Looking at a Kubota G5200...

[Lobanz]

Found a Kubota G5200 diesel riding mower for $1500. 48" deck. Can't see anything wrong with it. Doesn't seem to leak anything. Runs well. Plenty of power. Seems to have been maintained reasonably well. About 750 hours on it. Steering a little loose, but not much.

But my problem is that I cut a little of the guy's grass -- well it was a patch of weeds -- and it didn't seem to cut it evenly. Lots of stuff still sticking up. Tried slowing down, but still not that great. Plenty of power though -- didn't seem to even notice that the grass/weeds was there -- even in dense underbrush. The blades were pretty dull though. But, I'm pretty sure my 10 year old Murray riding mower would have given a much better cut, even in those weeds, even with dull blades. What's up with that?

Other than that, it seems like a reasonable deal.

The mowing deck is in good shape and it has 3 blades. Very SHORT blades. Like 10" long or so. I wonder if the blades just don't spin fast enough because they are so short. Throttle was about 85% -- no tach. Sounded like about 2600-2700 RPMs. Owner says that it cuts great, that it was just tough weeds.

Think this is a reasonable deal? Any ideas why it didn't cut very well?

 

[Branchchipper]

I have a slightly more modern version of this tractor, a G1800S, that I bought new in 1994. It is an excellent machine, and I have had VERY few problems with it.

If the air filter and oil look pretty clean, I'd buy it for that price...

Replacement mower blades seem very inexpensive at my local dealer- I would just put a new set on, do some general deck cleaning and rehab, and I'm betting it will cut very well!!

 

[XSKIER]

The mowing deck is in good shape and it has 3 blades. Very SHORT blades. Like 10" long or so.

Think this is a reasonable deal? Any ideas why it didn't cut very well?

A 48" deck requires three blades of at least 16 3/8". No wonder the weeds were left standing.

 

[Lobanz]

A 48" deck requires three blades of at least 16 3/8". No wonder the weeds were left standing.

??? 16 3/8 * 3 = 49 1/8. Perhaps they are offset so they longer blades can overlap the cutting area. I didn't measure them. They were just remarkably short compared to other mowers I've seen. I don't think they were the wrong blades or anything.

I can see how short blades would keep it from bogging down -- not much lever arm for the torque load to work against -- but it seems like the blade tip speed would suffer. The gear box must be about 2:1.

Do you GXXXX owners mow with the throttle wide open?

 

[Branchchipper]

Yes- wide open throttle, per manual and dealer.

I've noticed neighbors with inefficient cutting also sometimes had thoroughly clogged deck undersides- in other words, no one had hosed/scraped out the built-up debris for months, and there was only enough room for the blades to spin.

This does not allow for lift and circulation of grass as it is cut, proper discharge, etc, etc...

 

[aczlan]

Dinged up/dull blades will cause that problem especially if mowing at less than WOT.
Dad has a 5200 and likes it better than the 4200 it replaced.

Aaron Z

 

[Lobanz]

OH YEAH!

Got it home last night. Ended up getting it for $1300. 746 hours on working meter.

Sharpened the blades. Mowed at full throttle. This morning we went through tall wet grass as fast as the mower would go and it left an absolutely smooth cut (Fescue and weeds, not dense Bermuda). No way my 14.2 HP 42" gas Murray would do that.

Got it off the trailer last night and had no steering! Steering wheel just spun round and round and would lift up about 12" or so like it was gonna come out. They boys and I lit into it in a flurry of wrenches and sockets. I was fussing with the getting the pin out of the HST pedal and before I knew it they had the seat off and were lifting the fiberglass deck off. Turns out that the washer and cotter pin on the bottom of the steering shaft wasn't there and the shaft came up and out of the hole it goes in (got a steering system diagram from Messicks). I think the trailer bouncing up and down knocked it out -- was a long drive home. We removed the big gear that moves the Pittman arm and re-positioned the steering shaft and now all is well. Went back together as easy as it came apart. Squirted it with some white lithium grease. Need to get a washer and pin and figure out how to lubricate that bearing down there.

Two outer blades came off easy, but couldn't get the middle one off -- didn't have a wrench that big and didn't want to bugger it up with channel locks (sprayed some PB Blaster on it -- it's not backwards threaded is it?). So we sharpened it in place with an angle grinder. Did a nice job, but of course you can't make sure that it's balanced that way. We have a 2 ton chain hoist (designed to hold static loads) attached to a large double 2x12 beam on the barn and we just hoist up the front of the mowers to get at the blades. Works well and is pretty safe.

Got a small little city lawn to cut today. I'm sure it will make short work of it.

Think I'm gonna get the discharge deflector (for safety) and fix the headlights -- our schedule is so crazy, we often mow at or after dusk.

We like it a lot so far. Thing has so much power, it's like using a dump truck to move your furniture.

I'm sure I will have lots of question. There seem to be some very experienced G5200 owners here. I appreciate the site!