CT335........ Right Decision?

[robertwhite]

I was all set to get a Kubota "L" series when I happened upon the Bobcat line. I absolutely love all the features of the CT335, BUT I am wondering if I am making the proper decision.

Here's why.....................My place is 15 acres with about a 50/50 split a lawn vs pasture. All of it is relatively flat. I know the CT335 is the right choice for bush hogging and FEL work. That is without question.

What I am questioning is if the CT335 is TOO heavy for pulling a rear finish mower (RFM) on my clay soil? I am very weary/afraid that with the extra 800lbs or so of the CT335 over the L series Kubota, I will wind up rutting the lawn. Now mind you it is not beautiful golf course grass, it is weeds in an old orchard kind of grass :laughing:, but I still don't want to see huge ruts all over the lawn.

I really need some honest real world experienced use opinions on this.

FYI: Tires are R4 GP, unloaded (I will use a box blade for FEL counterweight).

 

[DK35vince]

I have 15 acres,
About half is lawn and half is field. I use a Kioti DK 35 to brush mow and to mow the lawn.
My DK 35 is about the same size and weight of the Bobcat 335.
Works great for me. Perfect size tractor for 15 acres.
My DK makes a very good lawn mower.
I have a JD 850 with a belly mower that weighs under 2500lbs. My DK 35 has loaded rear tires and weighs close to 4000 Plus lbs.
I can see no differance in damage to my lawn between the 2 tractors.

 

[bbse]

I had a L3010 for 3 years and used a brothers L3450 a lot also. In comparison, I now have a Bobcat CT225. In comparison, I like the CT225 size a lot better. Of course for you it would be a CT 235. It weighs about the same as the L series Kubota but is smaller, has a lower center of gravity and is much more nimble than the L series. I always thought my 3010 was really "tipsy" and I have heard several on the Kioti forum say the same for the DK series. I have hills though but you may not.

As to weight, if you don't load the rear tires and use R4's, I don't think the 335 would be too much worse than the Kubota. I would not want to use either if the ground was soft and/or wet. My rears are loaded and I leave some good ruts in soft ground with my 225.

 

[IslandTractor]

I would not want to use either if the ground was soft and/or wet.

That's the key.

One other consideration is tire size. It is really pounds per square inch of surface contact that determines how the weight is transfered to the turf under the tractor. In theory a BX mower with bicycle tires would do more damage than a monster tractor with dually set up. I cannot find the R4 tire size for the Kubota L3400 on line. The Kioti DK35se uses 27x19.5 front and 43x16 rear. Not sure about the Bobcat but probably the same. It's not easy to figure out the surface contact area but if the Bobcat tires are larger than the Kubota's you can assume some of the extra weight is spread out over larger tire surface contact.

 

[DK35vince]

That's the key.

One other consideration is tire size. It is really pounds per square inch of surface contact that determines how the weight is transfered to the turf under the tractor. In theory a BX mower with bicycle tires would do more damage than a monster tractor with dually set up.

Exactly.
I have found if I try to mow when the ground is to soft after it has rained for a couple days. The tires on my 84" rear finish mower will often do more damage to the lawn than the tractor itself.

 

[Sabretooth]

