John Deere V Kubota

[Anonymous Poster]

I realy wanted to by American, I have always liked John Deere. However I compared the two owner sites on tractorbynet and cant believe the deference between the two brands.
It's like chicken [censored] and chicken salad. It saddens me to say but I have to go with the Kubota, while your on the net trying to find an answer to you problem, I will be out working my tractor.

 

[cowboydoc]

Ed,
This has been debated many times so I won't go into it too much here. Look in the Off Topic forum and you will see a list of problems with tractors. Kubota owners reported just as many problems as others. I don't think anyone works their tractor as hard as I do mine and I have had zero real problems with mine. I know other people in the same boat. JD has two basic problems with their that others didn't. One wasn't really a design problem but a user problem. The front end scuffed the grass when you mowed with it. JD brought out a new front end for those who wanted it. I didn't because the old front end is better for everything but mowing. The other problem is that some of them had problems with the hydros. Even that though was only on a few models and not widely spread. Yes there were a few problems when jd first came out but no more than any other new design that comes out. JD got a bad rap for this that I don't feel was deserved. The 4000 series is a very good tractor to have. The only reason that JD is coming out with the 10 series now is because there was so much bad press from the 00 series they felt they needed to come out with a new design. JD claims that they have the lowest work claims on subcompact of any mfg. I know that doesn't mean anything to anyone because it came from JD. I have yet to see any documentation though that the 4000 series had anymore warranty work done than any other brand.

Either way you go though you will have made a good choice. Both are excellent tractors and will provide you with many years of service.

 

[Jag]

Ed, by all means Buy American. The JD 4200 uses an Yammar engine, small Ford/NewHolland's uses a Shibaura engine...

 

[JATO_RaT]

Ed, if you want an American made compact, then John Deere and the New Holland compacts are out. You'll have to look hard to find them but they are there. Try Powertrac.com. Of course some of their compacts use foreign parts like engines. You say it saddens you to have to drop your moral buying standards as an American and buy some foreign product, lets just hope that every other country in this world doesn't feel that way about having to be saddened to buy American products. Caterpillar, IBM, Microsoft, you name it, they'll all be in trouble. I'll buy American when its of equal and better value, that includes quality and maitainability. I will not go out and buy an American product that either does'nt exist or is inferior just to feel good and give the manufactuerer a pat on the back and encourage him/her to continue buliding inferior products. Fortunately, I don't see it that much and in fact, most good stuff is made here and for the most part, the inferior products come from China. Valves, tools, flashlights, you name it, those from China are indeed inferior but then so is the price. Now cheer up Ed and go get the best made compact sold in the US but not made in the US, be it Kubota, John Deere or New Holland, Rat...

 

[JATO_RaT]

Richard, there is a reason why JD is coming out with the new series and its not just to be more competitive. Two local JD dealers both admit that the 4000 series had way to many manufactuer claims particularly with the HST and it was forcing JD to do some redesigning. As I mentioned to you before, the primary problem has been in the HST models which you are free of. I have spoken with JD dealers pretty extensively because as you know I'm looking for a replacement tractor. I only want HST and becasue this is the focus of the problems with JD, it's out. I have hopes that JD will come out with a winner with it's 4X00, particularly with its HST line as it ends up being better for all of us, including Kubota and New Holland owners, Ed will perhaps be the only one saddened or maybe not, he thinks the JD's are all American anyway. Best Wishes, Rat...

 

[Hillbilly]

<font color=blue>JD has two basic problems with their that others didn't. One wasn't really a design problem but a user problem. The front end scuffed the grass when you mowed with it. JD brought out a new front end for those who wanted it. I didn't because the old front end is better for everything but mowing.</font color=blue>


Richard I could not agree with you more about the front axle and you could not have summed it up any better....<font color=red> was not a design problem but a user problem</font color=red>.... I have looked at the new front on the JD 4000 series and they are not as strong looking as the old axle. I wish John Deere would just give you the choice of axles to buy.I prefer the old one because it is a stronger looking built axle. I heard Dana made the old axles,I wonder who makes the new design?
I had a hydro problem,but it was damaged from metal shavings from the differental lock failure,not a design flaw on the hydro. Other than that I do not know much about JD 4000 series hydro problems.

 

[MJB]

Dana Spicer made both the old and the new front axles for the JD 4000 series.

I love the smell of diesel in the morning./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[kerr]

Great ol big smiley face from Kerr fer sure!

 

[RobertN]

The playing field is pretty flat these days. It mostly comes down to the features and layout you prefer, more than one being decidedly better than the the other.

Now, if you want to buy American, and get a compact, go to Ebay. Every once in a while, you can find a JD "L" model out there. That's about as close as you'll come to real American compact tractors. From what I understand, based on discussions here, the new JD series is what, about 1/2 American made?

It would be great if someone would really make a complete tractor here, but with a globally diverse economy and supply chain, that will never happen again. We'll have to be happy with sub components...

RobertN in Shingle Springs Calif