[Pelican]

I know many here are not in the lawn care business, but for those who are I'd like to share my Kubota experience.

2 seasons ago I was shopping for a replacement for my Skag Z rider which had been troublesome from the day I purchased it. I wanted a diesel powered machine since I have fuel storage here and that would eliminate frequent trips to the gas station. This limited my selection to Skag, Exmark and Kubota, the only models sold locally.

The price tag and past performance of my Skag scared me off that machine, plus the diesel had a 2 1/2" turbocharger on it. That scared me too, I suspected early failure of the turbo considering the size and environment, plus I don't suspect my guys would allow proper cool down .


I stopped at the Exmark dealer twice to see their machine, the salesman said he'd call with info but he never did follow up after my repeated calls. If I can't get serviced by sales, what can I expect from the service department?

Anyway, the Kubota was $2000 less than the nearest competitor and came with some added features. It has a hydraulic hoist for the deck, a wet clutch for the PTO, shaft driven deck and built in jack for easy blade removal. I bought a 60" deck.

This machine has proven to be one of the smartest purchases I've made! I've gone from using 7 gallons of gas a day to about 3 1/2 gallons of diesel. I never lack for power and this machine hugs side hills tremendously! The quality of cut is at least as good as the machine I replaced, but not quite as nice as my 52" walk behind.

I've got nearly 1000 hours on it and have made only three repairs. One a flat tire, then the fan belt rubbed a hole in a cooling hose (mis-located hose) and a stripped blade nut (my fault). I made all the repairs myself, while my other machines had made numerous visits to the dealer with fewer hours.

There are 2 changes I'd make to the machine, and one of those Kubota has already addressed. My front anti scalp wheels sometimes scrape the turf when turning into a hill, Kubota has replaced these with swiveling models on the new decks.

The other is the blade attachment. They use a system of small gauge threaded bolt with an oversized washer to hold the blade on the spindle. You must be very careful not to cross thread when changing blades, there are a lot of things to hold in place while doing it. I managed to strip one so far, fortunately I didn't damage the spindle. I keep a spare nut/washer assembly in the truck now, "just in case" as these are specialized items.

I'd recommend this machine to anyone considering a new Z rider, it has served me very well so far!

[Pelican]

I had a major problem with this machine a few weeks ago, the first. My crew chief called and said the machine was vibrating badly and making noise when he tried to move it. I went to investigate and noticed the hydro oil was down just a hair and the pump sounded like it was starving. I topped it off and started it, but no change. When I tried to load it on the trailer, it got halfway there and BANG!, something broke and the machine was DOA.

I dropped it at the dealer and got a report a couple days later. Apparently they used a bearing that was too small on drive unit on early models, this had failed on the left side and that axle was dead. The input shaft had broken and contaminated the rest of the system.

My machine was 25 months old, the warranty is 2 years, but Kubota instructed the dealer to back date the work order so it was covered as they were aware it had a problem. Not only did they replace the damaged drive unit, but they replaced the other side as well along with a number of hydraulic components. I had to pay labor on the job which came to just over $300, but I saw the parts list which totaled to almost $5000!! Kubota stepped up to the plate in my opinion.

I've had another problem with this machine since my last post too. The seat has a suspension system to absorb bumps, and it has bushings with bolts as pivot points. I'm not sure what caused this, but 3 of 4 bolts were broken and 2 of 4 bushings had worn through and egg shaped the holes in one pivot bracket. I've got parts on order, we'll see how long the repair lasts.

Kubota has also come out with a higher lift blade than what the machine came with. This has improved the cut dramatically on par with the most respected brands. All in all, I'm still happy with my purchase and the service I've received.

[Pelican]

It's been a while since I posted about my Kubota. Kubota made a number of improvements (or so I thought) to the ZD28 and with the troubles I had with the transmission on mine I decided to upgrade in the '05 season to the new model. Improvements were the fabricated deck vs. the stamped deck on the old model and swiveling anti-scalp wheels on the deck corners.

The cut quality was a bit better with the new deck, but the swiveling casters still cut the turf when turning in to a slope. The casters are urethane, cost $50 a piece and last about half a season, a little disappointing. The fan on the blades is bigger than the originals and does a better job of lifting the grass to be cut.

It wasn't long into the season before a hydraulic line blew. It was warranted, but it was here that I learned about Kubota's parts network, or lack of. It turns out that parts other than blades and filters take about a week to get, so I was without it for a week and a few days. I also left a trail of oil on a new customer's lawn. I immediately hosed it down as best I could, but it still browned out.

During the '06 season a flange on a steel hydraulic line broke from fatigue and I was down again. No major spill this time, I saw the leak before it was too bad. Still warranted, and I noticed that the new line had a thicker stronger flange on it. I was down another week though.

This season we've had unusually rapid grass growth and it's been tough to keep up. I've discovered another shortcoming of Kubota, the way that it disperses clippings. When the grass is a bit long, the clippings come out in a windrow rather than being scattered. At the very least I have to make a second pass with the deck raised to make the job presentable. More often a 3rd pass is required, costing a bunch of time.

2 days ago I noticed an oil trail while cutting. I brought the machine home, hosed it off and found the same steel line that broke before was leaking. I saw the bolt had backed out, but when I went to tighten it, it just spun in the hole, the threads were stripped!! The bolt had pulled out of the pump housing.

This has used up what was left of my patience with this machine. I'm without the machine again, likely to be an extended period this time and I've had to cart the machine to the dealer which is just over an hour round trip. The machine is still under warranty, but once it is repaired I'm getting rid of it. It's just costing me too much time and time is too precious in this business.