Are Kubota lawn tractors good, better, or best?

[Cujet]

I purchased a JD GT235. It is a tough little lawn tractor.

I spec'd it out my way. 42 inch very heavy duty deck (standard is 48 or 52 don't remember which). And a Kawasaki 18HP V-twin engine.

I fabricated a dump bucket for the tractor with a undermount frame.

I also adjusted the safety features to allow my type of use to be unimpeded.

It is a fantastic and very tough little unit, I really like it. The Tuff Torq auto trans works like a champ. Cool thing was that the JD dealer was willing to work with me and gave a good break on the price too.

I use the tractor for dredging the canal, moving dirt and mowing the lawn. It is tough!

Never driven a Kubota.

Chris

 

[Handy CJ]

Great advice, thanks much guys...I may wait just a bit on this potential double machine purchase. I am getting ready to retire in 6 months and will have two different machine needs...first I will be starting a small grass cutting business and will probably get a ZTR mower for that, and second I will need to have small tractor type machine to help out and do stuff around the small home w/ a huge workshop and 5-10 acres that we have not bought yet. I think I will get settled and then check-out dealers of different products in the area. After moving around for 20+ years, we still have a final move to make from Cape Cod to somewhere?
Will be most likely settling down in either Virginia, California or Washington state... decisions-decisions... I am humbled and really a small potato compared to "greenhobby" with his "13 engines in the barn"...Such excellent advice...thanks very much.

 

[GT Mike]

I'm a big Ariens fan, and recently got a new Zoom 1740 zero turn rider. It has a Kohler Courage 17HP one-lunger (but twin cams!) and it's got gobs of power even when mulching.

I will admit Kubota makes a very fine product, and their little diesels are very robust. Price was a big factor in my decision, and my best "bang for the buck" happened to be the Ariens.

I'll never own a John Deere. Overpriced and overrated, IMHO.

For push mowers, you'll have to pry my Lawn-Boy 2-cycles out of my cold dead hands before I run any 4-cycle engine on another brand, or even a new "sellout" green Toro that they call a Lawn-Boy.

 

[Tomo]

hello , j/d zrt 31hp 1.3ltr direct injection diesel [more economical than kubota zrt] K ubota 28hp 1.1ltr suspect transmission is also made by kubota. Kubota tractor mechanical parts ouch!, can be expensive. tomo

 

[milwaukee]

quote:

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Originally posted by GT Mike:
I'll never own a John Deere. Overpriced and overrated, IMHO.

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Very few people familiar with tractors would agree with you but everyone has an opinion I guess.

 

[milwaukee]

That last statement is just goofy.

My personal opinion is that some people try too hard not to be a "sheep".

If you think JD lawn tractors are cheap and half the quality at twice the price you have some skewed visions in your mind.

Enjoy your machine and I hope it last you a long time.

My own personal opinion is that some people are unable to see quality and believe what they own is somehow superior when it is not.

 

[GT Mike]

I looked at everything when I bought my old Ariens GT17 back in the 80s. It was light years better than nearly everything else out there. It's the only tractor in its class that had a rear PTO, and seemed much more solid than almost all the others. The only other one that I would have cosidered at the time was Bolens, but the dealer network was sparse at best.

The JDs just seemed flimsy and cheap by comparison, and cost quite a bit more than all the others.

Other times I've looked at a John Deere garden tractor, I've thought "why do people pay so much money for these things when there's other brands out there that are twice as good for less?"

My own personal opinion is JD tractors are like Fram oil filters...Lots of advertising and lots of "sheep" that buy into it sell a lot of mediocre products.

 

[GT Mike]

quote:

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My own personal opinion is that some people are unable to see quality and believe what they own is somehow superior when it is not.

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I'm going out on a limb here, but is there some chance that you own a John Deere?

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

New Holland has a heck of deal going right now for financing on some of their smaller stuff, mowers/sub-compacts and the like. Although I have no problem with Kubota or JD (I own both and am really a JD guy, but I'll buy whatever is good quality for the money) I'm going to get a New Holland this time. I need another mower and was going to get another JD, but I can't beat the deal on Holland. The Holland also has a better frame for its size than the Kubota or JD I think, at any rate the price is right!

 

[GT Mike]

From what I remember, New Holland is what Ford tractors used to be. I always liked the Ford garden tractors. They seemed to be of very good quality.

I see them at the county fair once in a while, and they're pretty impressive.

 

[milwaukee]

I'm going out on a limb here, but is there some chance that you own a Ariens and really wished you had a john deere?

All the uninformed snipes lead me to believe this is the case.

 

[1040 WreckerMan]

GT Mike,
Ford does have a stake in New Holland (or at least they did the last time I herd). They have been buying technology from each other for quite a while. F700's used to have a diesel that was really relabeled New Holland. Like every brand they have their good products and not so good. The current offerings are decent I think and priced well for the quality.

 

[Mike_dup1]

Last fall we were looking at the Kubota's, 18 to 22 hp versions. One thing I did notice was, the dealer had a lot of used trade-in JD's for sale cheap but when we stopped at a JD dealer, I never saw a used Kubota there, had others brands.

The Kubota dealer had a waiting list for some models.

 

[milwaukee]

You think it could be because about 1000 Deere machines exist to every one Kubota machine?

 

[Mike_dup1]

I thought it was curious that so many JD were traded in on Kubota's.