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My official grease tester is our Kobelco 160 excavator, about a month ago our local TS had the cheap grease on sale and I picked up 4 tubes, greased the monster and by noon the bucket was squealing, to me that says it all, for me it's Mobil one or green grease on the machines. I just don't like the expense of running thru three tubes every eight hours.
I definitely agree with Turkeyslayer on greasing the loader everyday, especially the lower loader pins that are in the dirt at every scoop, I recommend getting a midrange air powered grease gun like the Kobalt one from Lowes and hitting the fittings daily.
 
Very nice tractor:clap: A small 4wd tractor loader is ultra handy:D. Make sure you keep the loader well greased, it will save you money and headaches in the future.

Yup, and the front axle as well. Lots of small shiny parts made out of costslikehellium. Trust me you don't want to tear into a MFWD axle.

Its a great tractor Enjoy!!!

Like Treepionter said. Be careful and take your time until you get used to it. When you have something heavy in the bucket keep the bucket close to the ground and be ready to drop the bucket to the ground if the back end lifts. Usually one tire will come up and it will tilt at a angle forward. I lifted a big ash tree in the bucket of my dads 90hp kubota a few weeks ago and my cheeks pinched the seat really fast! And I had a three bottom plows on back for extra weight. When possible go strait up and down hills not sideways. Dirt is a lot heavier than you think be carefull with a full bucket.

Billy

Yup, keep the load low, and as one of the other guys said, keep the ROPS (roll bar) up and seat belt on. Spreading the rear wheels as wide as possible will help with stability, but make sure you have some help when doing it, those suckers are H E A V Y, especially when full of fluid. Keep in mind that the front axle pivot makes it like a narrow front tractor, till you hit the limit stops, take it slow and easy and always try to cross ditches head on instead of at an angle if you can.

Lots of good tips here. The PO did weld a chain hook on top of the bucket for lifting stuff. The bucket is Kubota's "light material" bucket so it isn't a real tank. I also have the forks for lifting stuff as it has the skid-steer quick attach setup. Haven't used the forks yet, but probably will today if I get the trailer brakes sorted out. The placard on the trailer was totally obliterated so I have no idea what it was rated at.

As for grease, is some special kind is recommended? I typically use a good quality suspension and bearing lube in my vehicles, and was assuming I would use that. The manual of course only recomends things like "Kubota brand super duper grease" so that doesn't help much. It was well maintained by the PO, so it is starting off in good condition.

-Dave

Light material bucket means just that, built for snow, sawdust, etc. Don't fill it full with rocks, dirt, etc. or you'll be well past the capacity of the loader and tractor, which is A - none too safe, and leads to B - bent and broken pieces, hopefully none of which are your bodys.

My official grease tester is our Kobelco 160 excavator, about a month ago our local TS had the cheap grease on sale and I picked up 4 tubes, greased the monster and by noon the bucket was squealing, to me that says it all, for me it's Mobil one or green grease on the machines. I just don't like the expense of running thru three tubes every eight hours.
I definitely agree with Turkeyslayer on greasing the loader everyday, especially the lower loader pins that are in the dirt at every scoop, I recommend getting a midrange air powered grease gun like the Kobalt one from Lowes and hitting the fittings daily.

I use Mobil 1 grease on most stuff, except a couple gearboxes that call for particular stuff. It'll be all you need on the tractor. It ain't cheap compared to the regular grade grease, but it's well worth it. Walt, those air (or battery) grease guns are the ticket! On my buddy's 4wd tractor and 30' disk, there's close to 50 grease fittings to hit daily or more often. The rechargeable gun makes that a lot faster and nicer.

Don't be afraid to ask more questions. There's quite a few of us here that have so much tractor seat time that our butts have grown into their shape!

Good luck with it. Don't know who your dealer is but Value Implement in Baldwin is pretty good to deal with.

If ya happen to run out of stuff to do with it, bring it on up and we'll put it to work here!
 
Thanks for all the tips. Will find the right grease and get greasing next time out. It's sitting in storage right now. I have an air powered lincoln grease gun that I like a lot. Changing from manual pump guns to that was like night and day.

The bucket is "light material" but that is one of 3-4 choices for that loader that includes much heavier buckets. The seller did say that the loader was the larger one for this tractor, and they probably should have put the smaller one on as it is a bit much for the tractor size. The larger tractors in this class are all similar weight, just more HP, so I'm not sure how much it matters. You just need to have the ballast to offset the loader, I think.

But what a difference a day makes... today I tore into the trailer brakes to figure out what was wrong there. Well the morons never connected them at the plug for starters. Secondly, the main wiring harness was not in good shape and one of the wires had broken for the brake feed. Fixed both of those and I now have trailer brakes, though I am sure they need adjusting. It is much happier braking now than it was. I need to re-pull wires for everything as the cable in there is not looking real good. Got the deck patched too, and that seems to be holding. But then the real problems started....

Got into the woods with the forks on to move a few logs around and get the area prepped for pulling more firewood out. Started to feel tippy with one bigger basswood log on there. Hmmm. Maybe I'm just not working up and down the slope well enough. A few minutes later I hear this SQUEEEAK and go WTF? Well a front tire had popped the bead and was now dead flat. Fark. In the woods. Double fark. Neigbors had a small compressor so with the use of a ratchet strap to reseat the bead and the compressor I was finally able to get the tire reinflated (using the forks on the loader to lift the front end up on the log that I was moving).

