L3130 ?

[32jsabbo]

I am seriously considering purchasing a new L3130 GST. I have approximatly 6-7 acres to maintain. The terrain is hilly in places and is a bit overgrown right now. The dealer says this machine with a 5' medium duty cutter will work fine and should be all I need. I have a friend who has a 3430 DT and has been unimpressed with its power. He claims it will barely pull an incline with the loader attached while finish mowing. This concerns me. I have been comtemplating more Hp but is it really necessary?? Any help would be appreciated

 

[_RaT_]

Your friend is in the wrong gear or needs to find where the accelerator is. The GST is a fine transmission, for hills though, your going to be very hard pressed to beat a HST tractor. No matter the tractor or transmission, all will slow when a load beyond their ability is put upon them. For an overgrown place, you may be going slow on the first cut, but as you tame it, the load decreases and the speed with which you progress in the future only increases. For mowing purposes, wet, inclined, dense and tall grasses are all factors in how well any tractor will perform. While the manual transmissions offer a tad bit more PTO HP, the super speed/stop control afforded by the HST is really not matched by any other transmission. Rat...

 

[orangepeel]

My neighbor has a 3130 and it has all kinds of power. I think it would run out of traction before power. I have a l3600gst and the 3130 seems very equal. I love the gst(poor mans hst). As for the cutter, I have a 5ft and it works great for me with the amount of trees I have to mow around. If you have a small amount of trees I might go a size bigger. The 3130 will in my opinion certainly handle it .
Scott <font color="red"> </font>

 

[_RaT_]

Scott, I understand what your trying to convey here "I love the gst(poor mans hst)" but it really does not ring true. Its hardly more expensive then GST, but for the sake of argument, even if it cost $1000 more for HST, on a $20000 tractor, purchased over 3, 4 or 5 years, its peanuts. The two transmissions are completley different, not really any way to compare them. The GST is just a semi automatic manual that allows shifting without you operating a clutch. All that aside, you are correct, they are both great and the L3130 should be most capable to do the job, even if doing more difficult tasks requires slowing down some especially when mowing up a hill.

 

[hillslider]

The L3130 is a great tractor. I am the proud owner of the HST model and I use a 5' medium duty brush hog to take care of the horse pastures...about 8 acres of hilly West Virginian fields. I can not say how great the HST is on the hills and for mowing. On the real steep stuff where I have to back up the hill I have great control of the motion. When I get to the point I can not go up the hill anymore I let off the pedal and the tractor holds itself there until I decide to ease back down. I thought the GST models were more than the HST? FYI I paid 13200 and 575 for the 5' mower with slip disc.
If you want the greatest tractor around for mowing and on hilly ground I recomend the HST. As for power.....you have to realize it is not a big farm tractor that will mow tall thick grass and mach 3. But I have mowed hood tall thick weeds with no problem....going up or down the hill. All at a speed that was very comfortable and safe.

 

[icat]

Haven't seen your place, but I doubt that it could be any more overgrown than mine. I have just over 18 acres that I purchased last year. The land is mostly flat, but it's got a nice valley in the back that is fairly steep. The land had been mostly ignored for several years when I bought it. Huisache trees had pratically over taken the land by the time the papers were signed. The trees are very bush like and can grow into a nice sized tree, but for the most part they are nasty bushes with 4 or more 1" stalks and thorns up to 2" in length.

After much consideration, research, and reading I went with the L3130. I couldn't be happier. Coupled with a Bush Hog SQ600 5 foot rotary cutter I now have most of the property cleared. Yes, the first cut took some time - about an acre an hour. But keep in mind that I was removing trees as well.

In the cleared areas I can second cut as fast as my poor kidneys can stand. Grounds a bit rough yet and the best I can do is about 4mph. So 5 acres takes about 3 hours or so. If I had a tractor with twice the power I still couldn't run any faster. Of course I could pull a larger mower, but an additional foot would only gain me about a half an hour on 5 acres.

I took the tractor on the road this past weekend to get diesel. The station is about 3 miles from the property and at the top of a long hill with a pretty good grade. The tractor maintained a steady 14mph in high gear all the way up the hill. Max speed per Kubota is only 16mph, so I think it did an excellent job. As a matter of fact, on the flat I got up to 17mph! And this was WITH the FEL and the Bush Hog on the back!

While the L3430 does have a couple more horses, it isn't enough to go "up a size" on the rotary cutter. Test drive the L3130, I think you'll be very impressed. And as for HST, it rocks - get it and don't give it a second thought. For the additional $500 over the GST it's the bargin of the century. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[BWS]

go hst.jmho bws

 

[SageBrush]

Man, I sure can tell the differance in 10 pto hp. The L4330 is no smoother to me, but it handles my 286 bush hog a lot better than expected. 6' tall thick grass is no problem at 4 + mph. It may go faster, but I don't want to. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Like most Kubota owners, I'm very happy with the performance.