Should I have bought a Deere rant!

[Ducati07]

I could have purchased any tractor I felt was the best tractor for my application. A couple of months ago I went with a brand new, 2013 model Kubota L45 TLB. I had them throw in a Landpride flail mower to the contract. I just hit 75 hrs on it and so far, I have mostly used it for mowing and around 10 hours or so doing dirt work. A couple of days ago, I couldn't be happier with my purchase....today, I'm wondering if I should have went with a Deere because of some pretty small stuff. But, that just has me afraid of what's to come in the future with this machine that I spent a heck of a lot of money on. Is it a lemon?

Two days ago....I'm 2 hours into a job that's going to take around 6 to finish. I break down. Everyone knows that downtime kills a job! I'm 45 minutes from home and my three point hitch will not raise. I put the mower down and I felt like the handle went limp. Sure enough, I look around and I see the roll pin came out of the linkage on the lift/lower handle. I was very, very fortunate that the pin was still there, barely hanging on. I took off the cover by the seat and by a small miracle, I was able to get that pin out, and back in within 30 minutes. It could have been much worse if I had to leave the mower there, go home for repairs, and back another time to finish the job and pick up my mower. I was very lucky and I know that could have been a costly down time experience. I'm not cheap to hire and time is money!

Today....I get a call and someone needs 4 hours of dirt work and some mowing. No problem I tell him...I'll be there at 10 am sharp. I'm NEVER late. I cleaned my air filter and washed my radiator off and I'm ready to go. No, not so fast. My stupid hood won't close! Ever since the day I bought this thing, the hood has been really hard to close. Today, I never was able to close it...it's still open! I showed up on time but I spent 1/2 hour trying to close that lame hood. Once again, I am very lucky because I back my tractor on while the mower is attached to make it fit. Otherwise, I guess I would have had to tie it shut with rope? That would be very lame, new tractor with a rope tied to the hood!!! I really not happy because in trying to close the hood 500 times...it made a very small dent in the hood. I am very picky about dents and this one is very small. But, what the heck!

What if I get a call right now for backhoe work? I front load the backhoe. The hood will rip off going down the highway. Yeah, you'll know it's me because I'm the guy with rope tied on the hood of his new Kubota tractor.

I know these issues are not major but how often are small stupid stuff like this going to pop up? How am I going to close my darn hood!!! I actually lost money today because I didn't have time to fuel up before the job and the guy decided he wanted a lot more work done after he saw what I could get done. I was able to stick around for a few more hours but I could have spent a couple more there.

Should I have bought a Deere? Maybe....

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I dont know that a deere would solve your problem. I have a L3400 with 450hrs on it with 0 problems. I have a 5083E and have had several "problems" with it. Snapped retaining ring in an SCV, a pin broke or was installed incorrectly in my diff lock. Now my float doesn't work in the #1 scv. I think the AC could be colder, but I have a fix for that. I do always have zip ties, electrical tape and a good tool box full of wrenches and sockets when i'm tractoring!

 

[kuboman]

You may not get much sympathy here. The hood can be adjusted so it will close, 5 min. Roll pins fall out occasionally, probably in your case in was never put in properly. These are the kind of problems I have seen in every machine I have ever owned. Trade it on a Deere and buy yourself different problems.

 

[AStanton]

Ducati,
I had a supervisor once, who had some great sayings. One was: "In life, it's not the elephants that kill you, it's the gnats!"
I know when we are busy and need our machines, it stinks to have down time for repairs. I would tell you to take a deep breathe and be thankful for any problems that time and money can fix.
Good luck.

 

[dragoneggs]

Ducati, I had a supervisor once, who had some great sayings. One was: "In life, it's not the elephants that kill you, it's the gnats!" I know when we are busy and need our machines, it stinks to have down time for repairs. I would tell you to take a deep breathe and be thankful for any problems that time and money can fix. Good luck.

Well said!!!

 

[engine29]

Deere is not the perfect machine. They have their share of problems as well. No brand is perfect, besides your problems are minor. Things happen.

 

[Cherokee140]

Interesting. A machine with thousands of parts...and it should be perfect.

Good luck with that.

 

[andrehoude123]

When we first got our l45 the loader controls stopped working after 5 hours of work called the dealer got it fixed just a little linkage problem and since then everything is good i now have 260 hours on it and always starts right up
Overall Kubota is an amazing machine

 

[Ducati07]

Ducati,
I had a supervisor once, who had some great sayings. One was: "In life, it's not the elephants that kill you, it's the gnats!"
I know when we are busy and need our machines, it stinks to have down time for repairs. I would tell you to take a deep breathe and be thankful for any problems that time and money can fix.
Good luck.

Well said...I like that. Very true.

