Well, we took the plunge

[Dieselrider]

It arrived yesterday. A brand new Kubota L3800 4x4 with the loader and backhoe. First new tractor I have ever owned. Also first compact tractor here. Will be getting familiarized over the next few months. Primarily use will be truck patch type gardening and general maintenance on the farm.

Is there a source for a set of manuals for parts and service? Will Kubota have them or someone else? Always like to have those for equipment that we have. Anyone owning this model have any input such as what to be cautious about or keep an eye on? Thanks for your input.

 

[Mike476]

Just bought new myself a few months ago, got my manuals from the dealer at a better price than I could anywhere else as part of the purchase agreement.

Congratulations on the new tractor!

 

[Gary Fowler]

First, congratulation on your purchase. If you are like me, then you will find many uses for the backhoe, at least for several months then it may slow down a bit. I have had mine for over 18 months and still find enough uses for it that I have yet to remove the backhoe from it, but I do have another tractor for 3 ph work when needed.

As with all tractors, the most important thing to do is after 10 hours, check all the bolts on rims and FEL/backhoe mounting brackets in particular. These all have a tendency to loosen up OR not be completely tighten by dealers. After doing that give all the other bolts on the tractor a test for tighteness. I may have the terms wrong but I had the final drive bolts on the front axles loosen off on one of my tractors. The are the bolts on the back side of the housing that holds the front axle. Failure to keep any of these bolts tight can cause some serious NON-WARRANTY covered damage to the tractor.
Grease ALL the grease points even though these should have been done at the dealer. The grease zerks on the FEL and backhoe must be greased every 10 hours (daily) of operation as a minimum to prevent pin wear. Failure to do so will leave you with a bunch of sloppy joints in the equipment in a very short period of time.
If you have an air compressor, I would suggest that you get a pneumatic powered grease gun as it is so much easier to hold the tip with one hand and just pull the trigger rather than trying to hold the tip on the zerk and pump at the same time. Many of the zerks will be located such that you will need to have a flexible hose on your grease gun which makes you need a partner to hold it while you pump. A pneumatic gun doesn't need two people to operate it. Some folks prefer to use the Lincoln battery powered guns, but at over $200 cost, I will stick with my $20 pneumatic one.

 

[jeff9366]

New tractor, good man. Wherever you are, I wish you good weather.

Congratulations.

 

[sixdogs]

Great tractor and great setup with TLB. Pictures would be nice if you can get them since this is a dream rig for many guys.

On the parts and shop manuals, everyone wants to buy them in anticipation of something going wrong but in all seriousness nothing is likely to break and your owner's manual has all the info you will ever need. In my closet right now are several sets of Kubota parts and shop manuals that have never been used and I know I'm not alone.

Congrats on the wisdom to buy that tractor with a bucket and a backhoe. Now, don't forget the pictures.

 

[azkubotaguy]

Congrats! I just bought a L3800 HST 4x4 with FEL a couple months ago, you will love this machine. My tractor came with owners manuals for the tractor, fel, gannon, mower, etc. in a big 3 ring binder. The owners manual is quite complete with maintenance information, etc.

 

[TripleR]

Congratulations on your new tractor, I'm not all that familiar with that model so I can't offer anything in the way of advice.

 

[ctgoldwing]

Good luck with your new acquisition! I get mine paid off this year

 

[wmonroe]

Congrats, the L3800 is a nice machine. Lots of good advice has already been given, not sure I can add anything else. How about some pictures of the new tractor?

 

[Dieselrider]

Was out playing on it just a bit today. Nearly have it worn out! A whole 1.6 hours on the meter now. LOL! Here are a few photos. I should have taken pics when it was up in the high tunnel. I think they would have looked better there but, I didn't have a real camera up there. My phone camera leaves alot to be desired. I was pulling and gathering some plants then running them to the compost pile. Already have the tires and loader bucket dirty.





I have not had the three point on yet but I think it will do most of what we need here ( laying plastic mulch, rototilling, cultivating, brush hogging pastures, feeding round bales and probably a 100 other things I haven't thought of as yet. We already have several projects lined up for the backhoe. I was already thinking that the backhoe bucket could be used in the high tunnel for "broad forking" (usually done by hand with a two handled broad "fork" with 12 or so inch tines that are driven into the soil by standing/ jumping on the cross member of the fork, wiggled back and forth and then lifted, moved 6-8 inches and the process repeated. It is a way of aerating and loosening the soil without tilling) Good exercise but labor intensive and time consuming.

Anyway, if I put longer teeth or bolted a bar of sort on the backhoe bucket, I could see using it for that job. Not that I won't have many uses for the regular set up already. Just thinking.