I live in Macon Georgia and cannot find anyone to service my Kabota L 3430 on site. The closest Kubota dealer is in Perry Georgia about 50 miles away and I don’t have a trailer capable of holding my tractor. Any suggestions? Thanks!
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- Thread starter Drarnold
- Start date
I did some on-site stuff back in the day...
Shop labor rate (in shop) was $75/hr at the time. In order to come close to breaking even doing on-site service, they were at $160/hr at the time.
The truck and all the tools were around $220,000. But it was nice. Crane, a lot of hydraulic repair stuff, tools, etc--I did one or two splits (clutch) on-site. The insurance company basically shut us down, citing the dangers of doing on-site stuff. Cat still does a lot as do a lot of the others but that's all big stuff. Dealer I was working at actually sold the service truck and most of the tooling to a caterpillar dealer....
Point being, it may be tough to find a dealer who will do an on-site service for such a "small" tractor and if/when you do, it's not going to be inexpensive. It may be money ahead to have them haul it to the shop, do the necessary servicing and have them bring it back to you.
I left dealer in 2020...in 19 they mostly stopped doing pickup and delivery as the cost to do it was a little more than it was to just call a rollback and have them go get it & haul it in to the shop. Now, I understand that's probably different now, 4 years later. Finding an available rollback might be harder nowadays since it seems everyone and their brother, auntie, uncle and all besties are out driving around all day and all night and the wrecker companies stay VERY busy now; at least compared to "covid days" when there wasn't that much traffic.
Shop labor rate (in shop) was $75/hr at the time. In order to come close to breaking even doing on-site service, they were at $160/hr at the time.
The truck and all the tools were around $220,000. But it was nice. Crane, a lot of hydraulic repair stuff, tools, etc--I did one or two splits (clutch) on-site. The insurance company basically shut us down, citing the dangers of doing on-site stuff. Cat still does a lot as do a lot of the others but that's all big stuff. Dealer I was working at actually sold the service truck and most of the tooling to a caterpillar dealer....
Point being, it may be tough to find a dealer who will do an on-site service for such a "small" tractor and if/when you do, it's not going to be inexpensive. It may be money ahead to have them haul it to the shop, do the necessary servicing and have them bring it back to you.
I left dealer in 2020...in 19 they mostly stopped doing pickup and delivery as the cost to do it was a little more than it was to just call a rollback and have them go get it & haul it in to the shop. Now, I understand that's probably different now, 4 years later. Finding an available rollback might be harder nowadays since it seems everyone and their brother, auntie, uncle and all besties are out driving around all day and all night and the wrecker companies stay VERY busy now; at least compared to "covid days" when there wasn't that much traffic.
GreensvilleJay
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agree, rent a 'car hauling trailer'( 7000#) as quik look says tractor weighs about 3500#
A 'tilt n load' style tow truck can easily haul it ,maybe as a 'back load' or whatever it's called when he'd otherwise be empty one way.
if you rent a trailer be sure it's well secured !
A 'tilt n load' style tow truck can easily haul it ,maybe as a 'back load' or whatever it's called when he'd otherwise be empty one way.
if you rent a trailer be sure it's well secured !
Any reason why you’re not doing it yourself? I’d come do it, but Macon is a haul from Canton.
in this area, renting a trailer costs about 50% more than hiring a rollback to do the hauling for you. May be different in that area.
and that assumes also that the OP has a truck capable of pulling said trailer and tractor on it (probably 7000 lbs total weight?), or if OP feels comfortable doing so. If I were in that position, I'd call a towing service, have them tow it to dealer, let the dealer fix it, then have them tow it back. Never have to leave the house. And I have a truck that can pull it but out here towing is cheap. $60 to pull my old car from the body shop to the house, about 68 miles one way. I couldn't do it for that. Diesel, wear and tear, few hours of my time, etc--and on top of that the wrecker driver and I had a good conversation. He lost his wife 2 weeks before I had my car towed home and he was clearly distraught about everything. It was obvious he loved his wife. We talked a while and became pretty good friends. I have a job offer as well (drive wrecker) but not sure I want to do that.
North Idaho Wolfman
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Donystoy
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You did not say what kind of service you are wanting done. If it is just fluid and filter changes, this can be easily done yourself as previously stated. Lots of great folks here to offer advice if needed. For other more serious repairs that require the dealer, trailering it is probably the best option for that distance.
My service light came on so I guess it's a routine service. You're right I can do simple stuff like that so I just need to find what's included and order the parts. Thanks for pushing me in that direction. I used to would have found out exactly what I needed to do and jumped on it w/o a second thought but as I've gotten older I've lost my motivation. I hate that about myself.
Runs With Scissors
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+1
This has been my experience as well.And @Drarnold , don't forget , the dealer won't be "same day service", so if you rent a trailer, you're gonna have to rent it twice in order to get it back.
I would call a wrecker and be done with it. (not really....I would figure out what that light means and fix it myself if possible, but that's just me)
I believe that service light is a reminder, nothing critical to do. You can usually push a couple of buttons and the warning goes away. Do the service when the weather warms up and you feel like it. Probably just oil change and filters when you do.
Mine comes on at 50 hrs. I either leave it alone or delete it and wait 'till I have a chance.
According to the WSM you're right.
@Drarnold, there's a WSM file available at Www.kubotabooks.com. There is a maintenance schedule in it, and the procedure to reset the alert. Your owner manual probably has the steps to perform each maintenance procedure.
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Join the club. Spent almost 30 years working on them, and the last almost 5 years working on polaris stuff (among other stuff) and then at the home shop doing a lot of kubota, yamaha, kawasaki, a few john deere mowers, handhelds, everything except the chincanese junk and the stuff I do at the day job. I'm burned out on working on stuff which also includes my own stuff. 10 years ago I'd change oil in the truck, eagerly, just for something to do-I looked forward to it. Now, it's a chore in a lot of ways. I'm almost ready to pay someone to do it, and it's likely less $$$ to do so. It's a little over $200 now to DIY but I don't use cheap junk either.