Determining a tractor's age
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North Idaho Wolfman
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L3450DT-GST, Woods FEL, B7100 HSD, FEL, 60" SB, 743 Bobcat with V2203, and more
Just walk into a Kubota dealer with your serial number and they should be able to tell you it's date of sale, which is it's age.
Tractor data is normally somewhere around 1/4% right on their data!
I can tell you age doesn't really matter on these tractors, it is what it is.
I hear you -- age is just a curiosity item. Local Kubota dealer gave me exactly the same date range as tractordata.com.
If the local Kubota dealer…gave you “exactly the same date range”….. likely used TractorData to provide you with an answer. (instead of actually going into Kubota-records to determine the actual date (not range) of original sale to original owner)
My K-dealer gave me the name and contact info of the selling K-dealer (in Baytown, Tx) and the date of first sale.
When I called the original K selling-dealer …he emailed me the Work Orders of the ”make ready” as well as the 50-hour service, including the name and address of the original buyer.
(Now THAT might have been a bit much…perhaps even a bit questionable ….to provide that much info to me about the first buyer…. but it confirmed what I wanted to know… namely, that I was the 3rd owner…. because the next W.O. showed the second owner brought it in for a 100-hr service….and THAT is the person from whom I purchased it at 400 hrs…. 18 yrs after it was originally purchased by the first owner. Clearly the first owner only used it less than 100 hrs… brought it back to the selling dealer for a trade-in…who facilitated its’ sale to the 2nd owner…who must have insisted on a 100hr service as part of his purchase.)
Since I bought it with barely 400 hrs on it… when it was about 20 yrs old… I was inspecting it for purchase and looking at how little-worn the foot-rests were in the cockpit and how little-worn the seat cover was….(as confirmation that the hour-meter reflected actual usage and hadn’t been tampered-with)…as well as tread-condition of tires, paint, rubber hoses etc. The excellent paint/gloss and good paint remaining on the foot-rest area all made sense that it was a tractor which had seen little use, and had been stored under-cover. (The 2nd owner told me he didn’t have the Owners Manual because it had been eaten by mice…. a tattle-tale that was helpful in later diagnosis of the temp-gauge.)
The fresh, new battery did not raise my suspicion at all…. It made sense a tractor which had an owner who didn’t use it very much might need a new battery. (I failed to bring a volt meter to check actual running voltage. A month later, when the “new” battery failed to start it…. the diagnosis was the alternator only output 11 volts…. Failed regulator. It was then that I also realized the temperature gauge never indicated anything other than “Cold”. Diagnosis showed a mouse-eaten wire in that circuit.) The point being that actual age and operating hours are not necessarily meaningful and that skipping a full purchase-inspection can still bring surprises.
It may not be of much value to know all the things the Kubota dealer network has….. but it does provide a certain “comfort” to have the sales and service-history they have of the machine.
You might want to go back to your local dealer and “press” him for more details in his computer.
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Determining a tractor’s age can be surprisingly interesting, especially with older machines where the original paperwork may be missing. The serial number is usually the best place to start, but casting dates, engine numbers, model changes, and original features can also provide helpful clues. Comparing those details with the manufacturer’s production records can often narrow the year down quite accurately.
You can always split it in half and count the rings!
Sorry, I tried to resist but my smarta$$ brain finally took over. Carry on!
Sorry, I tried to resist but my smarta$$ brain finally took over. Carry on!
I don't understand Kubota's 'tractor age' is when it was sold. Consider a busy dealership, they reorganize a back shed, bury a BX23S and the year is 2018. It's now 2026, and the new owners do a real inventory... and find the BX23S and then sell it. According to Kubota it's a 2026 ? Add more 'fun' , say they stopped making them in 2023 ! Now it's STILL a 2026 model ??