2018 Kioti Mechron 2200

[Technoid]

I just bought a brand new 2200. Diesel. I ordered the cab unseen. After I got it home and started using I was surprised at how they did not include any sound absorbing material around the seat and engine box. What would it take to add fire and sound proof wrap around the exhaust system? And add some sound proof material to the cab? You hear everything including the drive line wine. 90 Db in the specs. That is near hearing damage level. They vented the drive belt cooling in the cab instead of outside. I have since ordered exhaust pipe sound and fire wrap material from a supplier in Texas. Just like the stuff used on generators. The doors need to be hinged from the front. Not the rear. Poor design Idea. You hit your head on the mirrors if you forget to duck when ever you enter or exit the machine. And when it rains water will come in from behind the dash board and get your feet wet. The dump release is very hard to move. The handle needs to be longer for leverage. Price wise with all the options its about $7,000 cheaper than the Kubota 1100c. So you get what you pay for. Just saying if you need a good reliable work UTV this one with all its little design faults is still a good buy.

 

[DieselBound]

I don't think that anyone really does a great job on these things. Might be because there's not a large market. I've got a 2013 Polaris Brutus, a Yanmar 23hp diesel, and I'm amazed at how sub-par the engineering/design and materials are. I'm trying to recall what I measured sound levels at, but I seem to recall eclipsing 100db over 3k rpm (wanting to say 112db, but not sure). No doors on my cab, which probably results in a bit higher noise. I am not operating the machine for any real stretch of time so little threat to hearing. It's db over time that is the determiner of potential damage to hearing. Some folks use noise-canceling headphones, but I am not running for very long AND I want to be able to listen for things.

I've cleaned my starter once and rebuilt it once (after the cleaning eventually failed to sustain). Starter is exposed from above between the cab and bed: STUPID! - I've got it on my todo list to make up some sort of shield.

The front suspension is clunking like crazy and I've got to check into that as well.

Tailgate gets froze up and I've pretty much broke it. Another stupid design.

Hardware, such as screws for the rear window, are rusting. This one is a HUGE "are you kidding me?" kind of thing- these are outdoor machines- manufacturers ought to use appropriate fasteners.

Have a small leak, which I believe is hydraulic fluid, but it's underneath and above the skid plate and it's nearly impossible to really see where it's coming from. This is likely the byproduct of this machine having sat for three years on a dealer lot: I think the dealer bought up a bunch of the demo models. As much as I hate leaks I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to live with this one as it would be a LOT of work riping this thing open.

Had it not been for the heavily discounted price there is ZERO way I'd spend the retail price on something like this: I think it was somewhere in the $17k price range; I paid $11k with shipping.

In the Big Picture this machine has been up to the tasks-at-hand. Like all my equipment, it's put to work as much and as often as possible: nothing is kept as a show-room object. I'm able to tow upwards of 2k lbs. I've loaded a good 800 lbs in the bed. Dump bed works well: I was a bit hesitant to believe an electric cylinder would work all that great. Power steering was a huge plus and I'm glad that I got that. HST transmission makes it SLOW; BUT, I have no need to go fast and it works great for my wife (one of the primary reasons for going this route). I'd like to have door for installation in the rainy part of the year but they're horrifically expensive- hard to justify. Much of what we deal with is a minimum of about 50 yards away from the house, so this thing saves a LOT of leg work: and, always, one doesn't have everything that one wants when one gets to where one needs to get to. During the rainy part of the year, which is a lot of the year!, this is the machine that gets used most because of lower ground impact: it's about 2k lbs.

My Brutus is the HD model, which means it has the front hydraulic arm (but no front PTO- I've got tractors with PTOs, don't need any light-weight PTO). It's to handle their over-priced attachments (sweepers, plows etc.). I've used it to push on things and to pull out t-posts, and used it to set and brace fence posts, so not totally useless; however, probably would have been better served by not having this as I'd then have a full bench seat (front gizmo has a lever and console section between the seats).

I went with the Polaris over the Kubota because it spec'd out with better suspension (ground clearance), towing and bed capacities. I have no regrets in this decision. I "think" that the Mechron wasn't around or wasn't very prime time when I was looking for an UTV. Funny thing about the Brutus is that it was a joint project (or shared engineering) with Bobcat (which rebranded Kioti tractors at one point in time).