I have a little over 15ac. here on a hill in Texas I keep 2 acre near house finish mowed with a little garden tractor the rest I let go pasture. If you are from Texas you have heard of the Black earth here and I dont mean oil. I have it(Clay is really a understatement for this crap) and I have to wait about a 5-7 days after a good rain here or my 230 will go well into it about 2-3" without it turning, turning I haven't tried so I cannot say. What size "L" were you looking at?. I know you said you decided on a 335 I went with a 230 and a 5'cutter after shopping private party and C.L.,auctions and every color dealer located near me Orange,Blue,couple different Reds,Green and Yellow. Well I finally mowed the other weekend I did about 3/4 of it anywhere from 3-5' tall except where water collects to go to creek that was well over my head standing with I'd say up to 2" saplings in it and I did it in 4hours in med range. Even on the hills I found it is a very stable easy tractor to operate than a 790 is and it cut it great I cannot comment on a Kubota as they were priced too high even the used ones. I did not have to change gears once except to take it out of it to clean the off front and blow out radiator screen(which can anybody tell me? why do they even bother putting a screw to hold it if you cannot pull it out anyway) and try Hi Yeah right that was to freaking bumpy but it did it no problem. I went down to Bobcat because the 230 specials going on but I looked at the 3 series Bobcat but didn't bite because of few reasons one being the price difference, it was a larger frame meant more weight to tow around think around grand more overall with Fel and attachments and I think it only has 3 to 4 more PTO hp than the littler 230 but I think Bobcat underates the PTO on these tractors just because from what I read everything and everybody said "You should go at least 5Pto hp per cutting foot especially if you have a Hydro". I think it might even be able to use a 6' cutter with this after running the 5' on the mine it just chewed it up did not drop rpm once or shrug this was running just under 2K rpm, I know the 235 would do a 6' without blinking. I will say this on the 335 I liked the idea of having the seperate foot pedals of the floor board for the Hydro pedals. But I find it only needs brakes if I get off the thing to park it.(I wont be buying brakes anytime soon) otherwise it stops when I let off the pedal and the 3series has a few extra inches underneath it. Maybe someone else know if the loader is much different on the 3series than the 2's in height I know it is only like 2-300 more in capacity but it might be higher so it could load a taller truck. I found the 335 just was not the right one for me. Good luck with the purchase and remember as for the tractor as long as you go White it will always be right at the end of the day.

 

[robertwhite]

Thanks for the reviews guys.

In comparing the 235 vs 335, I determined that the larger size, foot controls, better seat (standard), independent PTO, etc on the larger tractor were better suited to my needs. I hope to find a used 7ft RFM and a 6ft rotary and I know the 335 will pull them without even trying hard. Hopefully the extra 1K lbs over the L3400/L3700 won't hurt its RFM footprint capabilities.

 

[robertwhite]

The Kioti DK35se uses 27x19.5 front and 43x16 rear.

I cannot find the R4 tire size for the Kubota L3400 on line.

CT uses 27x10.5-15 6PR front & 43x16-20 4PR rear according to the brochure. You sure the DK35 front size is correct? (possibly 9.5 instead of 19.5?)

R4 for L3400 is 27 x 8.5-15 front & 15-19.5 rear whatever that means

From what I can figure out of Kubota's wacky brochure sizing, it seems like the CT335 uses wider and taller tires, so that may in fact alleviate some of the extra weight issue.

 

[IslandTractor]

CT uses 27x10.5-15 6PR front & 43x16-20 4PR rear according to the brochure. You sure the DK35 front size is correct? (possibly 9.5 instead of 19.5?)

R4 for L3400 is 27 x 8.5-15 front & 15-19.5 rear whatever that means

From what I can figure out of Kubota's wacky brochure sizing, it seems like the CT335 uses wider and taller tires, so that may in fact alleviate some of the extra weight issue.

Typo: should have been 27x10.5 front on the Kioti. Sorry.

Sounds like the Kioti/CT tires are a bit wider which does mitigate some of the extra weight.

 

[Gittyup]

I took my CK25 into my vegetable garden a couple of years ago. Where I worked it, the soil became very compacted. I wasn't in there but a few minutes either and the soil was not muddy nor real dry. Had to go over it several times with a walk-behind tiller to get it back like it was before I took the tractor in there. My garden is compost and manure amended clay, not quite loamy and not quite heavy clay.

My point is that compaction would be my concern more so than rutting. Though rutting will occur, if it's soft. However, I don't think there will be any signficant difference between the 335 and the L-series Kubota. They are both very heavy. So, if you don't want to compact your lawn, and to minimize rutting, you'll just have to use something much lighter, like a BX or GT or a zero turn for the finish mowing.