But I could hear it leaking so I made a beeline for the trailer. Getting near the ditch it was getting really low. Triple fark. I went down the ditch as it was coming off again. I left it in the bottom of the ditch so I could lift it with the forks sitting up on the road again. Repeat same process but surprise!!! the valve stem goes pop right into the tire and disappears! Quadruple fark. Can't fish the valve stem out - Now I'm really hosed. Then it occurs to me. Hey - I just picked up the spare turf tires from the seller! Unhitched the trailer, ran back home to get tools and was able to swap out the front AG tires for turf tires. We're back in business! At least enough to get it back on the trailer and out. Whew.

Tomorrow: Getting tubes put in the front AG tires so I don't have to deal with this silliness again. I had thought that the fronts were a little low on pressure, but among all the million other things to do to get the new tractor and trailer ready to go, that slipped my mind. Never again. Live and learn.

Thanks, and keep the tips coming!

-Dave
 
Tubes are a good thing. Run the fronts at the max pressure listed on the tires for loader work. Rears you can run somewhat lower pressure for better bite and a slightly smoother ride, but the lower the pressure the more "squishy" feeling you will have on uneven ground. The rears should already be tubed if they're filled with fluid.
 
Tubes are a good thing.

Second vote for tubes. I was driving down to help Davec with his tire KF he had going and my brother called for his usual Sunday afternoon chat. He runs a 74 Hp Kubota with a big loader for moving his logs and when I told him I was going to help Dave with a broken front tire bead my brother said "tubes!" His dealer puts tubes in all front tires of tractors that have loaders. He said it stops problems dead.

I fought tubeless tires on my woods trailer and my tractor fronts (noloader) for years until I wised up one day and put tubes in everything. Only problems I had after that were major blowouts from overloading the trailer and hitting a small stump.

All was not lost for the day. After Dave was sent on his way I ran up the hill with my truck and tossed on a load of red oak. Another ~ 3/4 face cord is out of the woods (my truck has very weak springs and is a small truck).
 
In my opinion you never can never go wrong with a kubota.My dad has a B8200 [I think] that he purchased in 86 and we have NEVER had an problems with anything,just change the oil.filters and grease it on occasion.

Good score on the tractor..
 
thats a beautiful tractor!!!! congrats...that looks just like what i wanna upgrade to when i trade in my bx2200 kubota..the bx2200 has a solid r.o.p.s. on it and it makes it hard to mow around the pine trees in the yard...and i so want a backhoe..lol
 
Man... That beats the crap out of what I got. Massey 230,no loader,no ROPS,just a plain@ss tractor. It's had no problens... Yet, in 6000 hrs,minus a tranny rebuild by it's previous owner. I'd much rather ave a D51PX-22 with a winch,HD pads and sweeps,but I don't have the cas and I've got to be able to run a bushhog....:bang:
 
If it didn't come with one, get you one of these:

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and one of these for hooking chains to when skidding:

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...along with a few spare clips to hold em on. The woods really like the taste of safety clips, and will eat any they can get their branches on.

They're the next best thing to a winch for skidding, back to the log, hook short as possible, and lift the 3 pt and go.

Here's mine, with a dual hook setup. With 65hp (about 80 engine hp) and 10,000 lbs, I will hook a log on each end of each chain, or 2 good sized (18-20" dbh) full trees when they're close by each other.

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Yeah, I know I need a new SMV back there. There's one in the shed waiting to go on, I just haven't been road riding and needed it yet. Looks like you should pick one up as well.

Did ya get any chains for those turf tires? They're much better for chain use than the R-1 (ag tread) tires, because of the flat tread that keeps the chain on top.

Oh yeah, unless the turf and ag tires are the same height, DO NOT use the MFWD with mis-matched tires, you'll tear up that front differential in a hurry.
 
Don't have anything for the 3pt yet, but I do have a solid clevis for the drawbar. That one with the hook looks useful. No chains for the turf tires yet. I will probably not put them on for a while (quite a while...) other than emergencies like this. They were just part of the package.

I was smart enough to change out both front wheels at the same time. Then I ran it a little but not much. Had to move the log I lost the tire on as it was right in the way (near the road), but then right on the trailer. Ag tires are now tubed and I will pick them up tomorrow. I figured the tranny would be fine with the same tires on one axle, even if there was a F-B difference for a short bit. The ground is so soft that the turf tires would easily slip to help make up any difference. Took it out of 4wd out of the woods, too, of course.

I already got a bag of extra clips. I figured they would get lost easily.

Thanks again, Steve. Keep 'em coming!

-Dave
 
Dave,
Good luck with the new tractor. I've got a BX25 and don't know how I do yard work again without it. Talking about grease points, besides the obvious places on the loader, which have to be done every 10 hours, there's a fitting under the floor mat for the HST pedal. Look for the cut out by the pedal; this fitting has to be greased every 50 hours.
 
No action pics yet. Maybe next weekend. It's hard to shoot and drive :)

Lift capacity really isn't a single number. There is a whole page that has the lift forces vs height the loader is at. The lowest number on the table that has a few key readings is 1400 lbs. The highest number is 2300 lbs. It all varies depending on how far out the load is centered and the current height of the loader. So somewhere in that range is what it can handle, depending on the circumstances.
 

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