 

[lairdandymac]

I don't think that anyone really does a great job on these things. Might be because there's not a large market. I've got a 2013 Polaris Brutus, a Yanmar 23hp diesel, and I'm amazed at how sub-par the engineering/design and materials are. I'm trying to recall what I measured sound levels at, but I seem to recall eclipsing 100db over 3k rpm (wanting to say 112db, but not sure). No doors on my cab, which probably results in a bit higher noise. I am not operating the machine for any real stretch of time so little threat to hearing. It's db over time that is the determiner of potential damage to hearing. Some folks use noise-canceling headphones, but I am not running for very long AND I want to be able to listen for things.

I've cleaned my starter once and rebuilt it once (after the cleaning eventually failed to sustain). Starter is exposed from above between the cab and bed: STUPID! - I've got it on my todo list to make up some sort of shield.

The front suspension is clunking like crazy and I've got to check into that as well.

Tailgate gets froze up and I've pretty much broke it. Another stupid design.

Hardware, such as screws for the rear window, are rusting. This one is a HUGE "are you kidding me?" kind of thing- these are outdoor machines- manufacturers ought to use appropriate fasteners.

Have a small leak, which I believe is hydraulic fluid, but it's underneath and above the skid plate and it's nearly impossible to really see where it's coming from. This is likely the byproduct of this machine having sat for three years on a dealer lot: I think the dealer bought up a bunch of the demo models. As much as I hate leaks I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to live with this one as it would be a LOT of work riping this thing open.

Had it not been for the heavily discounted price there is ZERO way I'd spend the retail price on something like this: I think it was somewhere in the $17k price range; I paid $11k with shipping.

In the Big Picture this machine has been up to the tasks-at-hand. Like all my equipment, it's put to work as much and as often as possible: nothing is kept as a show-room object. I'm able to tow upwards of 2k lbs. I've loaded a good 800 lbs in the bed. Dump bed works well: I was a bit hesitant to believe an electric cylinder would work all that great. Power steering was a huge plus and I'm glad that I got that. HST transmission makes it SLOW; BUT, I have no need to go fast and it works great for my wife (one of the primary reasons for going this route). I'd like to have door for installation in the rainy part of the year but they're horrifically expensive- hard to justify. Much of what we deal with is a minimum of about 50 yards away from the house, so this thing saves a LOT of leg work: and, always, one doesn't have everything that one wants when one gets to where one needs to get to. During the rainy part of the year, which is a lot of the year!, this is the machine that gets used most because of lower ground impact: it's about 2k lbs.

My Brutus is the HD model, which means it has the front hydraulic arm (but no front PTO- I've got tractors with PTOs, don't need any light-weight PTO). It's to handle their over-priced attachments (sweepers, plows etc.). I've used it to push on things and to pull out t-posts, and used it to set and brace fence posts, so not totally useless; however, probably would have been better served by not having this as I'd then have a full bench seat (front gizmo has a lever and console section between the seats).

I went with the Polaris over the Kubota because it spec'd out with better suspension (ground clearance), towing and bed capacities. I have no regrets in this decision. I "think" that the Mechron wasn't around or wasn't very prime time when I was looking for an UTV. Funny thing about the Brutus is that it was a joint project (or shared engineering) with Bobcat (which rebranded Kioti tractors at one point in time).

Its been a while since your post but i thought i'd share this in case it would be helpful. With regards to you front suspension clunking sound: Mine has done this a couple of times as well. Check for play where the ball joints attach to the lower A arm. Its pretty common for there to be some wear in the A arm hole where the ball joints mount, if that's the case the little castle nut likely doesn't tighten the ball joint enough. Was recently told by a tech to simply add washers under the A arm to eliminate the play. From experience its a good idea to check this at least annually so that the play doesn't damage the ball joint. After all it's much easier to add a washer. Overall I really like the functionality of the machine, but there is lots of room for improvements to quality and long term durability.

 

[DieselBound]

Its been a while since your post but i thought i'd share this in case it would be helpful. With regards to you front suspension clunking sound: Mine has done this a couple of times as well. Check for play where the ball joints attach to the lower A arm. Its pretty common for there to be some wear in the A arm hole where the ball joints mount, if that's the case the little castle nut likely doesn't tighten the ball joint enough. Was recently told by a tech to simply add washers under the A arm to eliminate the play. From experience its a good idea to check this at least annually so that the play doesn't damage the ball joint. After all it's much easier to add a washer. Overall I really like the functionality of the machine, but there is lots of room for improvements to quality and long term durability.

Appreciate the input. Unfortunately, the ball joints on my Brutus utilize pinch bolts (example). Cannot readily detect any slop in them. I poked around a bit more and it seems that the noise might be due to strut problems: some slop on one shock mount (rubber, perhaps), and the other shock seems like it is in need of replacing (with weight off the spring flops around; not the case with the other side). Now have to figure out what shocks/struts are available for this thing.