Silly question

[gwmullins]

Forgive me for bringing up such a trivial matter, but while trying to make a decision on buying a Kubota BX1500 or a JD GX335, this matter seems to be buggin me. The new Kubotas at my dealer all seem to have some minor surface rust on them; not the tractor itself but primarily on the 3 point hitch and some of the mounting brackets for it. Is this typical for even a new tractor? The dealer says most any new tractor on his lot has some rust on it. Just wondering what you guys think, as if I buy the thing I would want to touch these areas up and keep it looking as good as I could going forward. I just dont like rust.

 

[_RaT_]

It's very typical and in all brands. They all get chains, straps and crates that can contribute to paint scratching off. Back East I'm pretty sure rust is a bigger problem then out West so your concern is understanable. My Dad worked for Aerojet for many years. He would mention how the German rocket engines back in the 50's would come to the US all rusted and not nearly as pretty as our stainless componet engines. He mentioned too that ours would not fire nearly as nice as the German made rockets.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

It is pretty typical to find a little bit of rust on the 3pt parts.

I would think if you find rust on the frame, or the body then run away. But little specks on the 3pt are nothing. And you may find that in some climates people will say they never see rust, while in other areas of the country rust is much more common.

 

[BotaGuy]

The gray paint gets banged up. You can touch it up, but after use, with chains implements etc. The nicks show up again.

 

[BIGUN]

While shopping for my BX1500 I noticed most of them had rust on the small cast arms to 3 point hitch. Don't know why it forms there, maybe the way it is crated, but it has not been a problem.

 

[Tom_H]

No offense to JD here, but you're comparing apples to oranges. The GX335 is a garden tractor. The BX1500 is a sub-compact utility tractor. I can't tell from the JD web photo of the tiller for the 335 whether that hitch is Cat 0 or something even less, though it appears to have some sort of PTO. The BX1500 has a Category 1, three-point hitch, with a standard PTO. There are so many things more you can do with the Cat 1 3ph than a Cat 0 or proprietary hitches & belt driven PTOs. Kubota & JD both make good tractors in each of these categories, but I'd recommend comparing apples to apples. Before you buy, I'd highly recommend that you do some more research about tractor classifications. This is a great place to start:

The Small Tractor FAQ

As far as the hitch arms, any tractor that you allow to do real work is gonna' get banged up some. Now I keep my BX2200 washed & garaged but I also use a sledgehammer on those arms when attaching & disattaching implements. It ain't gonna' hurt any. Beautiful as tractors are /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif they were designed to do work, not sit in an art gallery. My neighbor's got 2 Ford tractors, one from the 30's & 1 from the 40's. They both show age in their looks but they both are still runnin' strong. Rust on a brand new body, I'd wonder whether somebody'd already been plowin' snow on a salted driveway, but the 3ph lookin' less than perfect-don't worry.

 

[don716]

Well,this is my 2 cents worth.,I'm very picky with my tractor purchase too. I told my Kubota dealer to give me the one on the showroom floor. It was taken out of the crate then put together and then straight to the showroom floor. It looked good too.,all shinny. I want my tractor to look like my vehicles when I buy a new one.They are new and should look that way.If any scratches or places for rust to form I want to be the one to put it on there.
Your question is not silly at all to me. Tractors cost too much to have them scratched up or rusted when you buy them.
Donny /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif