Is There An Advantage To Getting A Factory Third Function?

GrizBota

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I don’t think that example represents how most dealers do their work.
I’ll put it to you this way. Don’t expect someone that is paid to work on a $25-50k piece of equipment to care about the outcome more than the owner that had to actually earn the funds to purchase the equipment.

Most dealers are likely adequate most of the time. It is the probably single digit failure rate that gets shared on interest based forums such as this.
 

TheOldHokie

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I’ll put it to you this way. Don’t expect someone that is paid to work on a $25-50k piece of equipment to care about the outcome more than the owner that had to actually earn the funds to purchase the equipment.

Most dealers are likely adequate most of the time. It is the probably single digit failure rate that gets shared on interest based forums such as this.
The technicians working in the service department at a dealership have a pretty significant self interest in their careers and paychecks.

When I take my BMW in for very expensive dealer service by factory trained mechanics I expect them to be professionals who are more skilled, better equipped, and more knowledgeable than I.

If that's not generally the case at Kubota dealerships i bought the wrong color tractor.

Dan
 
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Jsjac

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I put an after market kit on my tractor and bought the hard pipe that goes on the loader arms from Kubota. I think the cost for the tubes was around $50.
The tubes mounted in the factory pre drilled and tapped holes
 

jyoutz

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The technicians working in the service department at a dealership have a pretty significant self interest in their careers and paychecks.

When I take my BMW in for very expensive dealer service by factory trained mechanics I expect them to be professionals who are more skilled, better equipped, and more knowledgeable than I.

If that's not generally the case at Kubota dealerships i bought the wrong color tractor.

Dan
It’s not the color of tractor. It’s the individual dealership.
 
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TheOldHokie

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It’s not the color of tractor. It’s the individual dealership.
I was a devout Kubota guy for decades and never considered anything else when I went shopping for a new machine 3 years ago. Based on experiences so far Big Orange is starting to look a bit faded.

Dan
 

skeets

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All I know is if they do it and it screws up, well its on them not you, and I mean why not get it, you might not need it today or tomorrow but down the road sometime you might and then it is an arm and a leg to get it done,, just MHO
 
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Soopitup

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Finally installed this this weekend.

As far as being an "OEM" kit (Land Pride is owned by Kubota) and paying close to double what an aftermarket kit like the Summit one, I'm not very impressed.

From my limited understanding/searches there are basically 3 options. The Kubota diverter valve kit, the Land Pride third function kit, and the Summit third function kit (as well as multiple other kits that look identical, Summit may not be the original "designer").

I didn't bother with the Kubota kit because I wanted the extra flexibility from an actual third function.
The Land Pride kit is $1275, the Summit ones run from $699 up.

The Summit kits seem to all be mounted by the right lower loader base on the floor pan.
This may not be an option with the quick disconnect manifold for the loader. I'm not sure exactly how much space the kits leave.

I intend to post a detailed thread about the kit/installation; wanted to put some info here for future searches.

The LP kit locates the valves by the left base of the loader, which means the lines have to cross under the tractor from the right side to the left. There' isn't really a great way to do this.
There's the driveshaft from the engine to the transmission, then the shaft from the trans to the front axle, and because of placement of the shafts you can't just tuck the lines up into the frame area.
I also don't know how the routing would impact a mower deck; I don't have one.

The directions have you install the electrical connections to the valves once the bracket and valves are already installed.
You can't connect (or disconnect) the lower connection with the valves inside the bracket, there's about 1/8" of bracket in the way. You have to remove the valve, connect the connector, then reinstall the valve. I ended up grinding a notch so the connector will side in.

The suggested wiring routing isn't great. They have you route it across (from right to left) under the frame.
I routed it along the frame and up by the battery and across above the frame and floor pan.

It would have been nice to ideally have the valves on the right side somewhere. That would have made the lines shorter and ran along the right frame rail without having to worry about crossing over.
Barring that (the quick disconnect "manifold" is by the right base of the loader; would cause fitment issues) it would have been nice to have hard lines or at least longer lines to potentially route different.

The kit should have had another 45* or 90* elbow to connect the line to the 90* elbow on the loader valve. The line is sitting in a tight S shape right now. Not ideal.

The lines routed through the loader would benefit from being hard lines instead of soft. And the loader lines don't have any abrasion cover other than a few feet by the valve connection. Nothing where they run tight against the already installed lines.

No dust covers for the front 2 pioneer connections. They're right up front catching all the dirt as you move around.

The battery connections could be better.
There are 2 correctly sized ring terminals (positive and negative terminal clamp bolts are different sizes), but on the positive bolt you have to completely remove the bolt from the clamp and insert the ring terminal between the clamp because the ring is too large to fit on the outside of the clamp (the outside of the clamp is U shaped, the ring is larger than the U).

I realize these are somewhat nitpicky. The issue I have is that (once again) this is basically an OEM kit, sold at OEM prices.
If this was the Summit kit at half the price I wouldn't be as disappointed.

I put an after market kit on my tractor and bought the hard pipe that goes on the loader arms from Kubota. I think the cost for the tubes was around $50.
The tubes mounted in the factory pre drilled and tapped holes
Was this for a BX23S?
Or something else?

As far as I can tell the Kubota diverter kit for the BX doesn't have any lines to speak of, it's just a valve piped into the curl circuit by the cylinder. Maybe a short several inch line to connect. That's it.
 

DustyRusty

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Nov 8, 2015
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I have the Land Pride 3rd function kit on my BX23S with a factory-mounted cab, and everything went smoothly for the installation, I did it myself along with a neighbor. The only problem that I encountered was the kit came with pioneer coupling and I wanted the flat-faced couplers. I bought a pair from Summit and all is good. When it comes to having a cab, you don't have many choices.
 

GrizBota

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Finally installed this this weekend.

As far as being an "OEM" kit (Land Pride is owned by Kubota) and paying close to double what an aftermarket kit like the Summit one, I'm not very impressed.

From my limited understanding/searches there are basically 3 options. The Kubota diverter valve kit, the Land Pride third function kit, and the Summit third function kit (as well as multiple other kits that look identical, Summit may not be the original "designer").

I didn't bother with the Kubota kit because I wanted the extra flexibility from an actual third function.
The Land Pride kit is $1275, the Summit ones run from $699 up.

The Summit kits seem to all be mounted by the right lower loader base on the floor pan.
This may not be an option with the quick disconnect manifold for the loader. I'm not sure exactly how much space the kits leave.

I intend to post a detailed thread about the kit/installation; wanted to put some info here for future searches.

The LP kit locates the valves by the left base of the loader, which means the lines have to cross under the tractor from the right side to the left. There' isn't really a great way to do this.
There's the driveshaft from the engine to the transmission, then the shaft from the trans to the front axle, and because of placement of the shafts you can't just tuck the lines up into the frame area.
I also don't know how the routing would impact a mower deck; I don't have one.

The directions have you install the electrical connections to the valves once the bracket and valves are already installed.
You can't connect (or disconnect) the lower connection with the valves inside the bracket, there's about 1/8" of bracket in the way. You have to remove the valve, connect the connector, then reinstall the valve. I ended up grinding a notch so the connector will side in.

The suggested wiring routing isn't great. They have you route it across (from right to left) under the frame.
I routed it along the frame and up by the battery and across above the frame and floor pan.

It would have been nice to ideally have the valves on the right side somewhere. That would have made the lines shorter and ran along the right frame rail without having to worry about crossing over.
Barring that (the quick disconnect "manifold" is by the right base of the loader; would cause fitment issues) it would have been nice to have hard lines or at least longer lines to potentially route different.

The kit should have had another 45* or 90* elbow to connect the line to the 90* elbow on the loader valve. The line is sitting in a tight S shape right now. Not ideal.

The lines routed through the loader would benefit from being hard lines instead of soft. And the loader lines don't have any abrasion cover other than a few feet by the valve connection. Nothing where they run tight against the already installed lines.

No dust covers for the front 2 pioneer connections. They're right up front catching all the dirt as you move around.

The battery connections could be better.
There are 2 correctly sized ring terminals (positive and negative terminal clamp bolts are different sizes), but on the positive bolt you have to completely remove the bolt from the clamp and insert the ring terminal between the clamp because the ring is too large to fit on the outside of the clamp (the outside of the clamp is U shaped, the ring is larger than the U).

I realize these are somewhat nitpicky. The issue I have is that (once again) this is basically an OEM kit, sold at OEM prices.
If this was the Summit kit at half the price I wouldn't be as disappointed.



Was this for a BX23S?
Or something else?

As far as I can tell the Kubota diverter kit for the BX doesn't have any lines to speak of, it's just a valve piped into the curl circuit by the cylinder. Maybe a short several inch line to connect. That's it.
Well this sounds a bit disappointing. Primarily the need to cross over from the right side to the left side for the mounting location of the 3rd function valve appears to be driving the routing of the hydraulic lines, being a bit of a mess. I don’t think I’d have liked this either. It does make me think of another users critique on a dealer mounted system, also on a BX, IIRC, and the sloppy line routing. I suspect the Summit kit would have done the same, at half the cost as you point out.

Good on you for installing it and not adding insult to injury by having paid the dealer to do it and having had the same disappointment.

I am happy with the LP kit i installed on my L, which is clearly a different animal.
 

TheOldHokie

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Well this sounds a bit disappointing. Primarily the need to cross over from the right side to the left side for the mounting location of the 3rd function valve appears to be driving the routing of the hydraulic lines, being a bit of a mess. I don’t think I’d have liked this either. It does make me think of another users critique on a dealer mounted system, also on a BX, IIRC, and the sloppy line routing. I suspect the Summit kit would have done the same, at half the cost as you point out.

Good on you for installing it and not adding insult to injury by having paid the dealer to do it and having had the same disappointment.

I am happy with the LP kit i installed on my L, which is clearly a different animal.
Kubota acquired a 100% interest in Great Plains Manufacturing in 2016. Instantly all the Land Pride branded implements and addons they had been designing and making for the previous three decades plus became Kubota OEM......

Dan
 

GrizBota

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Kubota acquired a 100% interest in Great Plains Manufacturing in 2016. Instantly all the Land Pride branded implements and addons they had been designing and making for the previous three decades plus became Kubota OEM......

Dan
Sure, that’s a well known fact. I think the OP even stated it. I’m not sure where you were going with that?
 

TheOldHokie

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Sure, that’s a well known fact. I think the OP even stated it. I’m not sure where you were going with that?
Back to my original answer to the subject question on page one of this discussion:

Is There An Advantage To Getting A Factory Third Function?

"For a BX I think they are all 3rd party."

Dan
 

GrizBota

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Back to my original answer to the subject question on page one of this discussion:

Is There An Advantage To Getting A Factory Third Function?

"For a BX I think they are all 3rd party."

Dan
Got it. So your initial reply on this aspect was on the OP’s choice of title, not to me.
 

TheOldHokie

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Got it. So your initial reply on this aspect was on the OP’s choice of title, not to me.
Sorry - your post just happened tp be the last in the thread. My comment was directed at the OP. He was warned but decided to go ahead and drink the expensive Orange Koolaid:

"My understanding is Land Pride is owned by Kubota and is basically OEM?"

Dan
 

GrizBota

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Sorry - your post just happened tp be the last in the thread. My comment was directed at the OP. He was warned but decided to go ahead and drink the expensive Orange Koolaid:

"My understanding is Land Pride is owned by Kubota and is basically OEM?"

Dan
Sadly, I think he’d have ended up about the same place with aftermarket or OEM (ish) with this application.
 

Soopitup

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BX23S
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341
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New England
Kubota acquired a 100% interest in Great Plains Manufacturing in 2016. Instantly all the Land Pride branded implements and addons they had been designing and making for the previous three decades plus became Kubota OEM......

Dan
Good point. With todays design and manufacturing abilities 7 years is way too short to expect new products.

From the Land Pride website.
" Land Pride 3rd Function Valves are designed in conjunction with Kubota engineering to fit both ROPS and cab models. "

Furthermore as far as I can see they only make third function kits for Kubotas, not for any other manufacturers.

As well as the fact that all the pictures show equipment mounted on Kubotas and nothing else.

So
- Owned by Kubota
- All equipment is either designed directly for Kubota machines or generic attachments that fit (and are marketed on) Kubotas as well as incidentally mounting to other machines.

Makes a fairly compelling argument that yes, Land Pride is effectively an OEM manufacturer.


As for my dissatisfaction, I made a point to mention I was nitpicking.
None of the issues are necessarily a deal breaker.