Matching tractor needs to your land

Tyler,

Congrats on the new tractor!  It is amazing how much a tractor can improve your productivity.

If you don't mind me asking, I do have a couple of questions about your awesome recent purchase.  

1)  Is the hydro control a treadle pedal or is it the twin touch?  My first tractor was a subcompact and everything boiled down to JD or Kubota.  Really they were very similar machines, similar prices, similar specs, etc.  One thing that pushed me in the direction of JD was that the hydro control on the JD allowed my legs to stretch out while on the Kubota my knee was always rubbing the steering wheel.  I think that Kubota is moving in the direction of having the twin toe touch pedals in the manner similar to JD.  I am just curious as to whether they are there on all their tractors.

2)  Another issue that was a big one on the little subcompacts was that the on the JD, the loader control is a part of the tractor while on the Kubota the loader control sticks out from the loader.  On the little subcompacts (and yours might very well differ as it is a totally different animal), I could access the seat from either side on the JD as the control stuck up from the floor but on the Kubota the horizontal control basically cut off access from the right side.  Again, this was probably a bigger deal on the subcompact than your new tractor.

3)  Does your new tractor have the new DEF/regen stuff?  I sold my subcompact and got a JD 2038r which is similar in size to your new tractor and I have this extra stuff attached.  I have heard horror stories, but mine just went through its first regen cycle and it was not bad at all.  On mine, when doing the regen cycle, the tractor wants to idle higher than it would otherwise.  If I moved the throttle up to 1500 RPMs, then the tractor's brain would not let it come back to a normal idle.  It was doing this for a couple of weeks as I was doing a bunch of quick tasks.  Then I bush hogged my acreage, ran the engine high for a couple of hours and now the tractor will idle back at low RPMs again.  It was nothing like some people said where the tractor would not shut off for something like a half hour after turning off the key.  Personally I think the whole affair is overblown.

Anyhow, I am always interested in hearing about new tractors.  These have been a couple of minor issues that I obsess about, but in any case, I wish you the best of luck on your new tractor.

Best Wishes,

Eric

Fantastic thread, I really enjoyed reading a lot of these recommendations! I'm going to be in the market for a compact tractor soon myself...and now I'm going to be absolutely sure to sit on a few JD's in addition to Kubotas.

Zachary- definitely find dealers who have a ‘back lot’ where you can actually try the tractor out, digging, lifting, whatever things you need to do with the tractor at home. It’s easy to get so excited about having a new tractor that you overlook things like the ergonomics of controls or other aspects. If a dealer won’t let you try out the machine, take your $30k+ elsewhere.

Eric Hanson wrote:Tyler,

Congrats on the new tractor!  It is amazing how much a tractor can improve your productivity.

If you don't mind me asking, I do have a couple of questions about your awesome recent purchase.  

1)  Is the hydro control a treadle pedal or is it the twin touch?  My first tractor was a subcompact and everything boiled down to JD or Kubota.  Really they were very similar machines, similar prices, similar specs, etc.  One thing that pushed me in the direction of JD was that the hydro control on the JD allowed my legs to stretch out while on the Kubota my knee was always rubbing the steering wheel.  I think that Kubota is moving in the direction of having the twin toe touch pedals in the manner similar to JD.  I am just curious as to whether they are there on all there tractors.

2)  Another issue that was a big one on the little subcompacts was that the on the JD, the loader control is a part of the tractor while on the Kubota the loader control sticks out from the loader.  On the little subcompacts (and yours might very well differ as it is a totally different animal), I could access the seat from either side on the JD as the control stuck up from the floor but on the Kubota the horizontal control basically cut off access from the right side.  Again, this was probably a bigger deal on the subcompact than your new tractor.

3)  Does your new tractor have the new DEF/regen stuff?  I sold my subcompact and got a JD 2038r which is similar in size to your new tractor and I have this extra stuff attached.  I have heard horror stories, but mine just went through its first regen cycle and it was not bad at all.  On mine, when doing the regen cycle, the tractor wants to idle higher than it would otherwise.  If I moved the throttle up to 1500 RPMs, then the tractor's brain would not let it come back to a normal idle.  It was doing this for a couple of weeks as I was doing a bunch of quick tasks.  Then I bush hogged my acreage, ran the engine high for a couple of hours and now the tractor will idle back at low RPMs again.  It was nothing like some people said where the tractor would not shut off for something like a half hour after turning off the key.  Personally I think the whole affair is overblown.

