between the two systems isn't explained in the sales literature. It's possible for a buyer to think one is as good as the other. I fell into that trap.
Bob

P.S. Still, I love the B7610 and will probably be happily working around this deficiency 20 years from now...hope so, anyway.