B2601 Seat Suspension

[SusanDuffy]

Has anyone figured out how to get a better ride from the Kubota seat? It’s beats my back/spine up. My John Deere D160 mower has a better seat than the $30,000 tractor. What can I do to improve the seat?

 

[JimmyJazz]

Has anyone figured out how to get a better ride from the Kubota seat? It’s beats my back/spine up. My John Deere D160 mower has a better seat than the $30,000 tractor. What can I do to improve the seat?

I reduced the air pressure in my tires by 15%. It may have helped. You can probably reduce it more without worrying. Good luck.

 

[SusanDuffy]

My tires are full of beet juice.

 

[NCL4701]

My tires are full of beet juice.

Tires full of beet juice… well yes and no. I’m aware the above instruction regarding maximum fill level is for a different tractor but the maximum amount of liquid ballast in a tractor tire is always about 75% of the available interior volume. As the excerpt from the L4701 manual explains, liquid is non-compressible and the tire has to have some flexibility.

When I first got my L4701 from the dealer, it had 30 psi in the air pocket in the loaded rears. Between the thick rubber of the R4’s, the liquid ballast, and the 30 psi there was virtually zero flex so it was almost as bad as riding on steel wheels and the traction was less than stellar. Dropped the rears to 15 psi and it greatly improved both ride and traction. I’ve heard of others going as low as 12 psi with R4’s but I’m happy at 15. The rears still don’t flex as much as the R1’s running loaded rears at 15 psi on our older 2WD machines but performance is much better now.

To check or adjust pressure, make sure the valve stem is at 12 o’clock position. I’d suggest depressing the valve stem a little before putting a gauge on it so you don’t get any beet juice in your gauge if a little bit spits out when it’s first popped open.

Edit: If you’re running a loader, I would keep the pressure near max rated per the tire/manual on the fronts. Reduce rear pressure but not fronts.

 

[skeets]

Well you can try and re spring it, I used a couple old valve springs out of an old Harley that I found laying around in a buds garage, I did it for the BX and now I really need to do something for the B just havent tried adding a couple more springs yet

 

[johnjk]

I ordered one of these and installed it on my B1700. Will be ordering another for my B3200. You can set the spring tension and height for your weight. It really takes the jarring pain out of the ride. I was easily able to adapt it to the Kubota seat slide and then bolt the seat on top. You lose the ability to tilt the seat forward, and the toolbox below the seat. The other thing I had to do with this mod was to defeat the seat safety switch since it does not function with this unit.

 

[jnschnit]

I replaced the springs with these from amazon

I had to cut them down a little but they seemed to help. I also run my loaded R14's at 20psi. Images below show original and new.

 

[OrangeKrush]

I replaced the seat with a nice suspension one from a larger Kubota on my B7510, not sure what Kubota it came off of. This was back in 05.. what a difference!