Anyhow, I am always interested in hearing about new tractors.  These have been a couple of minor issues that I obsess about, but in any case, I wish you the best of luck on your new tractor.

Best Wishes,

Eric

Thanks!

1) It is the treadle...I think I would prefer the side by side pedals but Kubota just simply doesn't really offer that option in a tractor size I wanted. It's a minor setback and I'll get used to it. At first I wanted a Kioti just because of that reason! It gets delivered tomorrow and I'll get a better feel and report back.

2) That issue is there on the L2501. I can probably sneak on through there though I'd have to mount a step and grab handle to that side! It doesn't really bother me, I was willing to accept a few downsides like this on the Kubota

3)Good to hear your re-gen system worked like that, yea doesn't sound like too big a deal at all. Being up in the rpm a bit seems to be the way a HST tractor ought to be run anyways. I purposely stayed under 26HP to avoid the re-gen system and DPF filter setup. I like the idea of being able to idle and use low rpm if needed w/o that system on my mind. I also figure it's just more to go wrong down the road, but I sacrifice a lot of power. I'll know for sure how this machine stacks up to tasks in the coming weeks once I get it down my farm. It's rough and hilly :)

Tyler,

Thanks for the quick response.  Those first two issues are basically minor aesthetic/ergonomic issues and will have nothing whatsoever to do with actual tractor performance.  For my part, they were at worst an inconvenience that I would just adapt to.  The Tier IV regen stuff has gotten a lot of bad press, but I think it is basically overblown.  

Incidentally, I keep meticulous track of my fuel consumption.  I always fill up with a 5 gallon can filled to 4.5 gallons so as to not spill in storage and make easier to pour.  On my 2305 subcompact the long-running fuel consumption was .62 gallons/hour.  I expected my new 2038r to have higher fuel consumption but then I discovered the e throttle that ties the engine RPMs to the hydro, increasing the engine speed as the hydro pedal is pressed.  By using this, I generally run the tractor at a lower RPM than usual as I don't need high RPMs for slow movement or sitting still.  The result is that the bigger, more powerful tractor (37 vs 24 hp--a 50% increase) actually used marginally less fuel overall!  I was shocked, but the numbers were consistent over several fillings.  the 2038r has a long running fuel consumption of .62 gallons/hour, all while getting the work done much faster!  This was really unexpected, but then I was probably overtaxing the subcompact by bush hogging the rough acreage.  I still need to do a proper fuel usage check after the recent mowing which happened to cap off a regen cycle.  I expect the fuel consumption to go up, possibly to .85 gallons/hr, but I figure that anything under 1 gallon/hr to be fairly good.

Anyhow, these are all just my recent experiences with my new tractor and I am very curious as to how your tractor will perform, compare and contrast.  To be honest, I really expect to see that the two machines are very comparable in general functionality and that the biggest differences are minor things such as the hydro pedal and loader control--and these are minor.

Again, I am curious as to how it will work out and look forward to you reporting back!

Eric

Eric, does your re-gen have a bypass button? I ran a gehl all terrain forklift about 5 years ago to help out someone who had rented it but wasn’t comfortable operating, and it had the re-gen but you could bypass with a switch. That was nice, because when you’re trying to feather hydraulics or crawl a few inches in gear, you don’t want an rpm surge! I’m not sure how long the bypass would delay purging, but it was at least handy in the moment, so you could complete an immediate task and then park it and let it cook off later.

Good question Julie,

I THINK I have a bypass switch, but I have not tried to use it.  To be honest, the 2038r has a lot of electronic type features, most of which I don't use.  The only one I do use on a regular basis is the auto-throttle which matches the engine speed to the transmission requirements, making the tractor accelerate and increase RPMs just like a car would--it actually really helps out on the fuel consumption.  However, I don't really use the other functions.  And as a result of parking it outside, time and sunlight and elements have faded the switch labels to the point where I can just barely recognize them.  I would consult the manual, but we had an electrical fire in our house back in June.  Don't worry, the house is OK, but as a result of smoke damage, the whole room (computer room) was packed up and taken to storage while the room was repaired.  

This is a long ways of me trying to tell you that when I bought the tractor, I remember being told that the bypass function did exist.  However, at the present I don't remember how to engage it.  But I really don't care that much as when operating on regen, the tractor simply idles higher than normal.  It also automatically cuts out when the cycle is finished.

