Welcome to the asylum. You'll find a wealth of info on TBN about the L series Kubotas. Every time mine breaks I find lots of folks that have had the same problem and many times they have provided good advise on how to fix it.
I think a lot of people, myself included, purchase an L thinking they can use them to clear land, dig up stumps, move heavy rocks, and do big grading jobs. My neighbor says a CUT is great for maintaining stuff, but you need a real backhoe to build stuff. I learned the first time I tried to pull out a 2" oak that the wheels would spin and the tractor would just sit there. I also learned that carrying many loads of soil and gravel on a side hill is a good way to break the castings on the front hubs and loader mounts. My
L3240 HST has almost 2000 hours on it now, and it came to me with 1300 hours. The previous owner learned that using it like a bulldozer will warp the bottom lip of the bucket and rip the top hydraulic cylinder mounts right off the LA724 FEL. And deferring grease will wear out the pivot bushings (an issue I'm currently trying to resolve). Several folks here have had the propeller shaft seals fail in their transmissions, and learned all about splitting the tractor as a result. I can tell you, that's a real fun job in a freezing garage in December. It's even more fun when you're headed down a steep hill with a bucket full of rock and the splines in the front coupling of that same propeller shaft strip. All of a sudden you're gaining speed with no brakes (they're only on the back wheels which are unweighted by the heavy load up front), but if you're quick on your feet maybe you'll realize you can drop the bucket and avoid an abrupt stop when you hit that big oak at the bottom. I've done a fair amount of trenching with a little Nardi backhoe on the back, but even a bread box sized rock can take a long time to dig around and out. I've used an auger to dig a few fence post holes, but usually end up with a spud bar when I hit rock. Filters and hydraulic oil seem overly expensive at the dealer, and now that Ronnie's TractorSmart site lost access to Kubota parts, there doesn't seem to be any alternative.
All negatives aside, I've gotten a LOT of work done with this little tractor, a heck of a lot more than I could have with a wheelbarrow, shovel, and push mower. My little slice of heaven features hillsides so steep they're difficult to walk, but in 4WD the tractor will go right up, happily running a 60" Bush Hog all the way. The 72" box blade won't cut down through the limestone rock that underlies my Jeep trail driveway, but it does a fine job spreading gravel and evening out ruts. It's also handy for chaining up logs to skid them out of brush piles, and the 4in1 on the FEL makes a good saw buck in a pinch. It's also good for grabbing the giant poison oak trees we have around here and pulling them out by the roots. All my firewood is on pallets, and the L has no trouble moving almost half a cord of oak in one go. I've moved a lot of mulch and top soil, and the compact size has let me get into places a bigger tractor just wouldn't go. I've mixed a fair amount of concrete in the bucket, more than would ever fit in a wheelbarrow, and I have yet to tip the bucket over. Last summer I terraced a notch in my hillside below the house and moved an empty 385 gallon propane tank into it. The trench to the new location was dug by the Nardi, and the pallet forks made short work of bringing the retaining wall blocks down the steep hillside.
The same neighbor that has the backhoe also has a similarly sized Deere CUT, and comparing the two side by side shows that the Deere is built to last with heavier castings, larger pins, and thicker plate. Were I to do it again and knowing what I know now, I'd probably end up with something green or yellow instead of orange, something significantly bigger, and rather than trying to save money by inheriting somebody's else's problems, I'd buy new.
As with most things in life, your mileage may vary.