 

[Ducati07]

You may not get much sympathy here. The hood can be adjusted so it will close, 5 min. Roll pins fall out occasionally, probably in your case in was never put in properly. These are the kind of problems I have seen in every machine I have ever owned. Trade it on a Deere and buy yourself different problems.

Please tell me how to adjust this hood in 5 minutes. From what I can tell...there is no adjustment at all on my L45. Not happening.

Roll pins do fall out, I realize. However, after only 70 hours...quality control comes to mind.

I realize that all machines have issues. I've been through many new machines and I guess I've been lucky so far. If you've seen these kinds of problems on EVERY machine you've owned with less than two weeks of work on it....man, you've got some bad luck!

I also realize that Deere and Kubotas are arch rivals so that's why I said Deere.

 

[Ducati07]

Interesting. A machine with thousands of parts...and it should be perfect.

Good luck with that.

Yes, as a matter of fact I do expect perfection in the first two weeks of work with a new piece of equipment. Luck shouldn't be a part of it.

It was just a rant though...I'll get over it and I'm sure I'll get many good years out of it.

 

[kuboman]

Please tell me how to adjust this hood in 5 minutes. From what I can tell...there is no adjustment at all on my L45. Not happening.

Roll pins do fall out, I realize. However, after only 70 hours...quality control comes to mind.

I realize that all machines have issues. I've been through many new machines and I guess I've been lucky so far. If you've seen these kinds of problems on EVERY machine you've owned with less than two weeks of work on it....man, you've got some bad luck!

I also realize that Deere and Kubotas are arch rivals so that's why I said Deere.

The hood is contacting somewhere before it should not allowing the latch to lock. Careful examination should find the problem. There are 2 spring assist rubber stoppers one on either side of the latch, maybe they need some fine tuning.

 

[Ducati07]

Not bad kuboman...I have to give you some credit there. I tried raising those are far as I could and had no luck. Then, I removed them and slamed it down hard, no luck. So I slammed it down as hard as I could...bang! It worked! Another thing that's makes this strange is that when I lower the hood to catch the latch, I've got to move the hood a little to the drivers left to center the latch. That seems weird. I would think it would just line up.

I think the bracket that those springs are on and that the pin is on that catches the latch...need a custom grinding to allow the pin to go down far enough to catch the latch. I really don't see any other way. It sure seems weird though.

Thanks for the idea though...you are on right on track!

 

[s219]

While annoying, especially if you depend on the equipment for a living, I probably wouldn't get so worked up over small problems. Shoot, if it's not your tractor, something else will get you. Roll with it and move on.

If the hood opens and closes full range but doesn't latch, see if the pin or strike can be adjusted. Something clearly needs a tweak. If it's not closing full range, look for rub/wear marks and go from there. Something may be interfering, evens slightly. Even a small amount of interference far from the swing arc can translate into inches near the latch. Good luck!

 

[TripleR]

Yes, it's frustrating on any new machine and while I don't expect problems, we owned/own several different brands and my brother owns additional ones and we have encountered them from time to time with most all brands though not all tractors we've owned. We had to have a complete engine replacement on a green tractor a few years ago, but still really like them.

I hope you get yours straightened out and get many years of service.

 

[skyhook]

Duc,, just curious, when you first checked out this machine, did the hood work well?
If it did, I'm thinking something "shifted', either where the latch is conected too,
or the hood itself.
Quality Control may have had a bad day when they assembled this one.
And I agree, on a new machine like this, the last thing you want is downtime,
I mean, thats why you bought new in the first place.

 

[CHDinCT]

Given it's new, call the dealer and have them fix the hood at your convenience. Tell them you had such a hard time closing it that it's now dented and I'll bet, if you have a good dealer, they'll get Kubota to give you a new one. If it was a quick, easy fix, which it appears not to be, I'd say adjust it yourself, but if the issue is a mystery, let the dealer deal with it.

 

[Kenneth in Texas]

L2800 here with 350 pretty hard hours and ZERO problems with it, guy down the road has a deere and has had numerous probs.

 

[RDrancher]

I have a box loaded with the "little things" for my tractor...fuel filters, roll pins, bolts and other assorted goodies. Of course, hose clamps, a few lengths of fuel hose and a roll of baling wire are a must. I'm in the process of putting another box together for my CTL. I keep a good supply of fluids for each onboard as well. It's just part of the game.

Just be thankful and roll with it...you could be spending your days working in a cubicle.

 

[lhansman]

Hi Ducati

I have had problems with the hood latch on my L45 for two years and 660 hours of use now. I asked the dealer to look at it almost everytime it was in for servicing and they could get it to latch but then during use it would pop open again. I installed the pre-cleaner intake kit so fortunately even if the latch releases it won't blow open although I always back my L45 into the trailer.

I had the dealer look at the hood latch again a few weeks ago and it now seems to finally stay latched. I haven't had any problems with the three point hitch or anything else so far.

Regards,

Lauren