Eric

Glad you didn’t lose the house! Smoke damage sucks though, hard to remediate. You could probably find that manual online as a pdf? I know the gehl manual said bypass was only allowed 3 times before it would run the cycle regardless. I didn’t mind the idea of higher rpm, but it was the thought of it kicking in during a delicate operation that concerned me. When you’re extended 50’ in the air with a pallet weighing over a ton, and trying to move that load an inch at a time, a steady rpm, regardless of what that rpm is, makes things easier! I’m guessing sooner or later they will all go to def like vehicles have.

Eric, on my Kubotas (L4240, BX2380), the loader controls are both beside the seat, but is most in the way on L4240... longer stick, further forward... so dis/mounting from RH side requires hugging the steering wheel to avoid "butt-dialing" the loader! AND...There's no step mounted on RH side (except for the backhoe subframe, not great when wet)
The BX2380 the stick is short and more upright, hardly in the way at all! It is a "walk-through" for sure!

I love the HST on the L4240 (fancier machine, go figure) F/R on rocker and brake pedals all on RH side / Clutch on LH side.
I tolerate the HST on the BX2380. I don't care for the "two-step" of separate F and R pedals... Reverse is awkward. The brake is on LH side with parking pedal in center (left foot brake, right foot sets parking) which isn't bad.
Then comes the "sit on one tractor", and operate the controls "of the other tractor" *ahem* problem?... clutch to start, no wait, let off...that's the brake...oh, now we're rolling---> because that was the brake, and not the clutch...

Julie,

Thanks regarding the fire.  It could have been much worse.  The cause of the fire was an extension cord that went bad while plugged into an outside outlet (it was an outdoor extension cord).  There was some melted siding, some burned/charred exterior plywood and one 2x4 that smoldered 3/4 the way trough and of course the outlet.  Inside, there was smoke damage to the carpet, drapes, anything cloth, mattress (computer room doubles as an extra bedroom) etc.  

The fire started very early in the morning, something like 1:30 am.  We were all asleep.  I woke at 3:00 and came downstairs and nothing seemed amiss until I got near the last steps of the staircase when the smell hit me.  The weird part is that I did not smell smoke exactly.  Instead I smelled a strong acrid smell that actually smelled more like vinegar, something my wife frequently uses as a cleaner.  So I made myself a cup of coffee, sat down and drank it for about 20 minutes, after which I was thinking that I had better find where this smell originated.  I walked into my computer room and that's when the much, much stronger, more acrid smell hit me.  I tried to turn on a light, but the power was out there.  I checked the circuit breaker in the garage and sure enough, it was blown.  Finally, probably at 3:30 I woke up my wife, roused the kids, evacuated the pets (1 dog, 2 cats, 1 lion head bunny) and called the 911.  The FD was here in no time and found the source of the fire with a little thermal camera.  The fire was only a smolder, but it had smoldered through the 2x4 and plywood and was still going--probably had been for almost 2 hours by that point.  The fire was out and the FD gone before sunrise, after which we started cleaning up a bit and called insurance.  Even after the FD left, there was never any smell of smoke anywhere.  The acrid, vinegar smell was only located downstairs and no smoke detectors went off.  I think all of the smoke was venting outside and all we smelled was the smell of vinyl siding melting away and possibly a bit of wiring melting off the insulation.  The outlet was COMPETELY burned away--only a little nugget of melted plastic and metal smaller than a ping-pong ball was left.  All-in-all I am VERY thankful that it wasn't much, much worse.

Julie, sorry, this post was supposed to be about tractors, but I will post about that later.  Now you have my fire story.

Eric

I don't have a great update, tractor itself didn't make it to the farm this weekend because it was too bad the dealer sent me a bush hog that had been damaged underneath from a forklift. That was all I really planned on doing out there with it so I kept it here at home in the garage. I don't have a secure place to keep it on the land just yet, but hopefully soon.

I did manage tho, to help a neighbor put in a small water retention area in his backyard. There is problematic flooding in that area, there is a concrete catch basin at the lowest point right at the bottom of the new "dam" but it gets overflowed easily, so he wanted to control and reduce that flow towards it. Took the tractor only about 20 minutes to dig it out, mound the dirt and haul him over a few scoops of wood chips to fill it with from my place :) Was fun, quick and easy so I'd say the tractor fits the "Neighborhood needs" ;)

A friend of mine does tree removal and I take the left-over chips/logs, the loader is worth it's weight in gold! Especially when I borrow the dump trailer! I've done quite a few loads like this by hand on non-dump trailers on and off and it's a looong hard process compared to this.

It's a comfortable and capable machine, already feel my back hurting less in the future...

The real updates will come a few months from now once it's on the farm and doing other things, looking forward to it! Should this be the thread for that? Seems pretty good to me since most questions/topics about tractors will be related to the title.  

Tyler,

It would be great to hear about your new tractor once you get it and start using it.  And by all means, this is a great thread for your tractor discussions.  There are a couple of other tractor threads listed on the Gear forum, but this thread is as good as any.  I suspect that once you start using your tractor that you will find all sorts of uses for it that you never imagined before--that is what happened to mine.

Happy tractoring,

Eric

Have we talked about wheel spacing, ballast, and operating techniques on hilly land somewhere that I missed?

I decided to try out the rotary cutter and start getting used to running the tractor around the land. I think I covered about 70% of where I want to go...I didn't want to push it too hard 1st day ;)

I spent about 5 hrs total just getting the feel for it and overcoming that scary feeling of tipping. I think I'm well within the operating limits of the machine, but one unseen hole can change that quickly.

I kept the loader/bucket on...not sure if removing it would have been better or not? I think I'd need some front weights if the loader is fully removed. I felt like maybe it raised the center of gravity some, but also is nice to be able to drop the bucket (I run with it just skimming the surface anyways) and have some support if things get sketchy.

My rear wheels are spaced in widest position, and each rear tire filled 75% w/ beet juice. I'd also like to add bolt-on center wheel weights in the future, I think. Even with the loaded rears and 5' cutter I still felt the rear was lighter than the front (w/ loader on)

I did combinations of side-hilling, straight up and down, back up, back down, etc. I think it's hard to nail down one "proper" technique...each task can be approached in multiple ways - but getting the experience to "feel" which one is safest is something that will just take time.

Using the tractor and a few attachments I have in mind to create more-level paths around the land is my end goal so other people in my family/friends can safely operate vehicles, atvs, or this tractor and get around the land.

I attached some pics to show the angles, they don't look like much, and realistically probably aren't :) Maybe around 17-18*??? Still took a little getting used to though!

Cole,

Let me first say that your land is absolutely beautiful!

But on to other issues.  Yes, I know that uncomfortable tippy feeling.  Even when the tractor is perfectly safe but i get a little it of the tipping feeling, I do tend to get a little bit nervous.  I have a couple of thoughts for you.

1)  The beat juice is a must-have for any major tippy situation, and wheel weights may be a good idea as well, and make sure to get these on all 4 tires.

2)  Regarding the loader, I have a quick disconnect, but I have never used it even once in over 15 years of owning a tractor.  The loader does help add some weight.  If I really need front weights, I fill the bucket up with something heavy and that alone really makes a difference.  At times I have taken off the bucket and this is an extremely easy task both to put on and take off, but generally I keep the bucket on and fill it with weight and keep it at ground skimming height so as to lower the center of gravity as much as possible.

3)  If you really, really need the extra side stability, you can probably find axel extensions, but this is an extra cost and a bit of labor to remove the tire, add the extension, and re-attach the tire.  But this is doable and the expense and labor trivial compared to a roll-over event.

I wish you luck and if you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask.

Eric

Cole,   The 524 loader is the same one I have on my L3200.  We don't have the same 'tippy' concerns on your property that you do, but my wife likes the more stable wheel-base and spacing on the L3200 than our smaller tractors.  Can't recall if it came up in an earlier post, but your 524 loader of course has the same quick-attach function and configuration as that for skid-steer equipment, so you have all of that skid-steer array of attachments at your disposal (to a certain extent, that is; -- the powered attachments may require some modifications for their use).   Our land is really flat so I haven't had to be too concerned about roll-overs.  Nevertheless, it occurs to me that perhaps in addition to what Eric mentioned with the wheel extenders, one could ..... as a sort of 'training wheels solution'.... use a pallet fork on the front loader with a very sturdy long piece of lumber (or telephone pole) afixed so that the ends stuck out equally in both directions.  If, while traveling on a tippy slope, the loader were in a low enough position, the down-hill end of the pole might prevent a roll-over...?.....anyone ever see this being done just as a means to get used to a machine or otherwise?